FORT ST. JOHN, BC, Canada — The Fort St. John City Council recently voted to adopt a policy that requires all new city-owned buildings to be Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified, according to the Fort St. John News.

According to the article, the policy does not apply to existing buildings and does not require energy-efficient retrofitting.

The city of Fort St. John left some "wiggle room" in not specifying which level of LEED certification each project must obtain, noting that the higher the certification level, the more it would cost, the story stated.

Council members, who voted unanimously to adopt the policy, claim that, because of the energy efficient nature of LEED-certified buildings, extra construction and certification costs will be recovered within a few years of operation, the story noted.

Little attention has been given to green and sustainable features of municipal buildings in the past, something the city of Fort St. John is changing with this new policy, the story added.

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