On Thursday, Nov. 30, Tempe City Council adopted Resolution No. R2023.178, which commits future city facility construction to sustainable building practices and establishes a voluntary sustainable building code for private development.  

Green codes like IgCC reduce greenhouse gas emissions, mitigation the heat island effect, reduce waste consumption, increase building life span and heat resiliency while promoting native, desert-adaptive landscaping and structural shade.  

While optional for private development, the city will work with developers to understand what is feasible for adoption.  

View the adopted International Green Construction Code HERE (Ordinance NO. 02023.54) 

In addition to IgCC, Tempe has adopted Solar Ready provisions in its Energy Conservation Code (IECC) and is pursuing other sustainable codes like an Electric Vehicle ready code and Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI).  

Benefits of IgCC

• Reduces GHG Emissions coming from the built environment
• Increases life span of building
• Reduces heat island affect
• Promotes tree planting; shade and rain water harvesting applications 
• Promotes structural shade
• Improves heat resiliency
• Reduces water consumption
• Improves access to EV Charging
• Reduces dependency on fossil fuels 
• Reduction of day to day costs year over year

Tempe IgCC Projects so far 

The City of Tempe has used IgCC to help guide construction of three new municipal buildings – Fire Station #2, Tempe Municipal Operations Center (TMOC), and Clark Park Community Center.  See some of their highlight IgCC components below: 

Additional Resources 

International Code Council Overview of IgCC - link  

Scottsdale, AZ Adopts mandatory green building requirements - news link

USGBC Benefits of green buildings - article 

LEED buildings and the IgCC - article