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Portland’s independently elected auditor, Mary Hull Caballero, released her on the city’s green building policy, finding it effective in part but also in need of tweaks in how it tracks outcomes and costs.

The city adopted a policy in 2001 requiring all new city buildings be built 鈥済reen.鈥� The law has been updated three times since, and 11 city facilities have been constructed under it. The rule mandates construction to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design gold standards or the equivalent. Also, city buildings must have eco-roofs, and as much construction waste as possible must be diverted from landfills.

Though it can be more expensive to build and maintain green buildings than non-green ones, cost information for the city facility projects is incomplete, according to the report. It goes on to describe some of the difficulty the city has experienced in tracking the performance of its green facilities. One issue is uncertainty over which bureau should track each performance measure.

鈥淲hile the city made progress in achieving some specific goals from the green building policy, it pursues other goals without adequately considering costs and measuring outcomes,鈥� the report states.