David Eisenberg, director of the DCAT, the Development Center for Appropriate Technology, wrote recently in an article that he believes that "building codes have continuously evolved toward the use of higher levels of technology, and almost exclusively, industrially processed materials. This drives the system continually away from low-impact, local alternatives and towards high-impact, less-sustainable materials, and systems." He says that most building codes do not emphasize where resources emanate, whether they're used efficiently, or whether they can be reused or repurposed at the end of the building's useful life. Eisenberg that building codes generally ignore environmental impacts of resource extraction or depletion, transport, manufacturing processes, disposal after use, the embodied energy of materials, or any contribution to global warming.

Fortunately, recent initiatives by the United States Green Building Council, the International Green Construction Code, and local communities and projects are forcing municipal and state governments to revisit their building codes. The arrival of more sustainably focused building codes erases the barriers and obstacles that innovative green building techniques and practices have faced in the past. Moreover, green building codes in some regions of the country are helping to hasten the transition towards more energy-efficient, healthy, and sustainable buildings.

In the following sections, we will look at a few initiatives from across the United States where individuals, communities, and organizations have actively challenged outdated building codes that hindered sustainable building strategies.

Guerrilla Grey Water Recycling

Until recently, almost all building codes across the country failed to differentiate between greywater and black water. For definition purposes, greywater is any water exiting a home that doesn't contain human urine or feces, such as water from sinks, showers, dishwashers, and washing machines. Blackwater is the discharge from flush toilets. Building codes required both black water and grey water to be sent directly to the sewer system or septic tank.

In 1998, however, Val Little of the Water Conservation Alliance of Southern Arizona (Water CASA) found that over 13 percent of all households in her region were illegally recycling greywater. Little recognized that greywater from homes constituted a valuable resource for irrigating areas around the house in dry and drought-prone southern Arizona. Since the building codes of that time expressly prohibited reutilizing that water, she organized her community to challenge those restrictive codes. As a result of her advocacy efforts, people in southern Arizona today can follow government guidelines to install residential greywater systems without the need for permits, fees, or inspections.

The changes adopted by Arizona regarding greywater recycling were eventually followed by other dry western states such as New Mexico, Wyoming, and California, thus radically reducing the amount of water utilized for landscape irrigation.