34-451. Energy conservation standards for public buildings

A. The governor's energy office in consultation with persons responsible for building systems shall adopt and publish energy conservation standards for construction of all new capital projects as defined in section 41-790, including buildings designed and constructed by school districts, community college districts and universities. These standards shall be consistent with the recommended energy conservation standards of the American society of heating, refrigerating and air conditioning engineers and the international energy conservation code.

B. The standards shall be adopted to achieve energy conservation and shall allow for design flexibility.

C. The following state agencies shall reduce energy use in public buildings that they administer by ten per cent per square foot of floor area on or before July 1, 2008 and by fifteen per cent per square foot of floor area on or before July 1, 2011, using July 1, 2001 through June 30, 2002 as the baseline year:

1. The department of administration for its building systems.

2. The Arizona board of regents for its building systems.

3. The department of transportation for its building systems.

D. The governor's energy office shall provide technical assistance to the state agencies prescribed in subsection C of this section. On or before July 1 of each year, the energy office shall measure compliance with subsection C of this section, compile the results of that monitoring and report to the speaker of the house of representatives and the president of the senate as to the progress of attaining the goals prescribed in subsection C of this section. The energy office shall include in its report an explanation of the reasons for any failure to achieve energy reductions in specific building systems as prescribed in subsection C of this section.

E. All state agencies shall procure energy efficient products that are certified by the United States department of energy or the United States environmental protection agency as energy star or that are certified under the federal energy management program in all categories that are available unless the products are shown not to be cost-effective on a life cycle cost basis.