About This Book
California's 2025 Green Building Standards Code (CALGreen), codified as Part 11 of Title 24, sets mandatory and voluntary environmental performance standards for new and significantly renovated buildings. It takes effect January 1, 2026, following its July 1, 2025 publication.
Core Focus Areas - Planning & Design: Sustainable site development - Energy Efficiency: Reduced building energy demand - Water Efficiency: Mandatory limits on fixture flow rates and irrigation - Material Conservation: Required recycling or salvage of a minimum percentage of non-hazardous construction and demolition waste - Environmental Quality: Indoor air quality, pollutant controls, and material selection
Structure - Chapter 4 covers residential measures (overseen by the Department of Housing and Community Development) - Chapter 5 covers nonresidential measures (managed by the California Building Standards Commission)
2025 Updates include expanded EV charging infrastructure requirements, residential bike parking mandates, improved document formatting, and strengthened embodied carbon and lifecycle assessment standards for construction materials.
Official resources, compliance checklists, and reference materials are available through the California Department of General Services CALGreen Portal.
Practice Tests Using This Book
This book is required or recommended for 1 licensing exam. We've written 16 practice questions directly from this material, each one citing the chapter and section it comes from.