The Somerset County Business Partnership, in late 2006, set upthe Green Building Task Force, aimed at encouraging adoption ofgreen building design concepts for county, municipal andeducational facilities. "The motivation was to provide long-termenergy savings for county taxpayers while creating a moreproductive working environment for employees," says aspokesman.

The process has resulted, to date, in publication of theSomerset County High Performance Building Program, a public policydocument defining standards for the implementation of green designand construction. It consists of three documents that will be madeavailable to both the public and private sector in the county:

• The Policy and Implementation Model will guide public officialstoward adoption of a green building program.
• The Building Program Toolkit will provide guidelines forimplementation for building code officials, municipal engineers andadministrators.
• Program Requirements is the summary of performance goals.The"toolkit," said to be the first of its kind in New Jersey, focuseson specific policy—how to create new high-performance publicbuildings through the application of green design standardsdeveloped and defined by the U.S. Green Building Council's LEEDprogram.Overall, the program establishes two primary goals:
• Create public buildings that generate taxpayer savings byreducing building operating costs and increasing userproductivity.
• To "demystify" the process of reviewing the design of ahigh-performance building to provide the county and municipalitieswith a tool for planning and building departments.