Earlier this year, tenant improvement construction in the Golden State adopted the California Energy Commission’s 2013 Title 24 Energy Code – a game changer that as a community we are all going to need some time to get fully accustomed to.

One of the biggest changes from the previous Title 24 version mandates that if a new tenant improvement’s design makes modifications to over 10% of the light fixtures in an area within an office space, ALL of the light fixtures in that area must be replaced with new, energy efficient, LED fixtures.

The reality is, there are many more tenant improvement projects that attempt to reuse existing ceiling and lighting systems compared to projects that enjoy starting from a clean slate of a shell-condition premises. Is the new code attempting to discourage too much modification to an existing space, or is it pushing to have all of the fixtures replaced?

How environmentally responsible is it to send countless light fixtures to landfills that in many cases function properly, have years of useful life left, and may be what was the previous standard for energy efficiency last year?

While I certainly applaud the California Energy Commission for setting their goals high, I think they will result in too many relatively efficient fixtures being unnecessarily disposed of – and while LED fixtures save energy, dumping perfectly good fixtures in our landfills is a bit unsettling.