CALGreen Compliance: Requirements, Inspections, and Penalties

CALGreen compliance means satisfying the mandatory measures in Title 24, Part 11 of the California Code of Regulations before your local building department will issue a permit, pass your inspections, and sign off on a Certificate of Occupancy.¹ The baseline covers water fixtures, landscape irrigation, construction waste diversion, indoor air quality, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and, for larger nonresidential buildings, formal commissioning. The 2025 edition of the code applies to all permit applications filed on or after January 1, 2026.²

Which Projects Have to Comply

Any new residential dwelling unit triggers the full set of mandatory measures. Nonresidential work is pulled in by one of three triggers: new construction, additions of 1,000 square feet or more, or alterations with a permit valuation of $200,000 or more.¹ A project under those thresholds skips the CALGreen checklist but still has to meet other parts of Title 24.

The California Building Standards Commission writes the code. Your city or county building department enforces it. Compliance is required whether or not you also pursue a third-party certification like LEED, and whether or not you planned for it before applying for a permit.

Water Fixtures and Landscaping

Water conservation is the most prescriptive piece of the baseline. Every plumbing fixture installed in a new residential building must meet the maximum flow rates in Section 4.303.1:

Toilets: 1.28 gallons per flush or less
Showerheads: 1.8 gallons per minute at 80 psi, with combined flow capped at 1.8 gpm when multiple heads share one valve
Bathroom faucets: 1.2 gallons per minute at 60 psi
Kitchen faucets: 1.8 gallons per minute at 60 psi, with a temporary 2.2 gpm bump allowed if the faucet defaults back to 1.8

These numbers are tighter than federal fixture standards, so sourcing matters. A showerhead that satisfies federal rules can still fail CALGreen, and on a project with dozens of units the difference adds up.

Outdoor water is governed through the Model Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance, which CALGreen references directly.³ Every local agency has to adopt the state MWELO or a local equivalent at least as effective. In practice, that means weather-based irrigation controllers, moisture sensors, a water budget calculation on the landscape plan, and plant choices drought-tolerant enough to stay within the budget in most California climate zones.

Construction and Demolition Waste Diversion

Projects subject to CALGreen must divert at least 65% of nonhazardous construction and demolition waste from landfill through recycling or reuse.⁴ That threshold has held through the last three code cycles, so a crew hitting it under the 2022 code is not facing a higher bar in 2025.

Documentation is where most jobs get into trouble. Inspectors want weight tickets from recycling facilities proving that wood, metal, concrete, and other recoverable materials were actually processed. “We recycled it” without paperwork does not count. Some jurisdictions also require a construction waste management plan filed before the permit is issued, with administrative fees usually scaled to building square footage. Track the hauling continuously. Gaps discovered at the end of the job are hard to fill retroactively.

Indoor Air Quality and HVAC

Paints, adhesives, sealants, and floor coverings installed in a CALGreen project must meet low-VOC emission limits. The code points to specific emission testing protocols, and product labels have to confirm compliance. Using a non-compliant adhesive on a flooring run can trigger a correction notice during inspection.

Heating and cooling equipment must be properly sized for the space it serves and installed to manufacturer specifications, with attention to refrigerant leaks and ventilation. These HVAC provisions overlap with Title 24 Part 6, the Energy Code, so design teams working through both sets of rules should coordinate early to avoid specifications that fight each other.

EV Charging Infrastructure

Electric vehicle charging is one of the biggest-ticket items in the 2025 code, and the requirements differ sharply by project type.

Multifamily Residential

Under Section 4.106.4, new multifamily construction must provide a Low Power Level 2 receptacle (208/240-volt, 20-amp minimum) for each housing unit. If a project has fewer parking spaces than units, every space gets a receptacle and no full charging stations are required. When a project has more parking spaces than units, the extra common-use spaces must include EV Charging Stations for 25% of those spaces.⁵

Nonresidential

Nonresidential buildings follow a sliding scale tied to total parking. Projects under 10 spaces have no EV requirement. From 10 spaces up, the counts climb quickly:

10–25 spaces: 4 EV-capable spaces
26–50 spaces: 8 EV-capable, 2 with installed charging equipment
51–75 spaces: 13 EV-capable, 3 with chargers
76–100 spaces: 17 EV-capable, 4 with chargers
101–150 spaces: 25 EV-capable, 6 with chargers
151–200 spaces: 35 EV-capable, 9 with chargers
201 or more spaces: 20% of total spaces EV-capable, with 25% of those equipped with chargers

Each EV-capable space needs a dedicated 208/240-volt, 40-amp branch circuit delivering at least 30 amps to the installed equipment. At least one Level 2 charger is required, and the local enforcing authority can grant exceptions when utility power supply is inadequate or when the required infrastructure would disproportionately raise construction costs.

Commissioning for Larger Nonresidential Buildings

Nonresidential buildings of 10,000 square feet or more must go through a formal commissioning process that systematically verifies the energy-related systems work as designed.⁶ It starts before design and runs through construction and post-occupancy.

The required documents include an Owner’s Project Requirements document setting energy, ventilation, operating-hours, and envelope goals; a Basis of Design showing how HVAC, lighting controls, water heating, and envelope components will meet those goals; functional performance testing after construction; and a final commissioning report covering deficiencies found, resolutions, training, and seasonal testing plans.

Nonresidential buildings under 10,000 square feet still have obligations, but lighter ones: a design-phase review and commissioning measures documented in the construction drawings. The full Owner’s Project Requirements and commissioning report are not required at that scale.

When Your City Makes Tier 1 or Tier 2 Mandatory

CALGreen includes two voluntary performance tiers on top of the baseline. The state leaves them optional, but a local jurisdiction can adopt either tier by ordinance and make it binding on every project in that city or county. San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, San Jose, and Los Angeles enforce enhanced standards aligned with or exceeding Tier 1. Palo Alto requires Tier 2. Confirm what your local jurisdiction has adopted before assuming only the baseline applies.

Tier 1 requires an energy budget no greater than 90% to 95% of the Part 6 baseline depending on building type, with stricter water and material targets layered on.⁷ Tier 2 pushes the energy budget down to 85% of the Part 6 baseline, requires a 20% reduction in potable water use, and introduces a whole-building life cycle assessment with a 20% reduction target in global warming potential against a reference baseline.

The Checklist and Your Plans Have to Match

The CALGreen Checklist is the central compliance document and a prerequisite for permit approval. Residential checklists come from the Department of Housing and Community Development; nonresidential checklists come from the Building Standards Commission, with the current versions in Section A5.602.¹

Every measure checked on the form has to be reflected in the architectural plans and construction specifications. A box checked on the checklist with no corresponding detail on the drawings will get flagged during plan review. Inconsistent submissions are the most common reason for permit delays.

Field Inspections and the Certificate of Occupancy

Once the permit is issued, inspectors show up at various construction stages to verify that low-flow fixtures match the specifications, moisture sensors are installed in the irrigation system, waste recycling is actually happening, and EV charging infrastructure is wired correctly. Waste diversion is especially paperwork-heavy; expect requests for weight tickets proving the 65% diversion threshold was met.⁴

Failing an inspection draws a correction notice specifying what has to be fixed, or in more serious cases a stop-work order halting construction until the deficiency is resolved.⁸ Passing all field inspections is a prerequisite for the Certificate of Occupancy, which is the final sign-off that the building is legally habitable.

What Non-Compliance Costs

Violating the California Building Standards Code, which includes CALGreen, is a misdemeanor under Health and Safety Code Section 17995, carrying a maximum penalty of a $1,000 fine, six months in jail, or both.⁹ Criminal prosecution is rare in practice. Administrative enforcement is far more common: local jurisdictions typically impose $100 for a first violation, $500 for a second violation of the same requirement within a year, and $1,000 for each additional violation within that year.

The fines are rarely the real cost. A stop-work order on an active site burns money every day through idle labor, equipment rentals, and loan carrying costs. Reworking installed systems to bring them into compliance after the fact costs far more than doing it right the first time. And because the Certificate of Occupancy cannot issue until every CALGreen requirement is satisfied, non-compliance delays the day the building can be legally occupied and start earning revenue. That timeline risk is what makes compliance a non-negotiable line item for most developers.

1
California Department of General Services. CALGreen
2
California Energy Commission. 2025 Building Energy Efficiency Standards
3
California Department of Water Resources. Model Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance
4
CalRecycle. 2019, 2022 and 2025 CALGreen Construction Waste Management
5
California Department of Housing and Community Development. 2022 CALGreen Residential Mandatory Measures
6
California Energy Commission. Nonresidential Building Commissioning
7
California Department of Housing and Community Development. 2025 CALGreen Tier 1 Residential Measures
8
California Department of General Services. IR A-13 Stop Work and Order to Comply
9
California Legislative Information. California Health and Safety Code 17995