Illinois will soon be the first state in the Midwest to adopt a new national green building code, which would require homes and buildings to achieve energy savings of 30 percent or higher than the 2006 code.

The new code sets mandatory standards for all aspects of building design and construction. The final code is planned to be released this month, but local and state governments have already begun to adopt the green energy parameters.

The federal government approved the code in November 2011.

“This has become a huge priority issue for the Midwest, and I would say with the adoptions we’ve done we’re really leading the nation,” said Stacey Paradis, deputy director of the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance.

Under the new rules that are set to be implemented in Illinois, homes will be 15 percent more energy efficient than those that were built under the 2009 version of the code, under which homes were made 15 percent more efficient than those built in 2006.

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn recently announced an labor agreement that will support wind turbine and transmission manufacturing in Illinois and create more than 1,450 union construction jobs.