Hello San Antonio! The Center for Green Schools team arrived this week in the great state of Texas for USGBC’s annual mid-year meeting, chatting with our most engaged stakeholders about Green Apple and the Day of Service. It’s been inspiring to hear how engaged so many of our leaders are planning to be on Sept. 29, and what they’ve already done to promote this day.
This week, I’ve had the pleasure of spending my time in San Antonio, Texas with some of the most engaged members of our USGBC family for our annual mid-year meeting. These folks are the heartbeat of the green building community – the lifeblood of our movement. And the mid-year meeting serves as a way to celebrate their many victories and vision into the future.
I told this audience at my opening remarks on Tuesday night that we have some very important work to do in the coming months. The stakes have never been so high, the opportunities never been so tremendous.
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What is LEED? LEED, or Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design, is redefining the way we think about the places where we live, work and learn. As an internatio…
Washington, DC – (July 25, 2012) – More than 1,200 leading businesses and organizations representing a wide array of industries across all 50 states today sent a letter asking the General Services Administration (GSA) to continue to use the LEED green building rating system to advance innovation in construction and save taxpayer dollars.
URL:
https://new.usgbc.org/articles/letter-usgbc-x-signatories-ask-gsa-continue-use-leed/
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July 25,…
Higher education applications pave the way for biomass to be used at your facility. The combustion of biomass sparks savings in energy and reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Pioneered in Europe over 20 years ago, the technology has bee…
Bryan Howard
Legislative Director
U.S. Green Building Council
LEED for Business: No, it’s not a new rating system – but rather, the pulse of every LEED rating system. LEED has become an instrumental tool for businesses, from commercial construction companies to global financial firms to your favorite coffee shop. Forty-eight companies in the Fortune 100 use LEED certification to reduce operating and energy costs, and nearly 1,300 product manufacturers are USGBC members. Why? As USGBC’s Vice President of National Policy, Jason Hartke, put it, “The business case for LEED is unassailable.”
This afternoon, three key LEED users, from Hines, Interface, and Yates Construction – came to the Capitol to talk business: Why they use LEED and how it impacts their business operations.
Congressman Robert Dold (R-IL), co-chair of the Congressional Green Schools Caucus, kicked off the event with a nod to green building practices.
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| L to R: Mason Statham of Yates Construction, Congressman Dold, Gary Holtzer of Hines, and Jason Hartke, USGBC |
“I’ve been talking to businesses everyday about removing overhead costs,” said Dold. “I’ve seen solution after solution that pay themselves off after 18 months. Certainly, we need to follow suit with government buildings.
“I think this is a very important topic and one we’re going to hear a lot more about.”
And that we did.
“What it does is create passion.”
Gary M. Holtzer, managing director and global sustainability officer at Hines, described LEED as a vehicle that “…allows you to start to think about the broader picture of what sustainability means.” He added later, “Seventy percent of the world’s population will be living in cities by 2050. We are a firm that wants to be forward thinking about sustainability now.”
But the real importance of LEED? “What it does is create passion.”
To underscore this point, Holtzer told the story of 101 California, a LEED-certified building and Hines project in San Francisco. The project was ranked at the Certified level on April 14, 2009.
“The operating engineers decided that wasn’t good enough,” Holtzer said. “They wanted Platinum to prove that they ran a good building.”
The culmination? The 30-year-old 101 California building took a second go at LEED and earned Platinum last July – becoming the highest scoring existing building project awarded at that time.
“It’s profitable for us.”
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| George Bandy Jr., of Interface |
As George Bandy Jr., Vice President of Interface, spoke about his company’s commitment to sustainability (pioneered by corporate sustainability legend Ray Anderson), he pointed to the floor.
“At this very day we can take this carpet tile on this floor and re-manufacture it in to new carpet.” He added, “And it’s profitable for us.”
Bandy noted that transparency and corporate responsibility have always been foundational elements of the Interface brand, and sustainable operations have been a key way to emphasize that.
“It’s no longer okay to privatize wealth and socialize the risk.”
“It’s created markets and supported business.”
Mason Statham, Director of Sustainability for Yates Construction, said the interest in LEED is “…owner-driven. We work for owners and investors. We build what they want, and what they see is a good investment. It creates a competitive advantage.”
What’s more, Statham said, is that LEED has “…created markets and supported business.”
To exemplify this point, Statham recalled working on the Keesler Air Force Base LEED for Homes project in Mississippi – the largest LEED for Homes project in history. His team was pursuing sustainable construction waste management, but faced difficulties when they realized local waste facilities and vendors did not provide sustainable services. So Statham’s team began asking local vendors to provide this option.
Two years later, when Statham’s team returned to this market to work on another LEED project, the infrastructure had been built out and local businesses were offering construction waste management services.
“All the sudden, this service existed. [LEED has] created markets and supported business.”
“It’s pushing technology.”
Holtzer, of Hines, closed out the briefing after a Q & A session.
His final anecdote touched on Hines’ relationship with LEED, of which he noted, “We don’t always agree with USGBC.” But disagreements lead to dialogues, which ultimately lead to innovation. Specifically, Holtzer noted that many investors and clients request building spaces with floor to ceiling windows, often conflicting with green building strategies. In seeking solutions, innovation occurs: Windows that transition from transparent to shaded based on how much daylight the building is receiving, or glazes that mitigate the effects of UV rays and heat.
“The buildings that do not continuously improve will be left behind…[LEED] is pushing technology. Without this push/pull dialogue, it may not happen as quickly – and we want it to happen quickly, because it’s good for all of us.”
Brendan Owens, LEED AP, P.E.
Vice President, LEED Technical Development
U.S. Green Building Council
If 10 years ago, someone had told you that a consumer desire to buy paints that don’t emit harmful fumes (also known as VOCs) would jeopardize the jobs of decent, hard working Americans, would you have believed them? If they had predicted that 10 years in the future, low-emitting paint, carpets and adhesives, would not only be widely available but also considered by many industry practitioners as standard rather than specialty products, would you have believed them? For me, it’s honestly tough to say.
Ten years ago I doubt I knew 50% of what I have come to know as a result of my engagement with the green building movement. Ten years ago I’m pretty sure I knew what VOCs were – but only because I had to endure organic chemistry in college: Not because I knew they were a paint ingredient. Ten years ago I’m pretty certain I knew that VOCs weren’t good for you, but I probably couldn’t have explained why (I was a pretty focused energy guy back in the day). Ten years ago I’m 100% certain that I would not have been able to tell you that VOCs were a chemical ingredient that, although they were very common at the time, would be completely absent from every single paint we used when we renovated the house we moved in to last year. And there’s just absolutely no way that 10 years ago I would have been able to tell you that it wouldn’t cost me a dime more to purchase a product that performs the same, but is vastly healthier than available alternatives.
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| Photo credit: Bob Mical |
Since USGBC launched LEED in 2000, we’ve seen some extraordinary changes in our industry. Pick a product: paint, carpet, chillers, glass, lighting, furniture, air handlers, adhesives, lavatories, composite wood, concrete, toilets, steel, wood, building automation/controls, aluminum, drywall, insulation – virtually any product we make buildings out of/with – and I’m certain you can find a product that performs the same or better but has a vastly improved environmental and/or human health footprint than a comparable product sold in 2000. Has LEED driven all this? Certainly not on its own – the clever people who brought us these improved products were just as clever before LEED came along – but one thing I think we can say with confidence is that the rate at which this innovation occurred was accelerated by LEED. I think we can also say with confidence that the companies that took hold of the leadership of this movement and cultivated the innovation that has changed our industry are vastly better positioned than their competitors to respond to the global challenges we all collectively face.
In spite of all of this, trade associations are currently running around telling lawmakers that the ideas that USGBC is considering for future versions of LEED – ideas that are enhancements to the market-based ideas from previous versions of LEED, ideas that led to revolutionary innovation which has made hundreds of companies globally more competitive and hugely more profitable – are putting the jobs of decent, hard working Americans at risk. Do you believe them?
Me neither. Let’s do something about it.
Heading into the 11th Greenbuild, our education program continues to evolve with a fresh approach to entertaining and motivating you inside the session room.
Check out some of the changes I’m most excited about:
Heading into the 11th Greenbuild, our education program continues to evolve with a fresh approach to entertaining and motivating you inside the session room.
Check out some of the changes I’m most excited about: