From June 3-5, I had the opportunity to attend the National Green Ribbon Ceremony in Washington, D.C. on behalf of
Author: LEaD Blogger
Project Green Brings $5 Million to Sacramento Schools
One of the many reasons Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD) was selected as one of two districts to receive a Center for Green Schools UTC Fellow was the development of Project Green. The District needed support to develop, manage and implement the program, and I was brought on to help. During the Earth Day celebrations in April 2011, Superintendent Raymond announced Project Green with little more than a rough outline. The idea consisted of student-led audits, presenting recommendations to a blue-ribbon panel, and implementing the projects.
Where We Learn Matters… Add a Little Nature!
Over time, a recognizable pattern has developed in youth that has begun to alter their behavior, health and consciousness. Today, American children are spending more time indoors and less time engaging with nature compared to recent history. In author Richard Louv’s book, “Last Child in the Woods,” he presents a persuasive case for the importance of nature to a child’s physical and emotional well-being, while also describing youth’s disconnect today as a ‘nature-deficit disorder.’ Though not a disorder in the traditional sense, there are very real, measureable affects to be noted.
The Brilliance of Green Building is Shining at Rio+20
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“It is time that we steered by the stars, not the lights of each passing ship.”
— General Omar Bradley
The green building world knows the following statistic all too well. On average, we spend 90 percent of our time indoors. That’s 21.6 hours out of every day. That’s 328 and a half days every year. Inside a building.
And we certainly take this to heart because, while we’re spending all this time inside, the quality of air we’re breathing is on average 3-5 times more polluted than outside, according to the EPA.
Voices from Greenbuild: Eva Blake
When I arrived at the 2011 Greenbuild Conference & Expo in Toronto, Canada, I flipped through the program to find that the Greenbuild Social Equity Scholarship Program page contained photos and quotes from YouthBuild’s participation in the 2010 Greenbuild in Chicago. What an honor! That was the first year YouthBuild attended Greenbuild as an organized team of scholars and volunteers.
Transforming Buildings, Even the Little Ones: 20,000 LEED-certified Homes
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20,000: No, I’m not talking leagues under the sea. I’m talking LEED-certified homes.
That’s right: I’m particularly proud to announce that we’ve certified over 20,000 LEED for Homes units.
It’s interesting to look at a sampling of the projects we’ve certified in just the past couple of weeks to see the reach and versatility of LEED in the residential space:
Green Homes Continue to Grow Across the U.S
LEED for Homes surpasses 20,000 certified home milestone
Washington, DC – (June 13, 2012) – The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) today announced that more than 20,000 homes across the U.S. have earned certification through the LEED for Homes program. LEED for Homes is a national voluntary certification system that provides guidance and verification that homes are designed and built to be energy- and resource-efficient and healthy for occupants.
Is a Sustainable City a Just City?
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In order to accommodate the expected increase in urban population of two billion people by 2030, we would need 200 new cities with populations of 10 million people—think 200 cities larger than Paris! Obviously the sustainable planning and construction of these cities is crucial to avoiding exponential increases in future emissions; however, accommodating two billion additional people will have wider implications than just on the environment. We need to address the livelihoods of the urban migrants themselves.
Rachel Gutter Named World Green Building Council Chairman’s Award Winner
Rachel Gutter, the director of the Center for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council, received the World Green Building Council Chairman’s Award this week at the WorldGBC Congress in Stuttgart, Germany. Rachel was honored for her leadership at the forefront of the green schools movement, and working to make healthy, energy-efficient schools accessible to everyone across the globe.
Stakeholders Along the Road to Rio+20 Call Upon Leaders for Action at Upcoming Earth Summit
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On June 5, the Road to Rio+20 series made a final pit stop in Washington D.C., the North American host city for World Environment Day, to launch a new report, Advancing the Transformation to a Green Economy through Green Buildings and Resource Efficient Cities: Key Messages from North America. The series, a collaborative initiative between the U.S.