This article is part of a series of stories from USGBC’s community celebrating 20 years of green building triumphs. Take a walk down memory lane with USGBC, as we reflect on favorite moments and share memories from the last 20 years. Share your own green building triumphs using #USGBC20.
I always enjoy my visit to the States. As the CEO of the World Green Building Council, I continue to be amazed at the passion and enthusiasm in the U.S. for greening the built environment. This energy was very much present during my travels to Washington, D.C. this week.
This week, the Center for Green Schools honored 10 teachers who are leading the way in environmental education. Our brand new “Trailblazing Teacher” award aims to honor teachers across the country who are working to bring sustainable learning into the classroom and their students’ lives. We were flooded for applications for this award, and were humbled by the incredible work educators are undertaking to introduce creative ways to incorporate environmental components into their classrooms and curriculums.
United Technologies (UTC) is a diversified company that provides a broad range of high technology products and services to the global aerospace and building systems industries. As Founding Sponsor of the Center for Green Schools, UTC’s generous support helps the Center raise the volume on USGBC’s efforts to drive wholesale change in how schools are designed, constructed and operated so that they enhance the learning experience for students and save money for school districts and higher education institutions.
Location, location, location… and LEED.
Apartment developers spend countless hours attempting to determine the features and attributes that will contribute the most to the value of their buildings, or the premium they can charge for rents. Decisions about the design, features or location of an apartment building are many times dictated by the attribute that will result in the highest returns.
By 2025, China intends on moving 250 million of its residents from rural areas to cities. Since many of the living spaces required to meet this goal do not yet exist, this policy is fueling a surge in building throughout the country.
USGBC is interested in understanding how we can better support the efforts of our members to expand your business to China and offer sustainable options in the midst of China’s surge.
The USGBC South Central Regional Committee (SCRC) encompasses a vast and diverse climatological, biological and geographical area stretching across four states: Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas and part of New Mexico. It’s a big place, especially when one realizes that Texas is as large as France.
There’s something happening in those dry Southwestern mountains. It seems to be billowing outward from the ponderosa pines, carried by the roadrunner into the fields of Indian paintbrush and down into the mighty Colorado River. Thanks to the prolific outreach efforts of USGBC’s green building community, the benefits of healthy, efficient and low-impact buildings are on the mind, and lawmakers are taking action.
Here’s some recent highlights from 2013:
Have you ever thought about what Billy Joel meant by “A New York State of Mind”? Sometimes I think he meant not sitting around and waiting for others to act — like Ithaca, Yonkers, Hastings-on-Hudson, Buffalo and New York City have done this spring to advance green building in their communities. I suspect that these are only a few of thousands of examples of our cities taking on green goals and not waiting for state or federal action.
