As members of the House and Senate tax writing committees continue to negotiate over the extension payroll tax cut and other tax incentives, six senators of the Senate Finance Committee, spearheaded by Olympia Snowe (ME) and Jeff Bingaman (NM) sent a l…
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House Bill Puts Transportation Programs in Reverse
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Next week, the House is expected to debate H.R. 7 “American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act.” The bill is the long awaited legislative product to reauthorize a number of federal highway, transit, rail, planning, trail and other programs. Unfortunately, H.R. 7 doesn’t look to be long term solution to our nation’s surface transportation problems.
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Obama Budget Charts Bold Course for Green Building Priorities
On Monday, President Obama released an ambitious $3.8 trillion budget for fiscal year 2013 that seeks to pump billions of dollars into the economy through clean energy and infrastructure improvements, while seeking to eliminate existing incentives for …
Third Public Comment Period for Update to USGBC’s LEED Green Building Program to Open Next Month
LEED 2012 draft focuses on providing a simple-to-use, technically advanced and more robust system
Washington, DC – (Feb. 13, 2012) – The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) today announced that the third public comment period for the proposed 2012 update to its LEED green building program will open Mar. 1, 2012. The comment period, which will close on Mar. 20, marks the start of the LEED 2012 program delivery process.
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The Power of Persuasion: January 2012 Fellowship Training
I never thought it would take me 22 hours to travel by plane from Sacramento, CA to Washington, D.C., but on Jan. 23, I was proven wrong. After a delayed flight due to mechanical issues, a missed connection in Phoenix, being rerouted through Dallas, a…
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2011 National Wildlife Federation Campus Sustainability Case Studies are Online Now!
Want to find out what campuses nationwide are doing to green their operations and curriculum? Then take a look at National Wildlife Federation’s campus sustainability case study database, which is now available online.
Close to 100 new case studies were added for 2011, highlighting efforts to dramatically reduce pollution, waste and costs, including recycling, energy efficiency improvements, alternative transportation systems and green jobs training programs.
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Green Schools Community Gearing Up for History-Making Day of Service
“Everybody can be great, because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Campuses in the Sustainability Spotlight
Over the last three and a half years, I’ve had the pleasure of watching colleges and universities across the country prove their ability to lead and innovate as sustainability doers. Green buildings are a starting point for institutional leadership, but by no means the end. From students and faculty, to staff and senior administrators, to boards and alumni, I’ve observed a groundswell of environmental stewardship, pedagogy and practice indicating that the changes these champions are putting into place are here to stay.
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Chapter Spotlight: Minnesota Green Schools Coalition Unites the State to Achieve Green Schools
How can we facilitate major change in the way Minnesotans think about green schools? This was the question under discussion at USGBC Minnesota’s Green Schools Committee meeting a year ago. The committee had been struggling with how to get the message about the benefits of healthy, cost effective, high performance schools to the large and varied group of people who affect the school environment.
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Green Schools Regional Roundtables: Common Ground in Kentucky
On Nov. 29, 2011, state legislators and key decision makers from six states across the South and Midwest convened in Bowling Green, Kentucky, to discuss the political common ground around the topic of green schools.
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