In the first essay of this series I told you about power that consumers have to shape the manufacturing and product development practices of their favorite brands through broad-based consumer movements. Now let’s look at what the scope and goals of such a movement could be.
Three years ago, students from Dunloggin Middle School went on a field trip (we all remember those, right?) to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. They were learning about the Bay’s ecosystem, and while dredging an oyster reef found only one live oyster. The students were concerned and curious, so, along with a few lucky teachers, they researched Maryland’s oyster harvesting history, and began to understand just how important oysters are to the overall health of the Chesapeake Bay.
Have you met the new LEED Online platform? Built to provide a smoother and faster user experience, it was released in December 2013 for teams registering LEED v4, LEED for Homes and Campus projects.
USGBC is now extending access to LEED 2009 commercial projects.
On Jan. 5, 2015, LEED 2009 projects using the BD+C, ID+C and EB:O+M rating systems will be upgraded to the new LEED Online platform. Newly registering LEED 2009 projects will also use the new platform going forward.
I admit it, I too get comfortable with the way things are. It requires so little mental effort to just keep on doing what you’re doing and getting what you get. But if you aspire to be a leader, if you’re determined to make a difference, you have to jerk yourself out of your comfort zone and get on to the next thing. You have to do this even while others are either complacent or expending valuable energy trying to keep things around them from changing in ways that would force them to change too.
Recipients Represent the Best Environmental Efforts in Schools Across U.S.
On stage at Greenbuild 2013 in Philadelphia, our CEO Rick Fedrizzi sat across from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and said that there weren’t enough women coming into our movement. He continued by asking what we could do to bring more gender equity to green building.
Sustainability marketing has evolved into a discipline in and of itself. And this year at Greenbuild 2014, this topic took center stage.
Sold-out Greenbuild special set session Marketing + Sustainability: The Tools and Tips to Tell Your Story featured a cross-section of leaders who are engaged in both marketing functions and sustainability-related work. Their conversations spanned the entire lifecycle of sustainability marketing:
Everyone knows the old adage “A picture is worth 1,000 words.” The human brain responds to images differently than it responds to descriptive text. Vivid color, pattern and the suggestion of motion engage our eyes and our minds in ways that words just don’t. Even the most active imagination can’t reliably convert prose to imagery in a way that matches the power of viewing a photo or an illustration.
USGBC has just launched the latest installment in our popular LEED in Motion report series, LEED in Motion: India. The report provides a far-reaching account of the factors that have led to nearly 2,000 buildings participating in LEED across the Indian subcontinent, comprising 833 million square feet of building space using the world’s most prominent green building rating system.
If targets for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction are to be met, decision-makers must unlock the potential of the building sector with much greater seriousness and vigor than they have to date and make mitigation of building-related emissions a cornerstone of every national climate change strategy. — Achim Steiner, Executive Director, UNEP (from a 2010 report)