Green Project Marketing Blog

The Center for Green Schools at USGBC reached a milestone in 2017: 2,000 LEED-certified schools. The accomplishment shows the huge impact that LEED has on both students and the environment. Each school provides healthy learning spaces, reduces the environmental impact made by buildings and inspires real-world lessons on sustainability. Where we learn matters, and these schools are putting the words into practice.

Kudos to the USGBC for reaching this milestone.

Schools are at the center of communities, where children learn lessons vital to success in the world and people gather for events. In many places, schools are at the forefront of change. Improving school infrastructure can bring communities together by creating a source of pride, improving student performance and offering learning opportunities for sustainable practices.

To honor these efforts made by schools, the Center gathered project descriptions and pictures from schools certified in 2017. We received details on more than 35 projects and over 150 pictures of innovative learning spaces. These schools alone have made improvements in environmental health and sustainability literacy for over 10,000 students. They have made inspiring changes for their communities, and we want to share them through our networks.

To learn more about this program, please click HERE.

Energy Secretary has no clue about renewable energy

Energy Secretary Rick Perry sees renewables as a threat to coal and nuclear baseload—could you be more clueless and biased to try to protect these two fields?

It's real simple - Up = good; Down = bad

• Down with Coal.
• Down with Nuclear.
• Up with Wind.
• Up with Solar.
• Up with Waves.
• Up with Geothermal.
• Up with other renewable and alternative energy sources.

The renewable and alternative energy field is creating new, sustainable jobs - good idea? Yes.

Anyone with common sense can only look to the sky for help and say, "how did such an ill-informed, incompetent individual be placed in such an important position?"

Well, for that matter, most of the current U.S. cabinet is filled with people that do not have ample experience in these respective fields.  

Perry (does not deserve the title of Secretary) is just a good ol' boy that has been thrust in a position of power to continue to take care of his boys in the oil and coal industries.

Highlights from Jeff St. John's article on Perry and renewable energy versus coal and oil include:

Real Support for Baseload with Wind and Solar

• Over two months ago, Energy Secretary Rick Perry ordered the DOE to conduct a 60-day study on whether wind and solar are undercutting baseload coal and nuclear power.
• Many renewable energy and environmental groups fear will lead to a foregone conclusion against renewable-friendly state subsidies and policies.
• U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), wrote a letter to Perry that “a hastily developed study, which appears to predetermine that variable, renewable sources such as wind have undermined grid reliability, will not be viewed as credible, relevant or worthy of valuable taxpayer resources.”
• Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), declaring that Perry’s idea of coal and nuclear as essential for a stable grid is an outdated concept.
• Union of Concerned Scientists published its critique of what it called “Rick Perry’s Unnecessary and Biased Grid Study,” noting that the Trump administration has picked anti-renewables lobbyists to lead the process and appears to be ignoring multiple studies that have shown that more flexible grids can handle much larger shares of wind and solar.

Please read the rest of this ARTICLE - I can only stomach so much of this nonsense.

These politicians are living for today - grease pockets now, secure as many favors as possible, take care of friends and family and who gives a darn about 10, 20, 50 or more years from now.

Over the last four years since its groundbreaking, the Bullitt Center has not disappointed.  There are so many wonderful systems in place on this property, but it is worth taking the time to read the various articles and technical specifications.

If you have been faithful to LEED for years, there may be some push back about learning more about The International Living Institute. Regarding the building's many features, click HERE to learn more. The International Living Future Institute is a hub for visionary programs.

It administers the Living Building Challenge^™, the built environment's most rigorous and ambitious performance standard. ILF is the parent organization for Cascadia Green Building Council, a chapter of both the United States and Canada Green Building Councils that serves Alaska, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon. It is also the home to Ecotone Publishing, a unique publishing house dedicated to telling the story of the green building movement's pioneering thinkers and practitioners.

I say keep up the good work, test, measure, promote, educate, incorporate into as many new buildings as possible - repeat the process.

Green Building Certifications are alive and well. Kudos to USGBC for reaching this milestone.Since the launch of the LEED for Homes rating system in 2007, the growth has been rapid. Beginning with 392 housing units LEED-certified in 2007, the figures rose to nearly 900 units certified in the year 2008 and nearly 3,000 certified in 2009. In 2012 and 2013 alone, USGBC certified more than 15,000 and 17,000 housing units, respectively.

Scientists sounded alarms Tuesday with a pair of studies challenging the idea that climate change is occurring gradually over the century and that its worst effects can be avoided by keeping emissions below a critical threshold.

Climate history has been commonly recorded by tree rings, ocean sediment and ice cores.  Climate changes to the environment can be punctuated by big, sudden changes, including ocean circulation shifts and mass extinctions.

This is a local, domestic and international effort. Hopefully, China and India will pursue more laws and end up creating more jobs to reduce pollution and carbon footprint.

http://www.latimes.com/science/la-me-climate-urgency-20131204,0,7482587.story#ixzz2mZp2G6Ja

The AIA Committee on the Environment’s "MEASURES OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN”

COTE definition of sustainability and sustainable design:

Sustainability envisions the enduring prosperity of all living things. Sustainable design seeks to create communities, buildings, and products that contribute to this vision.