USGBC CHANGES LEED CERTIFICATION FOR NEXT YEAR!

I'm just catching wind of this announcement, and i'll be working on a great update for everyone later. While you wait let me link you to another article I found partially useful.

LINK HERE

Organic Lawn Care Part of LEED Certification?

I have very recently caught wind that an organization, SafeLawns.org is working with the USGBC to encoroporate their organic (pesticide free) lawn care methods into the LEED System. Very recently SafeLawns.org was successful in using their system on a small plot of the National Mall in Washington, DC. I think the incoroporation of a pesticide free lawn maintenence system into the LEED certification program makes a lot of sense. First of all, regardless of what the EPA says, pesticides are dangerous and pollutants. Second of all, at schools it should be essential that the greening done inside is mirrored outside because children can be harmed from pesticides rolling around in the grass during recess and not just from poor air quality during class. I'm going to keep my ear to the pavement on this one and see what I can learn, also... I might soon have the opportunity to work on this project and some other very interesting renewable building technologies and I will keep you up to date if and when I do.

Update from USGBC

Well, well, well...the USGBC just sent out an email letting everyone know what I found out days ago...they updated USGBC.org! But also, they mentioned their new website www.greenbuild365.org

Just wanted to give everyone a heads up if you don't receive their emails.

GW University Pushes Green Campus Development (continued)

As I profiled yesterday, the George Washington University is currently trying to adopt new plans to pursue green building in some of their future construction projects. However, something I discovered today is helping to explain this new policy.

The Sustainable Endowment Institute gave GW a D+ letter grade, down from last years C-. The rating corresponds to eight categories. Five are focused on campus environmental initiatives, and three on school endowment policies. The brand new GW University President Stephen Knapp was very disappointed in the drop in score and made it known publicly that he intended to rectify the situation. Three days later we learned of the universities intentions to build the newest dorm (which broke ground this week) and an upcoming multi-use development project to LEED standards.

As I said yesterday, I plan to continue following this development as it happens around me, so stay tuned.

GW University Pushes Green Campus Development

The University that I currently attend, George Washington, is now adding its name to the long list of schools that are building their campuses green. The GW Hatchet reported that the universities development plans for a new dormitory and a large project called Square 54 which will be primarily condominiums, restaurants, and a large supermarket are intending to gain LEED certification from the US Green Building Council. The zoning is still an issue, as community groups in what used to be a quaint part of Washington, DC are now appealing all new development projects by GW in response to unfettered growth over the past decade. However, it is my opinion that the likelihood of these new plans to build to LEED specifications will go through before the 35 day appeals period is over.

Read the full hatchet article here, and I plan to personally follow this story myself.

Just An Update: USGBC Fixes Website

Incase anyone was wondering or hadn't noticed, the USGBC put their new, cleaner, LESS AWFUL website live tonight. Don't be worried that most of their links don't work, i'm sure they'll fix it.

Kyoto Protocol For American Cities

US Mayors from 728 cities have signed a green protocol for municipalities. The plan is an attempt to eliminate the carbon footprint of these cities by aggressively pushing green standards on new and existing buildings. Interestingly, this move is in concert with congressional grants that are just coming under consideration in the house. These grants would allocate $2 billion in "green jobs" training, to teach under skilled workers how to retrofit existing buildings to promote environmental sustainability. This move by US mayors does not come as a complete surprise, in the latest US Conference of Mayors several green building resolutions were adopted, and mayors of many major US cities have been cited as saying that greening their cities was highly important on their agenda's.

Check out the full article in the LA Times Here
Also, NYTimes wrote a nice piece about it Here