Design Green

December 3, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

There are more than 65,000 design professionals who have earned the LEED Accredited Professional credential by passing an exam. Many more long to join their ranks. Both groups should be aware of major changes to the LEED AP program beginning in February 2009. The details are available at GBCI.org  but here’s my “PennysNotes” version.

Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI), the organization that administers credentialing programs for USGBC, has announced a new 3-tiered structure that will distinguish LEED APs based on their level of knowledge and experience. Each tier will have eligibility, examination and credential maintenance requirements.

&bu...Read More

November 28, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (1)

Getting to all the exhibitors at Greenbuild would have taken far more time than I had available, but I did happen upon a couple of booths of note.

Invista didn’t have a booth at all, not in the traditional sense. In the spirit of the show, Invista’s low carbon footprint exhibit space featured locally sourced reclaimed furnishings and carpet, used no electricity, banners or handouts. Artists drawing on chalkboards provided visitors with product information.

Tubular daylighting is a fascinating technology that many of us have never used because, well…we didn’t understand the technology. So, it was nice to see the large and instructive ...Read More

November 26, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (1)

Researchers released an impressive amount of information at Greenbuild last week including a study with the kind of news we all want to hear – the cost premium for green buildings is considerably less than most people think AND the benefits accrue in numerous and sometimes surprising ways.

The international study, Greening Buildings and Communities: Costs and Benefits, is based on extensive analysis of 150 green buildings and provides the most detailed findings to date on the costs and financial benefits of building green. Among the study’s key findings: 
 
- Green buildings...Read More

November 22, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (3)

I’m home from Greenbuild with a lot to report, specifically about LEED 2009 and new procedures for LEED APs. And I will, but indulge me first while I reflect on larger green issues and two speakers who brilliantly and poignantly captured the crux of it all.

Bill McKibben is an environmentalist and writer and, of late, a global warming activist. He spoke without slides, preferring instead that the audience conjure its own virtual Power Point images, nor did he need them. His powerful message  - we need to slow the pace of climate change and we need to do it quickly.

The problem in a nutshell: the safe upper boundary for carbon in the atmosphere is 350 parts per million....Read More

November 19, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

It’s day one at Greenbuild. Crowded and energetic best describes the scene. Everyone seems jazzed. Maybe it’s the optimism inspired by the election results and the promise of an aggressive sustainable agenda from the Obama administration, including initiatives within the green building sector.

In fact, the prez-elect is the most talked about person who isn’t here. He’s been mentioned in every session I’ve attended thus far, including by this morning’s plenary keynote speaker Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Inspirational, motivational and actually funny, the Archbishop applauded the U.S. as “one of the craziest countries I know to have done what you did for the world on November...Read More