The Road to #Greenbuild is Paved in Social Media

Mara Baum
Senior Associate, HOK
Greenbuild Host Committee

Greenbuild is finally making its way to San Francisco this November – and us Bay Area locals are really excited. The conference theme is aptly “@ Greenbuild,” referencing the mindboggling array of Internet and technology companies headquartered here in the Bay Area. The big names include Google, Yahoo, Twitter (who’s co-founder, Biz Stone, will join us at the Greenbuild opening plenary), LinkedIn, Yelp, and YouTube. Smaller social media outlets are also ubiquitous, including the likes of StumbleUpon, Reddit, Delicious, Yammer, Pinterest, and many more. Of the 17 companies mentioned in a recent survey on social media for designers, all but one are headquartered here. (Tumblr hails from New York. Rebels!) We also have our host of gaming companies, many of whom tap into social networks; gamejobhunter lists over 120 companies nearby, from tiny start-ups to titans like EA and Zynga.

The “classic” Silicon Valley stretches from Palo Alto to south of San Jose, CA.
Image source: Wikipedia

Our social media bonanza has roots in the original tech boom in Silicon Valley – named after silicon chip innovators – back in the 1970s. What is Silicon Valley exactly? Although the name originally referred to a specific region emanating out from Stanford University and San Jose, its tech prowess has now spread throughout the region; San Jose Mercury News recently asserted that “Silicon Valley” now includes five Bay Area counties. For many of us, though, Silicon Valley is more about a mindset and an approach to business that’s become synonymous with high tech innovation. It has remained in this area because, as I once learned in a city planning class, companies that demand a stream of employees with the tech sector’s specialized mindset and skillset tend to thrive when they flock together. (San Francisco’s tax break for tech companies probably doesn’t hurt.)

Fresh Approach to Education @ Greenbuild 2012

Rina Brulé
Manager, Event Content
U.S. Green Building Council

Heading into the eleventh Greenbuild, our education program continues to evolve with a fresh approach to entertaining and motivating you inside the session room.

Check out some of the changes I’m most excited about:

• Shorter education sessions = 60 minutes. In an effort to help you make the most of your experience, education sessions are now hour-long presentations. View the program »
• Earn your continuing education. This year we’re increasing time slots and education opportunities. LEED APs and Green Associates can still earn one year’s worth of continuing education credits at Greenbuild. Learn more »
• USGBC Updates are one track. In the past, specialty updates were offered during one time slot, and you told us it wasn’t working. So we’re changing it up. In 2012, if you wish, you will have the opportunity to attend every USGBC update.
• More special sets. This is your year to experience the magic of special sets. Special sets feature unique stages, lighting, audience polling and interactive presentation styles to better engage the audience. Forty sessions will be held on a special set.
• Start scheduling and connecting. Looking to connect with an attendee, exhibitor, or presenter? Greenbuild Connect not only reserves your seat in education sessions, it also helps you plan your entire Greenbuild experience. Greenbuild Connect »

What are you looking forward to learning @ Greenbuild 2012? Let us know and tweet @Greenbuild.

Who's Coming to Greenbuild 2012?

Kimberly Lewis
Senior Vice President, Conferences and Events
U.S. Green Building Council

Four IMEX Green Meetings Awards. Tens of thousands of attendees. Greenbuild is not just an event, but the award-winning tent revival for the most passionate and innovative leaders of the green building movement. Can you believe it's just a few months away? This year, at the 2012 Greenbuild Conference and Expo, we’re expecting over 35,000 attendees from every facet of the green building sphere to join us at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, Calif. for the largest Greenbuild event to date.

I’m thrilled to announce today that Greenbuild 2012 will kick-off with Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough of MSNBC’s weekday morning show “Morning Joe,” and Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, Inc. headlining at the opening plenary on Wednesday, Nov. 14 at the Moscone Center.

Greenbuild 2012 speakers: Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough of “Morning Joe” (outer photos); Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, Inc. (center photo)

Our Greenbuild theme for 2012 is all about bringing technology and sustainability together in the global green environment, and I can’t think of a better speaker line-up to drive this point home. And what better place to celebrate than San Francisco, a city known world-wide for its ongoing commitment to green practices and sustainability? San Francisco embodies the fusion of sustainability and technology with its diverse range of LEED-certified buildings – not to mention its proximity to Silicon Valley and reputation as the nucleus of tech giants and start-ups. This impressive city will provide the perfect backdrop for Greenbuild 2012’s green building tours, 150+ educational sessions, networking opportunities, and more.

We, the People, Still Making History

Heather Blakeslee
Deputy Executive Director for Operations, Program & Community
Delaware Valley Green Building Council

“We the people of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

It’s easy to make a connection between the Preamble to the Constitution and the missions of USGBC and Delaware Valley Green Building Council. Since the beginning of our history, our country has worked toward peaceful, prosperous communities for ourselves and future generations.

USGBC's Senior Vice President of Conferences and Events, Kimberly Lewis,
alongside DVGBC leadership

Philadelphia hosted our forefathers as they composed the Constitution more than 225 years ago, and in 2013 it will backdrop the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo as USGBC celebrates its 20th anniversary. To prepare the region for this monumental occasion, DVGBC decided to do something that would honor our historic past while looking toward our sustainable future — something that would show a global audience just how hard we’re working toward a more prosperous, sustainable region.

The Most Sustainable Show Yet: Greenbuild Sustinability Report Released

Kimberly Lewis
Senior Vice President, Conferences and Events
U.S. Green Building Council

It’s no surprise that after 10 years of green meeting experience, the 2011 Greenbuild International Conference and Expo held in Toronto has proved to be the most sustainable to date.

Today, we are excited to share our 10th Anniversary Greenbuild Event Sustainability Report, the culmination of a decade of tremendous growth, learning and success.

Rubbermaid bins incorporated waste streams: paper; plastic, cans & glass; organics; and landfill. 

In 2011, we set an unprecedented goal of 90% waste diversion at the conference, which we were ecstatic to exceed by diverting 95% of conference waste from landfills. We successfully eliminated ground shuttles between hotels and the convention center and encouraged walking. We also “walked the talk” by busing 35% of USGBC staff attendees to Toronto from our headquarters in Washington, DC, and walking or utilizing public transportation on-site. We rigorously vetted the sourcing of our show materials, merchandise and food and beverages, and worked to measure and report our efforts and impact with more detail and transparency than ever before.

A Codes Retrospective: With IgCC’s Arrival, Jurisdictions Can Now Raise the Floor with this Important New Regulatory Tool

Jeremy Sigmon, LEED® AP BD+C
Manager, Building Codes Advocacy
U.S. Green Building Council

Today is an important day for USGBC and for green building. It marks the culmination of more than six years of work to turn a crazy idea into a tangible, attainable reality.

Today, the nation’s leading code developer, which emerged from the legacy regional code bodies, has published a model green building code. The International Green Construction Code (IgCC) was developed by almost everybody and, importantly, approved by the Code Council’s membership of code officials. It includes the second fully-published version of a green building standard that USGBC dreamed up with ASHRAE at Greenbuild in November of 2005.

Today we also celebrate the 12,000th LEED certified commercial building, totaling more than 8.4 billion square feet of LEED certified space, and the beginning of a final stage of development of LEED's next version. After nearly 20,000 comments during three rounds of public review, today begins the effort to respond and fine-tune LEED 2012 prior to member ballot this summer.

I’d like to travel back to that early moment in 2005 when the crazy idea of a green building code was first conceived. At that time, dozens (soon-to-be hundreds) of local governments were searching for a prescriptive, code-intended tool that could extend protections from the human and environmental health risks illuminated by greener building practice. LEED was taking off at an amazing trajectory, and new rating systems were under development for both homes and core & shell buildings to add to the LEED suite of new construction, existing buildings and commercial interiors rating systems.

Green Jobs Summit at Greenbuild 2011 Calls for Mobilization around this Common Sense Economic Solution

Maggie Comstock
Associate, Policy
U.S. Green Building Council

The hustle and bustle of Greenbuild 2011 is now behind us, and we’ve all returned to our respective homes and jobs to continue “troublemaking.”

And one area where we need to continue to stir the pot is green jobs. On the Tuesday of Greenbuild, we convened a Green Jobs Summit of more than 40 prominent experts throughout the clean energy economy to brainstorm the successes and challenges experienced in the promotion of the green jobs agenda.

The Opening Session of the Summit highlighted several keynote speakers who represented a range of stakeholders, including Ken Neumann, National Director of Canada for the United Steelworkers, Bob Peck, Public Buildings Service Commissioner at the U.S. General Services Administration, and Dan Esty, Commissioner at the State of Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. They each outlined the successes to date that they have observed in their respective roles, and also the opportunities for further action.

The eight breakout sessions illustrated that all professionals have a role in this movement. Whether you work locally or globally, in tech or communications, as a skilled laborer or a financial executive, the Green Jobs Summit demonstrated the uniquely important roles of all of these stakeholders. View the session topics and speakers here.

Eco-entrepreneur Majora Carter capped the Summit with an inspirational and motivational call to action. By expertly weaving her personal experiences and “ah ha” moments into her greater message, each attendee internalized her amazing life story and realized that they too could do more, be more and affect real change.

Yes, “green jobs” is a nebulous term (even a flashpoint in certain circles where hanging on to the status quo, old economy jobs, is a full time job in and of itself), but we troublemakers can all agree on this: No matter your job description, professional level or geographic location, YOU contribute to this important movement. YOU are the living proof that green jobs are real and thriving. YOU are the champions for change in our government and beyond.

Though the Summit is over (until next year), green jobs remain perpetually topical and timely. The President’s American Jobs Act outlines a plan for rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure and modernizing America’s underperforming schools. These campaigns would create hundreds of thousands of jobs and underline the importance of energy conservation in supporting the economic bottom line. Read more about how the American Jobs Act affects the green building and energy efficiency sector on our website.

Visit the USGBC Green Jobs website for resources and information on the role of green buildings in job creation and economic growth. Also view the recent McGraw-Hill Construction study which revealed that the green building market supports 661,000 green jobs in the U.S.!

We need to work together to underscore that all jobs are critical in our current economy, but green jobs are also about the future — both literally, in terms of new technologies that define our movement, and in the broader view terms of what’s next for our society and our planet. Given our troublemaker status, we’re the best group of all to move this critical agenda forward.

Energy Efficiency in the States in 2012: Will You Help Your State Compete for Top Rank?

Jeremy Sigmon, LEED® AP BD+C
Manager, Building Codes Advocacy
U.S. Green Building Council

If you’ve ever wondered if government policy and advocacy can actually make a difference, consider this: Despite what you may often read in the papers, state governments are plowing ahead on making energy efficiency a reality. And as USGBC mentioned in a recent report, all states are doing something. That just doesn’t happen if no one is fighting for it.

Today, the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy released its 2011 Energy Scorecard which shows significant improvements in several states and, maybe most interesting, California sliding to #2 behind Massachusetts as #1 in energy efficiency. The Commonwealth’s Stretch Energy Code – which has been adopted by nearly 50% of all Massachusetts localities – has played an important role, alongside many other state programs. (This is not to say there aren’t a lot of great things going on in the Golden State… more on that later).

One of the six energy policy metrics in ACEEE’s scorecard is state policy for building energy codes. Importantly, “Twenty-nine (29) states have either adopted or have made significant progress toward the adoption of the latest energy-saving building codes for homes and commercial properties - up from twenty in 2010 and ten in 2009.” This is a clear endorsement of minimum standards for building energy efficiency, and a vital step in the right direction if we’re to further extend fundamental protections from other non-acute threats to human and environmental health.

This rapid increase in building energy code adoption, and the advancement of other state policy initiatives (like transportation policies, appliance efficiency standards, utility and public benefits programs) has been championed by advocates of energy efficiency and green building. USGBC’s community of advocates has been behind many of these policy advancements. Have you?

If you attended Greenbuild earlier this month, you heard from New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman (see 30th minute) that we very clearly still have a lot of work to do to get our nation’s leaders on board with our vision of a sustainable future – and we need your help! Are you involved with your local USGBC chapter? Tell them that you want to get involved in their advocacy and outreach activities. Do you know who your elected officials are at the local, state and congressional levels? Let them know why energy efficient, green buildings and communities matter to you, and why they should be embraced in smart public policy.

Setting sights on 2012, will you join us in our campaigns to drive green building policy that rewards responsibility, embraces a sense of urgency and catalyzes change? Together we can compel even further competition in the states in our collective pursuit of a healthier, safer, more efficient and prosperous future.

Project Haiti Takes Center Stage at Greenbuild 2011

This is a cross-posted entry from the blog at hoklife.com.
Access the original entry »

HOK is the USGBC’s official design partner for Project Haiti, a pro bono effort to build a LEED-certified orphanage and children’s center in Port au Prince. Sustainable Design Director Mary Ann Lazarus and a team from HOK recently returned from Toronto, where they shared the Project Haiti story at Greenbuild 2011. Read on for Mary Ann’s guest post and an amazing video from the USGBC:



Imagine it: 15,000 people in the Air Canada Hockey arena, lights flashing, music playing, Jumbotrons running. Cue USGBC CEO Rick Fedrizzi for the introduction of the new Project Haiti video. The video features the recent site visit by the USGBC and HOK team members and meeting with the terrific clients, Gina and Lucien Duncan from the children’s center.

I was quite overwhelmed to be projected at mega-scale to this crowd of great green leaders from across the globe and humbled by everyone’s positive reaction. The video’s goal is to communicate the tremendous opportunity to support the children’s center effort as well as share the inspiration that the project provides to all involved. And it does just that!

Check it out – it’s well worth the five minutes of your time. And think about supporting Project Haiti as well. Pass it on.

Learn more and support Project Haiti »
Visit hoklife.com »

What’s new with LEED and Demand Response? Find out at Greenbuild 2011

Brendan Owens, LEED AP, P.E.
Vice President, LEED Technical Development
U.S. Green Building Council

Earlier this year, USGBC launched the Demand Response LEED Pilot Credit as a road test before full adoption in LEED 2012. We are now working on ways to engage even more projects, drive widespread adoption of demand response participation, and develop a stronger relationship between the energy & building communities.

To learn more about the demand response pilot credit, explore becoming a partner in the new market pilot, and receive a report on qualified demand response programs in your market come see us at this year’s Greenbuild conference in the LEED Lounge or join us for a focused information session. Members of the team that developed the credit language will be available to answer your questions and help you discover how your projects can benefit.

LEED Lounge
Level 800, South Building
Thursday, Oct. 6, 8 – 10:30 a.m. and 12– 3 p.m.

Information Session, Room 802A
Wednesday, October 5, 4 – 5 p.m.
Thursday, October 6, 4 – 5 p.m.

Looking forward to seeing you at Greenbuild!

Current LEED APs: Add a Specialty to Your LEED Credential at Greenbuild

William Nutt
Associate, Marketing and Communications
U.S. Green Building Council

Are you a LEED AP? If so, there is still time to add a specialty to your LEED credential at the USGBC’s annual Greenbuild conference even if your enrollment deadline has passed. The majority of LEED Professionals have already added a specialty to their LEED credential but the window is closing.

In 2009, GBCI updated the LEED AP with five new specialty credentials:

• LEED AP Building Design + Construction (BD+C)
• LEED AP Interior Design + Construction (ID+C)
• LEED AP Operations + Maintenance (O+M)
• LEED AP Neighborhood Development (ND)
• LEED AP Homes

The specialty credentials can be added to your LEED AP by simply logging onto your GBCI account and clicking enroll or by visiting the LEED Credential booths at Greenbuild located on level 600.

After that, you have two years to maintain your credential by following prescriptive credential maintenance, completing 30 hours of continuing education activities over a two-year period.

Prescriptive credential maintenance is on a one time activity that maps your specialty over to the newest version of the LEED rating system. After the prescriptive maintenance is complete, LEED APs with specialty will maintain their credential in following years through a variety of methods such as taking courses or working on LEED projects.

There is no risk and no fee to enrolling in a specialty through prescriptive credential maintenance. LEED APs can also choose to forgo prescriptive CMP and add a specialty to their credential by taking the specialty portion of the new LEED AP exam, at a cost of $150- $250.

Greenbuild also offers an array of hour-earning opportunities, from education sessions and workshops to speaking events and green building tours. Over 170 courses have been approved for credential maintenance credit—and hours earned at Greenbuild are automatically reported to GBCI, making it easier to track your maintenance.

Why update your credential?
The specialty credentials ensure that LEED Professionals stay current with green building innovation, standards and practices through the Credential Maintenance Program (CMP). CMP, which requires LEED APs with specialty to complete 30 hours of continuing education every two years, also allows LEED Professionals to grow their knowledge base and show clients and employers that their expertise remains meaningful in a continually transforming marketplace.

Employers and clients are increasingly seeking LEED APs with specialty. This trend will popularize exponentially as LEED 2012, which awards an Innovation point to project teams featuring a LEED AP with specialty, nears release. Additionally, all candidates for the LEED Fellow distinction, honoring the green building industry’s most accomplished practitioners, must hold a LEED AP with specialty credential.

Credential maintenance for LEED APs with specialty is easy; you can earn 10 continuing education hours simply by working on LEED projects—a daily activity for many LEED Professionals¬—and five hours through self-study, including reading the LEED Reference Guides and reference standards. That’s half of your hours every two years, and with the new GBCI Course Catalog and USGBC Webinar Subscription, finding your other 15 hours is a breeze.

With so many advantages to enrollment, why not add a specialty to your LEED AP credential in Toronto? It’s just another way to benefit from Greenbuild’s expansive offerings. See you there!

Celebrating Excellence in the Green Building Movement: USGBC's Leadership Awards

Ashley Katz
Manager, Communciations
U.S. Green Building Council

USGBC’s Leadership Awards have become synonymous with the organizations and individuals who signify vision, leadership and commitment to the evolution of green building design and construction. This year’s batch of winners is no different – recognizing leaders in the private, public and non-governmental organization (NGO) spheres. In fact, Rick Fedrizzi said it best:

“As the most influential green building leaders in the world, their achievements are bedrock to our mission of transforming the built environment.”

Celebrating this crop of industry trailblazers at Greenbuild has become an annual USGBC tradition. Join us at the Greenbuild Leadership Awards Luncheon on Oct. 6 as we rally around the successes of the green building movement by honoring these leaders.

The 2011 Leadership Awards recipients are:

Organizational Leadership in the Private Sector: Wells Fargo Bank
As longtime users of LEED, Wells Fargo is a participant in the newly launched LEED Volume Program for Operations and Maintenance, committing to pursuing high-performance for banking and office locations across its portfolio.

Individual Leadership in the Private Sector: Anthony E. Malkin, Malkin Holdings
Through his real estate business, Malkin has been a leader in existing building energy efficiency retrofits, including the $550 million makeover given to the “world’s most famous office building – the Empire State Building. The 80 year old building just announced that it earned LEED Gold, making it green building icon.

Organizational Leadership in the Public Sector: Council on Environmental Quality, the White House
CEQ’s organizational leadership, spearheaded by its Chair, Nancy Sutley, has moved President Obama’s green jobs agenda forward, by pushing for strong investments in high performing green buildings and schools that will help create jobs, build resilience, advance sustainability and stimulate long-term growth. Read Rick Fedrizzi’s take on Obama’s American Jobs Act.

Individual Leadership in the Public Sector: The Honorable Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City
Bloomberg catapulted the “Big Apple” into a beacon for the green building movement, making it safer, stronger and greener. As chair of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, Bloomberg made it possible for the largest cities around the world to adopt and implement similar, innovative sustainability policies.

Bloomberg will take to the stage at the Closing Plenary at Greenbuild on Oct. 7, where he’ll also be honored for his leadership.

Organizational Leadership in a Non-Governmental Organization: Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas (DCMCCT)
Take a virtual tour of the first LEED Platinum hospital in the world, and learn how the Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas (DCHCT) is making a difference every day in the lives of the children its serves.

Individual Leadership in a Non-Governmental Organization: Kelly Caffarelli, The Home Depot Foundation
Kelly Caffarelli’s leadership enabled USGBC to fully engage the affordable housing community in the development of LEED for Homes. Her leadership has paid off, as nearly 50% of LEED-certified housing units are affordable.

International Leadership Award: Deutsche Bank AG
With a company-wide goal of carbon neutrality by 2013, Deutsche Bank has worked to reduce its corporate footprint while providing the tools and resources to help others do the same, through investing in alternative energies and low-carbon technologies. This past year, the company earned LEED Platinum for its own headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, which is designed to reduce water consumption and CO2 emissions by 74% and 89% respectively.

President’s Award: Greg Kats, Capital E, Good Energies; and Lynn N. Simon, FAIA, LEED AP Simon & Associates, Inc.
Jayni Chase, Chair of Green Community Schools, a program of the MGR Foundation, was honored as the first recipient of the Center for Green Schools Excellence award for her work as a pioneer in transforming schools into sustainable places to learn, work and play. Jayni is one of the original leaders of the green schools movement, and serves as a valued member of the Center for Green Schools’ Advisory Board. She has been a true champion in making green schools a reality for the millions of Americans who go to school every day.

Congratulations to this year’s winners!

What's Next in Green Building? USGBC Working With Planet Forward to Cultivate Ideas

Charlie Rybak
Outreach Coordinator
Planet Forward

Re-posted from PlanetForward.org.

Do you have an idea for the next big innovation in green building? If you submit a video that tells your story in one minute or less, you could find it on display at the world’s largest green building expo.

In 1891, Clarence Kemp, a Baltimore-based entrepreneur that sold home heating equipment, came up with the idea of attaching a black box with water in it to the roof of people’s homes. He had invented the first passive solar water heater, an innovation that continues to play an important role in residential design today.

So what’s next? Who will be the next Clarence Kemp?

USGBC is teaming up with Planet Forward to host the “What’s Next?” competition. The winning videos will be featured at Greenbuild 2011, the world’s largest green building expo, which runs from October 4-7 in Toronto.

To submit a video:

1. Upload your video to YouTube or Vimeo and tag it with the keyword GBNEXT.
2. E-mail us a link to your video at GBNEXT@GreenbuildExpo.org. If you have a Twitter handle, include it in your e-mail so we can give you credit when we tweet your submission!
3. Use hashtag #GBNEXT to share your video on Twitter, and join the conversation on what’s NEXT for green building and our planet’s success.

Submissions must be received by Sept. 28, 2011.

Need inspiration? Watch videos on Planet Forward to get your creativity flowing. Here’s one on Energy Efficient Home Landscapes, and here’s one on Greensburg, Kansas, who used green building techniques to rebuild their town after it was devastated by a tornado.

Want some advice from the experts? Planet Forward provides tips on how to make a great video.

Experience Canada at Greenbuild: Or, How a Peameal Bacon Sandwich May Change Your Life

Ashley Katz
Media Manager
U.S. Green Building Council

Are you headed to Toronto and eager to take in all of the sights and sounds the city has to offer?

You’re in luck— Greenbuild is packed with opportunities to experience the architectural, political and financial capital of Canada, while learning about its long legacy of green building leadership and innovation through on and off-site educational sessions, speakers, tours and walking the exhibit hall floor.

Take a tour inside the inner workings of Toronto’s greenest buildings. Tour a green art gallery, green roof, or a green office. Indulge in the area’s best restaurants and cafes (Peameal bacon sandwich, anyone?) Greenbuild is chock full of opportunities to think outside of the convention center.

Once you’ve explored everything within city limits, head back to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, and learn about Canada’s green legacy and plans for the future in the home of the Toronto Maple Leafs, beginning with an address by former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell at Wednesday night’s opening plenary, one of the many highlights of the evening Opening Keynote & Celebration. Be sure to take advantage of the shoe check-in located on Level 600, South Building and Level 100, North Building, where we’ll watch your walking shoes while you network in your loafers or heels at the conference.

Set your Greenbuild Scheduler to catch one of seven “Best of Canada” education sessions taking place throughout the show and convening the country’s green building and business leaders to discuss everything from local green building codes to the greening of Toronto’s central business district. Then walk the Greenbuild show floor to learn about innovative products and services from over 150 Canadian exhibitors.

Don’t forget to learn about the two Greenbuild Legacy projects that explore and celebrate teaching children about healthy, sustainable, urban food—the Chimney Court Children’s Greenhouse and the Gateway Gardens Project, both located in Toronto.

And once you’ve walked, biked, bused and subwayed through the very pedestrian-friendly city, take a tip from Treehugger contributor and Torontonian, Lloyd Alter, who’s begun a laundry list of local favorites and things to look for in his series, “Building Up To Greenbuild” for more itinerary ideas.

Game Changer: Greenbuild in Canada

Thomas Mueller
President
Canada Green Building Council

As October draws near and final preparations are underway, I wish to speak on behalf of the CaGBC to express our pride in hosting Greenbuild 2011. It’s actually quite fitting that the first Greenbuild outside of the United States be held in Canada because it demonstrates the close partnership between the USGBC and CaGBC that has been built over many years of advancing LEED and green building in North America. The success of our cooperative relationship is evidenced by the approximately 500 million square feet of LEED projects that are registered or have been certified in Canada since 2004.

Greenbuild will be a wonderful opportunity for delegates from all over the globe to see why Canada is a green building world leader. Some of the greenest projects in the world are in Canada including Dockside Green in Victoria and the 2010 Winter Olympic venues and villages in Vancouver. Toronto is the leader in green office construction and renovation. The Royal Trust Tower, the RBC Centre and the Telus House Toronto are among the greenest office buildings in North America. These LEED projects are leading the market transformation and tenant demand for green office space in Toronto and elsewhere in Canada.

As well as being a world-class centre for entertainment, business and culture, Toronto has shown strong leadership and private and public sector commitment to green building. Policies such as the Toronto Green Roof Policy, Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation, Infrastructure Ontario’s LEED policies and TRCA’s Living City Campus are leading pieces of green building regulation and demonstration projects in North America. Large developers such as Tridel and Minto and landlords including Cadillac Fairview, Oxford Properties, and Brookfield all have significant green building portfolios in the city.

But there is no doubt that Greenbuild will be a game changer for Toronto and for Canada by taking green building to the next level in terms of industry and government recognition and international trade. The conference demonstrates that green building is an industry sector of the future, bridging the gap between business and the environment, providing significant opportunities to reduce environmental impacts, improving the health of Canadians, furthering economic growth and increasingly providing international trade opportunities between Canada and the US.

While at Greenbuild, make sure you visit us at Canada House to better understand the growing and increasingly sophisticated green building industry in Canada; a rich market for new services, products and technologies that continue to evolve and shape the new green economy.

See you there.

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Want more on Canada?
Browse the "Best of Canada" education sessions at Greenbuild »
Take in a green building tour of Canada while you're in Toronto »

Ray Anderson: Great leader of our time passes

Rick Fedrizzi
President, CEO & Founding Chairman
U.S. Green Building Council

If there was a Dictionary of Green Building, Ray Anderson is whose picture you’d probably see alongside the word “leader.” And I’m saddened to hear that he passed away yesterday, losing a heroic 20 month battle with cancer.

Ray was a legend of corporate sustainability, a man whose personal story – a story of an epiphany that changed a life and an entire industry – could be a metaphor for the entire green building movement. When he started Interface Inc. in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1973, his entrepreneurial genius was immediately clear. Before long, Interface was a billion-dollar-a-year business and one of the largest interior furnishings companies in the world.

But Interface is in the business of carpeting, and carpet traditionally uses a lot of petroleum, a lot of water, and creates a lot of waste.

Ray’s epiphany moment, the moment of truth that he has called a “spear to the chest,” was the same one that several of us experienced — reading Paul Hawken’s Ecology of Commerce and getting permission to be both a capitalist and an environmentalist. It launched the transformation of Interface, and of the entire carpet industry, and set the foundation for USGBC.

Under his leadership, Interface was set on a goal of zero environmental impact companywide, a target of eliminating petroleum entirely from its manufacturing process, and a commitment to sustainability as Ray defined it: taking nothing from the earth that is not naturally and rapidly renewable.

But perhaps what made Ray’s leadership so important and so effective was the way he has completely negated the argument that environmental sustainability can only be had at the expense of economic prosperity. Interface’s remarkable success – and the positive business impact that has come as a result of its reputation as a sustainability pioneer – stands as a strong example that without a strong triple bottom line, you’re never truly successful.

Ray was a personal hero of mine, a man who truly changed the world.

I’m grateful that last year, USGBC was able to present him with a USGBC leadership award at Greenbuild. It was a small tribute to a great man, but it meant more to me than anything I’ve done in a long time.

I invite you to share with us your personal and favorite Ray story. He touched us all in one way or another.

Grab Your Camera and Tell Us: What’s NEXT?

Kimberly Lewis
Vice President, Conferences and Events
U.S. Green Building Council

When I envision the future, I see a world in which the benefits of green building are experienced everywhere: From Houston to Haiti, from rural villages to bustling metropolises, from homes to high-rises.

That’s my idea for what’s next in green building and global success. What is yours?

We are extremely excited to announce the Greenbuild NEXT video campaign! We're asking YOU, the USGBC community, the Internet at large and idealists everywhere to tell us what you think is NEXT for green building, sustainability and our planet's prosperity.

Whether your idea is specific to green building (grid positive buildings everywhere?), sustainable living (bike lanes spanning the globe?), or as broad as solving global climate change (a new climate treaty?), we want to hear from you!

Your videos will be posted on the Greenbuild website, and could be featured on the big screens at Greenbuild 2011 in Toronto!

Get inspired:
Whether your video is shot on a web cam or in a studio, we want to see it and share it. Your videos can be testimonials, action sequences, animations – anything. Be creative!

Check out our 52-second kick-off video, or watch an example of a Greenbuild NEXT video submission from Jacob Monroe, USGBC's Education Resources Coordinator.

Submit your video:

1. Upload your video to YouTube or Vimeo and tag it with the keyword GBNEXT.
2. E-mail us a link to your video at GBNEXT@GreenbuildExpo.org. If you have a Twitter handle, include it in your e-mail so we can give you credit when we tweet your submission!
3. Use hashtag #GBNEXT to share your video on Twitter, and join the conversation on what's NEXT for green building and our planet's success.

The first step in creating the future is imagining it. Conceptualizing it. Predicting it. Ideas become reality. We can't wait to see what you come up with.

Learn more about the Greenbuild NEXT video campaign, watch others' videos, and submit your own! »

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Breaking News: New York Times Columnist Thomas Friedman and ABC News Political Commentator Cokie Roberts to Tackle Building Resiliency at Greenbuild

Kimberly Lewis
Vice President, Conferences and Events
U.S. Green Building Council

The Greenbuild speaker roster is shaping up to be an incredible one! We just received confirmation that Thomas Friedman and Cokie Roberts will join the diverse roster of thought leaders and innovators at the Greenbuild International Conference & Expo in Toronto.

Friedman, Pulitzer Prize-winning and internationally renowned author, reporter, and columnist, will lend his expertise to USGBC’s Resiliency Agenda panel, taking place at the Opening Keynote & Celebration on Oct. 5. The panel, moderated by Roberts, an Emmy Award-winning journalist, bestselling author and a 40 year veteran of broadcasting, will discuss resiliency and demonstrate how all industries can play a role in community rebuilding efforts in Haiti and around the globe.

In his 2008 bestselling book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution—and How It Can Renew America, Friedman explored the parallels between the climate crisis and the global economic crisis, proposing a national strategy, coined “Geo-Greenism,” to make America healthier, richer, more innovative, more productive, and more secure. "I find this set of issues—how we take the lead in the clean-tech revolution and use that to refresh, renew, and revive America—is what animates me most,” Friedman has said.

Friedman, Farmer and Roberts will speak at Greenbuild 2011 in Toronto.

Roberts serves dually as Senior News Analyst for National Public Radio and Political Analyst for ABC News, where she spent six years co-anchoring This Week with Sam Donaldson. An inductee into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame, Roberts has won countless awards, and was cited as one of the 50 greatest women in the history of broadcasting.

Medical anthropologist and physician, Dr. Paul Farmer, will also participate on the panel. As Chair of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Founder of Partners in Health, Dr. Farmer has written extensively on health, human rights, and the consequences of social inequality.

Check USGBC’s blog tomorrow for another breaking Greenbuild announcement. Additional panelists will be announced on the blog later this week. Stay connected via greenbuildexpo.org and follow @USGBC on Twitter using hashtag #greenbuild for late-breaking announcements and information. See you in Toronto!

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The Potential of Retrofits: Launch of LEED Volume Program for Operations & Maintenance

Doug Gatlin
Vice President, LEED - Commercial Markets
U.S. Green Building Council

The LEED Volume Program allows large users of LEED to certify buildings across their portfolio in a streamlined fashion, bringing a new level of speed and efficiency to our mission of greening the built environment. LEED Volume unites the large-scale building and management efforts of organizations with the rigor of LEED.

With this morning’s launch of the LEED Volume Program for Operations & Maintenance at the annual BOMA conference in Washington, D.C., we’ve hit two key milestones. The first: Opening up the landmark LEED Volume Program to existing buildings, the industry’s most promising sector with the most ubiquitous presence. To date, an impressive 625 LEED projects have been certified through the LEED Volume Program, including the Design & Construction track, launched last year at Greenbuild. Now, after being successfully shaped and applied by 11 pilot participants*, from large retailers such as Kohl’s Department Stores to commercial real estate service providers like Cushman & Wakefield, the launch will enable organizations of all types to access the benefits of the LEED Volume Program for their existing building stock. And the second milestone: Contributing to the momentum and enthusiasm we are seeing for greening existing buildings.

In his recent Newsweek cover piece, Bill Clinton said, “We could put a million people to work retrofitting buildings all over America.” President Obama’s Better Buildings Initiative is projected to create over 114,000 jobs - 77,000 of those resulting from a revised tax incentive to encourage building retrofits. Retrofitting commercial buildings could save up to 200 million metric tons of carbon emissions each year.

Given this momentum, the BOMA conference could not have been a better venue for the launch of an expanded LEED Volume Program. The 16,500+ members of BOMA are the movers and shakers of the building industry. They’re ahead of the curve, on top of the technology, and aware of the incredible power that lies in retrofitting smart, sustainable structures.

But they aren’t the only ones privy to this knowledge about existing buildings. Across the building industry, from local to federal government, and throughout the business world, the potential of retrofitting our existing building stock is being realized.

Retrofits are the future, and the LEED Volume Program for Operations & Maintenance presents organizations, companies, governments and campuses a way to revamp their existing buildings – in a streamlined, cost-effective, and business-savvy manner.

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*Pilot participants also include: American University, Bank of America, Bentall Kennedy, City of San Jose, InterContinental Hotels Group, Stop & Shop, University of California Santa Barbara, University of Florida, and Wells Fargo.