Influence the Future of USGBC: Nominate and Elect the 2013 Board of Directors

Gail Vittori, LEED Fellow
Co-Director, Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems
Chair, 2013 Nominating Working Group
Vice-Chair, 2012 GBCI Board of Directors
Chair, 2009 USGBC Board of Directors

What an exciting time it is to be a part of our USGBC community! The green building movement is growing so fast in breadth and depth, workforce supply can’t keep pace; LEED 2012, with its shift to building performance, is once again raising the bar for sustainable development; and USGBC chapters across the country continue to inspire with remarkable achievements.

To be sure, this is a transformational time for the U.S. Green Building Council—a turning point that will influence the future of the organization and the broader green building movement.

One of the key opportunities for USGBC member organizations in guiding USGBC’s strategic direction is with the nomination and election of the 2013 Board of Directors—underway NOW!

Next Steps for LEED 2012: Q&A with Chrissy

Chrissy Macken
Manager, LEED
U.S. Green Building Council

It takes a lot to finalize a new LEED rating system: A lot of time (years), a lot of public comments (over 19,000), and a lot of steps in the process (hence this explanatory entry). With the closing of third public comment, now seems a particularly good opportunity to focus on a fundamental piece of LEED 2012’s evolution - the ballot period. If there are no more substantive changes – and as a result – additional public comment periods, balloting will be the next step in the process. Today, I sat down with Gwen Building, an inquisitive (and sadly, fictional) USGBC Member, to defog this critical step in developing LEED 2012. Read on, because this involves you! (Yes, you!)

Gwen Building (GB): There’s been a lot of buzz about the upcoming ballot for LEED 2012. What exactly is “ballot?”
Chrissy Macken (CM): The ballot period is the opportunity for USGBC membership to vote on the rating system changes for LEED 2012. We ballot all technical changes and new versions of rating systems.

GB: How does balloting work?
CM: Our USGBC national members interested in voting opt into a consensus body. That group votes on behalf of the entire membership whether to approve the proposed changes to the rating system. If the changes pass ballot, then LEED 2012 is finalized and becomes available for project teams everywhere to utilize. Hooray! The opportunity to opt in to the consensus body starts April 2. From there, we’ll ensure the consensus body is balanced, with members from every interest category - prior to opening ballot.

How Will You Impact LEED 2012? Third Public Comment Period Opens Mar. 1

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

Are you an architect? A facilities manager? A building owner?

How about a professional working in a big city high-rise? A father with kids in elementary school? An unabashed shopaholic?

Great, let’s talk LEED 2012.

The third public comment period for LEED 2012, the newest update to the LEED green building program, opens in just five business days on Mar. 1, giving anyone with a stake in our built environment (in other words, everyone) the opportunity to influence the direction LEED takes: seasoned green building pros to college students just beginning their sustainability journey. Building owners to occupants of any kind.

LEED engages and impacts millions (billions?) of people around the world. Its success is in part due to the fact that it is developed by the people who use it. LEED is an ongoing, global project that anyone can join. There’s no other rating system out there that engages the public quite the way LEED does, and we hope you’ll consider voicing your opinion about LEED in the approaching public comment period.

Happy Holidays from USGBC

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

Dear Friends of USGBC,

As the year winds to a close, I am honored to reflect on yet another historic year for the green building movement. Thanks to our faithful USGBC members, committed LEED Professionals and project teams, dedicated volunteers and advocates, and the myriad other invaluable contributors to USGBC, we took great strides toward our collective mission in 2011:

• 3,500 commercial and 5,400 residential projects were LEED certified this year, with cumulative totals exceeding 11,000 and 14,600, respectively. And another 31,800 commercial and 61,500 residential projects have been registered. More than 125,000 projects are part of LEED –– an extraordinary accomplishment. And now we look forward to the development of LEED 2012, focusing on the technical rigor of the rating system, expanding the market sectors able to use LEED and striving for simplicity in terms of usability.


• When enrollment closed in October, more than 61,000 LEED APs had opted into LEED AP with specialty credentials. Today, more than 175,000 professionals hold a LEED Professional credential and the industry is even more equipped to handle the different types of building and community projects coming through. In September, we announced the 34-member inaugural class of LEED Fellows, the most distinguished professionals in green building. These folks are inspirations to us all.


• This year our USGBC chapters played a critical role in influencing local and state government policy. The Charlotte Chapter worked closely with local officials to get Oct 24-28 declared Environmental Sustainability Week, coinciding with a series of sustainability programs hosted by the chapter. The Delaware Valley Green Building Council received a USGBC innovation grant that has enabled them to develop a green building legislation "action alert" online system. The California Advocacy Committee, representing all eight California chapters, kicked off its first year of statewide collaboration around green building policy and advocacy with a new, community-developed model for decision-making and engagement and already has a list of wins.


• Our national and chapter members are working hard to fulfill the Administration's Better Buildings Initiative, supporting the aim to make America's commercial buildings and plants more energy- and resource-efficient over the next decade by providing incentives for private-sector investment.


• The Center for Green Schools at USGBC placed the first Green Schools Fellows in Sacramento and Boston, and commissioned the first nationwide survey on green schools with founding sponsor United Technologies, hosted a Healthy Schools Summit and released its inaugural "Best of Green Schools" list.


• Despite the challenges of holding the first Greenbuild outside U.S. borders, Greenbuild secured a record number of partnerships, sold out our expo floor and welcomed 23,000 attendees to Toronto. With the help of our progressive host city and devoted volunteers, we achieved 95% waste diversion, setting a Greenbuild record.
  


• The USGBC App Lab launched in November as part of LEED Automation, which is transforming the way project teams interact with LEED data. Comprised of applications designed by LEED Automation Partners for Web browsers, tablets, smartphones and other devices, the App Lab simplifies the certification process and maximizes building performance.
  


• As of this month, cumulative square footage of LEED-certified existing buildings surpassed LEED-certified new construction for the first time. As the U.S. is home to more than 60 billion square feet of existing commercial buildings, most of which are energy guzzlers and water sieves, this trend serves as a promising indicator of our progress.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of the hundreds of accomplishments that we can celebrate this year, as we should. But we also have much to do.

As we enter this season of giving, the USGBC family has always been a generous one, especially as we've worked to bring the benefits of green building to those who need it most –– populations made vulnerable by age or poverty or natural disasters. And this year we continue our work on behalf of the impoverished victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

Through the generous USGBC community, we have secured contributions and pledges totaling more than 50% of our fundraising goal for Project Haiti Orphanage and Children's Center, a zero-impact, LEED Platinum facility and Clinton Global Initiative Commitment of 2011 that will not only provide for the immediate health and emotional needs of orphaned children in ravaged Port-au-Prince, but will also serve as a model for sustainable rebuilding and a teaching tool for local architects, contractors and students. As you consider your year-end charitable contributions, we urge you to consider a contribution to Project Haiti at USGBC.org/Haiti so we can bring this important effort to fruition.

Celebrating our achievements of the past year, I gaze ahead with great optimism. The economic and political winds continue to shift, but in spite of that, green building continues to thrive, and the stage is set for a remarkable 2012. Thank you for your significant contributions to this transformational journey toward a more sustainable, healthy and prosperous built environment. From all of the staff at USGBC, we wish you a safe and joyful holiday.

Sincerely,

S. Richard Fedrizzi
CEO, President and Founding Chair
USGBC

Leadership Abounds: President Obama, President Clinton and Green Building Leaders Join Forces to Commit to Energy Efficiency

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

This entry is cross-posted from Rick Fedrizzi's blog on Huff Post Green.

Last week from the White House Old Executive Building it was like a different planet -- outside the white walls, D.C. politics continued to swirl, but for one moment we found something we can all agree on. I sat there as President Obama and former President Clinton joined forces to make three huge announcements on energy efficiency in buildings. First, that the federal government will be investing big time in energy efficiency, to the tune of $2 billion dollars that will ultimately be returned to taxpayers many times over through lower operating costs. Second, that the private sector will do the same, as companies respond to the President’s Better Buildings Challenge with their own $2 billion dollar investment covering 1.6 billion square feet of commercial building space. Last but not least, the IRS and Treasury will finally revise the guidance on the under-utilized 179D tax deduction for energy efficient commercial buildings.

What does this tell us? That jobs and energy savings are possible with little effort from companies. Sounds too good to be true, but that’s $4 billion dollars and around 50,000 jobs if you are counting, all without any tax increases, spending cuts, offsets or other partisan mud-slinging from Congress. President Clinton called this a “free lunch.” He’s right.

Revising Section 179D is, has been and will remain a focal point of our federal agenda and we’ve long advocated for the federal government to use the tools at its disposal, like performance contracting with energy service companies, to slash energy consumption in federal buildings. (The recommendations were front and center in our 2010 “Using Executive Authorities” report. We are thrilled to see that recommendation taken, and we look forward to adding these initiatives to the successful agency actions in the next version of the report, to be released soon.

No less exciting are the commitments made by USGBC member cities, universities, and companies. In all at least 27 member companies, four member universities, and six member cities and states accepted the challenge (see below for full list). Member company LendLease America’s CEO Bob McNamara CEO, for example, told the group he is building green-based housing for 40,000 veterans, setting an example and showing strong leadership in sustainability.

Our member company leaders are truly at the forefront of green building and energy efficiency. In particular, I want to highlight Best Buy, CBRE, Citi, Intercontinental Hotels, Kohl’s and PNC as participants in the LEED Volume Program that are building and improving tremendous numbers of buildings every day.

While $2 billion dollars is nothing to sneeze at, remember it’s only the tip of the iceberg. The efficiency opportunity is $130 billion dollars a year and 1 million new jobs if we keep working. The green building industry will be the workhorse that pulls us along the path of economic recovery.

The green building industry is not going to let up in our push to realize this potential. That’s why we have joined with the Real Estate Roundtable and the Natural Resources Defense Council to launch the “Coalition for Better Buildings” (C4BB), where all interested organizations can come to coordinate, share information and take action on commercial building energy efficiency. There is a groundswell of support from the private sector to move forward on energy efficiency policy, and we hope you will join us today.

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Accepting the Better Buildings Challenge:

USGBC Member Companies
3M
Alcoa
CB Richard Ellis
Cleveland Clinic Foundation
Cummins Inc.
Forest City Enterprises
GE
IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group)
Jones Lang LaSalle
Kohl's Department Stores
Legrand
The PNC Financial Services Group
Prologis
RREEF Real Estate
Schneider Electric
Serious Energy, Inc.
Shorenstein Properties LLC
TIAA-CREF
Southern California Edison
Wyndham Worldwide
Best Buy
Citi
Green Sports Alliance
Lend Lease
Transwestern
USAA Real Estate

Member Cities and States
Los Angeles, CA
State of Minnesota
Sacramento, CA
Houston Independent School District, TX
Seattle, WA
Denver, CO
The District of Columbia

Member Universities
Allegheny College
University of California, Irvine
University of Utah
Michigan State University

LEED and Forest Protection: Thank You for Your Important Input

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

This week, ForestEthics and others reached out to USGBC to express their views on an important issue: How LEED plays a role in forest protection. I want to thank these organizations and individuals for expressing their passionate views. Since the beginning, USGBC and the process that it set up for the ongoing development of the LEED rating system has encouraged public comment and open dialogue. There are thousands of issues that need to be addressed if we are to achieve our mission of wide-scale market transformation to a built environment that saves energy, saves water, saves precious resources, reduces waste, improves indoor environmental quality and creates jobs. BUT WE NEED YOUR VOICE AND YOUR VOTE.

If your company is not already a member of USGBC , we urge you to become one so that not only your voice can be heard, but your vote can count when we take the rating system to the membership for ballot. We anticipate that LEED 2012 will come up for vote in 2012, so becoming a member now will allow you to be part of the process. As an individual, we encourage you to become an active participant in your local chapter so we can be sure our mission is front and center in every community in America.

Because this is an issue of high interest, we invite you to follow me on Twitter at @rickfedrizzi, and also follow @USGBC for up to date info on this and other key news about USGBC.

Thanks for taking the time to voice your opinion.