CleanEdison

by Robert Gluck

In Michigan, proposed legislation, expected to reach the state senate by spring, would offer tax breaks for new construction and building rehabilitations that achieve certification for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).

If this happens in Michigan it can happen in other states, and if it does, the legislation opens doors for LEED-certified professionals.

The legislation will prompt developers to spend more money upfront to make their next projects LEED-certified.

Why?

Because the bill would give a tax abatement of up to 50 percent on LEED-certified construction and allow upfront costs for certain green items such as wind turbines, geothermal energy systems and underground parking to be paid with future tax revenue.

Bottom line: this legislation, if passed, will help green projects go forward that otherwise wouldn’t be green at all!

Many in the green industries want it to be the norm because it would kick-start action, growth, profits, and job creation.

Michigan is a leader in this sort of thing and one of its cities, Grand Rapids, already has a growing reputation for green buildings.

According to the American Institute of Architects, Grand Rapids has the greatest number of buildings LEED-certified per capita than any other U.S. city.

What does this mean for you???

Work, jobs, if you have the right training and the right ‘green’ credentials.

You can take the first step toward getting that training by signing up to become a LEED accredited professional.

For more information and to sign up for CleanEdison’s one day LEED Green Associate course go here : http://www.cleanedison.com/?a_aid=rpg4444

Passing the LEED Green Associate exam is your first step to becoming a LEED Accredited Professional – that opens up a lot of ‘green’ doors in your eco-smart career choices.

CleanEdison’s instructors will prep you so well that you will have excellent strategies for taking and passing the exam with flying colors.

So what are you waiting for?

Become a LEED-er today!

by Robert Gluck

In September U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced a new, whopping $450 million program designed to catalyze a nationwide energy upgrade.

Experts estimate the program could save $100 million annually in utility bills for households and businesses. 

Dubbed The Recovery Act’s “Retrofit Ramp-Up”, the program pioneers innovative models for rolling out energy efficiency to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in a variety of communities.

Much like past roll-outs for cable TV or the Internet, the Department Of Energy (DOE) intends to create models that, when undertaken nationally,  save consumers billions of dollars on their utility bills and make the huge savings of energy efficiency available to everyone.

According to Chu, energy efficiency isn’t just low-hanging fruit; it’s fruit lying on the ground.

“We have the tools to reduce energy use at home and at work and to provide huge savings to families and businesses on their energy bills.

But use of these technologies has been far too limited because we lack the simple and effective ways for people to access them,” said Chu.

Chu said the ‘Retrofit Ramp-Up’ program supports large-scale models that can open new energy efficiency opportunities to whole neighborhoods, towns, and, eventually, entire states.

The Recovery Act, the Secretary added, allows innovative communities to demonstrate a variety of sustainable business models that can be replicated across the country.

The Request For Information (RFI) issued in September is for competitively selected local energy efficiency projects.

This competitive portion of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) Program targets community-scale retrofit projects that make significant, long-term impacts on energy use and can serve as national role models for grassroot energy efficiency efforts. 

According to the DOE, the agency is accepting feedback on both the competitively-selected portion of the EECBG program for up to $390 million for neighborhood-scale building retrofits, as well as up to $64 million for local governments that were not eligible to receive the formula grants announced earlier this year.

The EECBG program empowers local communities to make strategic investments to meet the nation’s long-term goals for energy independence and leadership on climate change.

In other words, more green jobs and better green jobs training.

This first topic area under the funding solicitation will target a select number of innovative programs that are structured to provide whole-neighborhood building energy retrofits.

These will be projects that demonstrate a sustainable business model for providing cost-effective energy upgrades for a large percentage of the residential, commercial, and public buildings in a specific community.

Possible approaches could include innovative partnerships between the public and private sector, utility retrofit and audit programs, alternative financing, retail partnerships, and others.

More green efforts could include LEED AP certification for homes and buildings and energy audits by certified professionals to obtain maximum benefits from the project.

The DOE will award up to $390 million for these projects

The second topic area for up to $64 million is reserved for cities, counties and state-recognized Indian tribes that were not eligible to receive population-based formula grant allocations from DOE under the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program.

These funds are intended to help expand local energy efficiency efforts and reduce energy use in the commercial, residential, transportation, manufacturing, or industrial sectors.

Chu said the aim of the ‘Retrofit Ramp-Up’ program is to jump-start an industry that makes energy efficiency savings easy to access and available to everyone.

“By encouraging partnerships between local governments and effective private enterprises, we hope tune-ups for buildings will become as accepted as tune-ups for cars.

These efforts will save Americans millions of dollars, reduce carbon pollution, and create new green jobs,” Chu concluded.

Well, we could do with as many green jobs as can be possibly created for the well-being of our planet and for greener future generations.

by Robert Gluck

He’s a ‘one man battle force’ who aggressively tackles and wins every anti-nature war that stops him and others from preservation of natural resources and ecological conservation.

Who, you ask?

Councilman Charles Djou, of Honolulu – Hawaii, works hard on his environmental agendas and he’s getting things done for green buildings and their owners.

In September 2009, the Honolulu City Council unanimously passed Bill 58, sponsored by Djou.

This bill creates a real property tax exemption for alternative energy improvements which translates to all renewable energy improvements such as wind farms and solar power plants.

Effective October 1, 2009, the alternative energy installed on a building, property, or land is exempt from property taxes for 25 years.

Djou wants people to know that going green (like getting a LEED certification for your home, making buildings green – the LEED AP way) won’t burn huge holes in your pocket; on the contrary, it will save your hard-earned greenbacks.

The supporters of this energy-saving bill include energy companies and property developers, such as Tesoro and Castle & Cooke, as well as environmental organizations like the Sierra Club.

“This measure will make it easier for entrepreneurs to initiate renewable energy projects,” said Djou.

According to the bill, alternative energy sources include solar, wind, hydropower, tidal, wave, solid waste and increased efficiency in fossil-fuel burning facilities.

Energy sources based on fossil fuels, nuclear fuels or geothermal energy are not eligible for this exemption.

When the green bill was sent to be signed by the Mayor, Djou remarked, “Reducing Hawaii’s use of fossil fuel is an important policy objective.”

He also added, “This measure will make it easier for entrepreneurs to initiate renewable energy projects.

Bill 58 will also help preserve Oahu’s precious open space by encouraging renewable energy production on vacant land and reducing the pressure for more urban development.”

Along with the property tax exemption ‘green’ bill, council members also made progress on measures to ban shark tours off Oahu and prohibit sleeping, sitting or lying down on public sidewalks.

Djou’s bionomic-conserving ‘green’ efforts place Hawaii on a list with 24 other states that have passed similar property tax exemptions for capitalizing on renewable energy.

The ever-increasing ‘green’ list includes California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, New Hampshire, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, Vermont, Wisconsin, and West Virginia.

Protecting ‘Gaia’, battling for the environmental issues even in the face of stiff opposition and advocating for alternative energy comes natural to Djou.

For years he has been a vigorous proponent of reducing our dependence on imported oil and increasing the usage of renewable energy resources.

So focused and vigilant is the pro-green Councilman in his eco-savvy strategies that in 2007, Djou pushed the city to begin a comprehensive curbside recycling program even if it meant dropping from twice-a-week rubbish pickup to once a week!

That bill, as was expected from Djou’s consistent ‘green’ efforts, also passed.

Djou pushed for landmark laws that provided funding for Honolulu to purchase solar photovoltaic systems to generate electricity in city buildings and for city vehicles to use nitrogen in tires to reduce fuel costs.

Djou continues to advocate for better use of our natural resources.

To encourage the installation of photovoltaic cells in residential homes, Djou introduced and passed legislation that waived the building fees for residents who chose to install PV systems in their homes.

In June 2004, a $7.85 million solar bonds for clean energy and efficiency projects for city buildings, introduced by Djou, financed energy upgrades and the promotion of solar energy.

With this initiative, Honolulu became one of the first cities in the nation to dedicate bonds for clean-energy projects.

Five years ago when this happened Naomi Arcand, chairwoman of the Sierra Club, Oahu Group, praised the city council for approving the bond.

“These bonds will pay for themselves and save the city money, reduce air pollution and provide good local jobs,” she said.

Djou, who championed the bond measure, noted that the city is one of the largest energy users on Oahu.

“It makes sense because it will save money over the long term,” Djou said.

“Using renewable energy will cut costs to taxpayers because the amount we save on the bill each month will add up to more than the cost of the bond. It is good public policy to use renewable sources of energy.”

In August, 2008, Councilmember Djou introduced three measures to address energy consumption in the city.

Among the package of bills and resolutions introduced, one would limit the amount of kilo wattage the city consumes in a year, as well as require all city departments to procure appliances that are “Energy Star” compliant.

Now only if more people went green with a vengeance and took appreciative earth-friendly actions like pursuing a LEED AP CERTIFICATION for their buildings or getting their homes designed by LEED AP Building Design and Construction – because we could all do with a bit more ‘green’ in our lives.

by Robert Gluck

Okay, first off – if you haven’t thought of getting an energy audit done for your cherished home, then go for it NOW.

Aside from saving you hundreds of dollars annually on energy bills, an energy audit by a certified professionally particularly, gives you increased efficiency & productivity and increased comfort (who can live with air drafts and heat leaks?) at a lower price.

Want to save a few more bucks by not hiring a professional certified energy auditor and doing it yourself?

It’s possible, but it is by no means a substitute for an energy audit by a licensed professional who has undergone specialized courses like energy audit course, energy audit certification, energy auditor training, energy auditor certification and more.

At best a DIY energy audit will provide a preliminary guide to identifying the particular problems you need to correct in a program of up-grading your home’s energy efficiency.

Whereas a professional energy auditor will check your house thoroughly for energy leaks by devices like infrared devices and blower door tests, which can detect even the most obscure corners of your abode that may be leaking air and even go through all your electrical appliances that maybe costing Mother Nature a lot!

Plus if that wasn’t enough to convince you, this just will – a professional audit can also make you eligible for tax rebate.

A preliminary guide will help you when you do communicate with a licensed pro.

A good way to start is to visit the ENERGY STAR internet site – www.energystar.gov.

ENERGY STAR is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

Introduced in 1992 as a voluntary labeling program, it is designed to identify and promote energy efficient products to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption.

Most people who buy new electrical appliances know that an ENERGY STAR label tells you how much energy the appliance will use.

Manufacturers made dramatic reductions in energy consumption to qualify for the label and the ENERGY STAR label program has been extended to major appliances, office equipment, lighting and home electronics.

It also covers new homes, commercial, and industrial buildings.

At the ENERGY STAR site click on the following file tabs:

1. Common Home Problems and Solutions;
2. Home Energy Yardstick;
3. Home Advisor;
4. & Assess Your Home.

These will provide you with some information about your home that an energy auditor would give you. (Remember: only some information.)

Another excellent online resource can be found at www.energysavers.gov.

Here you can find guidance on such topics as:

• Tax Credits and Rebates;
• Designing and Remodeling;
• Heating and Cooling;
• Water Heating;
• Appliances and Electronics;
• Insulation and Air Sealing;
• Windows, Doors and Skylights.

If ever there was a particularly bankable time to invest in energy upgrades, it’s now!

Why?

Because Congress has approved specific federal tax credits for most of the energy upgrades that you are likely to install and there also are state tax credits and grants available for selected energy up-grades.

Plus recession clouds haven’t bid their goodbyes yet which translates to the fact that many contractors are hungry for new work.

This advantageous circumstance can get you productive results – you can easily score more competitive bids than you would likely achieve if you postponed the work until the recession is over.

Another significant reason is this – some rate caps on electricity will end.

For example, in the year 2010, energy firm PECO has advised its customers that the “rate caps” they are under, will expire and the cost of electricity will increase by 20-40 percent.

The result of that increase will mean a speedier payback on the cost of any improvement that reduces your consumption of electricity or a significant additional expense if you don’t.

Recent legislation at federal, state, and local levels created an unprecedented number of publicly funded financial incentives to assist homeowners who want to invest in energy savings.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, aka the Stimulus Act, provides funds that support weatherization for households earning less than $44,000 for a family of four.

Some cities, like Philadelphia, have proposed the creation of financial and other incentive programs to assist homeowners that don’t meet the act’s income requisites.

Bottom line here: don’t overlook the fact that the investment you make pays off in two ways:

1. lowering your monthly utility bills,
2. & increasing the market value of your home.

If you plan to remain in your home for two years or more, this may be the smartest ‘green’ investment you can make.

You will be investing at the bottom of the market and are really likely to enjoy the increased value of your investment when the housing market recovers from the gloomy economical clouds hovering over us.

Till then, be green and invest smart.

by Robert Gluck

Once again PNC is making news in the green building (LEED certified) sector.

Ever hear of the “Green Monster” at Boston’s Fenway Park?

That big green wall in the outfield?

Well, PNC decided to get their own living, breathing green monster; only a lot more bigger and greener!

Consequently PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. constructed its own green wall and claims it to be the “largest green wall in North America.”

According to an article titled “Green Walls Taking Root in Green Building Design” written by Dan Nephin of the Associated Press and published in the ‘Buffalo News’, the next big thing in green building design might be to turn an existing idea on its side.

Nephin reported that PNC Financial Services Group Inc. recently installed a gargantuan, soil-based green wall, the size of two tennis courts on one side of its headquarters.

“Like green roofs – their perpendicular counterparts – green walls are covered in vegetation and provide the benefits of natural insulation and removal of air pollutants,” Nephin wrote.

“PNC, which provides banking and wealth management services, estimates it will be 25 percent cooler behind the wall than the ambient summer temperatures.”

Green walls also can be visually engaging.

The PNC wall features more than 15,000 ferns, sedums, brass buttons and other plants that create a swirling pattern of varying hues of green above the company’s logo.

They are divided among hundreds of 2-by-2-foot aluminum panels that were anchored onto the building’s frame after part of the granite facade was removed.

According to Gary Saulson, head of corporate real estate for PNC, this wall is the right thing to do.

We all heartily agree and kudos to PNC for major environment-conserving efforts like being at the very top when it comes to the maximum number of newly constructed LEED-certified green buildings than any other company in the world.

What’s more – about 20 more ecologically-efficient branches and two other major buildings are under construction or in queue for a LEED certification.

“We think it’s the right thing to do for our community, for our customers and our shareholders,” Saulson told Nephin. “We wanted to add greenery to an area that didn’t have any. We really view the green wall as public art.”

Green Living™ Technologies (GLT), of Rochester, N.Y., designed the wall at PNC which is mounted with a stainless steel bracketing and panel.

Chief Executive George Irwin told Nephin that the company also has installed walls in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle.

PNC bills its green wall as the largest in North America. The wall covers nearly 2,400 square feet.

Although PNC officials declined to give a precise estimate of its cost, Irwin told Nephin that on average green walls cost about $100 to $125 a square foot.

The structure at PNC requires only 15 minutes a week of watering during peak growing season – less in winter – provided through the building’s plumbing system.

PNC has a contract with the installer to prune the plants and replace dead ones if necessary.

Joanne Westphal, a landscape architecture professor at Michigan State University and part of the school’s Green Roof Research Program, told Nephin that the biggest benefit to green walls is their ability to help cool buildings through shading. “They also help capture rainwater and release it more slowly into the atmosphere and storm water systems,” she said.

According to Irwin, each of the roughly 600 panels at the PNC headquarters can offset the carbon output of one person a day.

Green Living got into the market several years ago after trying to devise a solution for a customer who wanted a green roof on a steeply pitched building. The walls can also be installed inside buildings.

Irwin said green walls aren’t exactly a new idea.  “The Romans planted grape vines along building walls, resulting in faster growing and sweeter grapes for wine. The structures are also prevalent in Europe, where modern-day green roofs first took off.”

Near ground level of the building where PNC’s wall is located, at 1 PNC Plaza in downtown Pittsburgh, a small panel holds some of the plants and a plaque tells passers-by about the wall.

“I think they want to believe its real,” PNC’s Saulson said, “and it is.”

Some interesting features of the eco-friendly ‘Green Wall’ –

• Will require only 15 minutes of watering once a week.
• Looks like a painting made up of regional plants at first glance.
• Will provide shade to sidewalks nearby, absorb sounds and cool the surface of the south wall by 70 to 80 degrees.
• At the present moment, the wall is visually appealing as it has mixed shades of green to bring out the company logo.
• There are 8 varieties of plants – some will bloom in spring which will make the wall a scenic delight for all eyes.

by Robert Gluck

What does the newest hotel in Seattle have that’s making all go gaga over it?

• Slick looks,
• streamlined design,
• tantalizing opulence.

All that and more in an eco-savvy package.

Welcome to Olive 8 – brilliant modern luxury meets ecological sensitivity.

The owners call their Olive 8 building in Seattle stunning, and for good reason.

The downtown 39-story hotel/condominium building officially received a LEED Silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a first for hotel/condominium buildings in the Seattle area.

As the first mixed-use hotel and residential project to be LEED certified in Seattle, Olive 8 was recognized as a high-performance building that is an ‘ecologically-responsible’ and efficient place to live, vacation and work.

The cornerstone Hyatt at Olive 8 hotel, located within the Olive 8 building, is one of only 20 hotels in the U.S. to be officially designated ‘green’ by the LEED Green Building Rating System.

According to David Thyer, CEO of R.C. Hedreen Company, the firm that planned and developed Olive 8, realizing the value of green building early on was instrumental in this success story.

Thyer said R.C. Hedreen did a significant redesign of the original building plans to ensure Olive 8 would meet the exacting LEED certification standards.

“A few years ago, it became obvious to us that green, sustainable and environmentally friendly design and construction is the future,” Thyer explained.

“All the research since then demonstrates that a green building is better for our bottom line, while also better for hotel guests and condo owners, both in terms of offering a healthier indoor environment and in terms of long-term investment value.

Olive 8 is proof that a building can be both green and sophisticated.”

Take a look at some of the grandiose, deluxe features mixed with natural elegance –

• a sleek 100-percent glass exterior,
• stunning blue glass architectural elements,
• and one of Seattle’s largest living ‘green’ rooftops.

The building’s green design will make a lasting positive impact on the local environment.

While you’re at the new ‘hot & environmentally-trendy’ LEED certified Hyatt Hotel, do pay a visit to ELAIA – an eco-savvy spa!

They even have green condos starting from $400k and going upto $7.5 million.

In addition to an expected energy savings of 23 percent more than a conventional building of similar size and occupancy, Thyer says Olive 8 should have water savings of about 36 percent, or approximately 2.4 million gallons each year.

Key elements that contribute to the energy-saving and eco-friendly nature of the building include:

• low-flow plumbing fixtures, which use one gallon per minute less than traditional showerheads;
• dual-flush toilets that use 29 percent less water per flush;
• a low-chemical mechanical water system that uses less potable water;
• landscaping maintenance that uses minimal city water, thanks to the use of native plant species and super-efficient irrigation systems.
• And, get this–in total, more than 95 percent of construction debris was diverted from landfill disposal by redirecting materials to be reused and recycled.

Now that’s called recycling with style!

“Our irrigation system results in a 99% savings from typical irrigation programs, an approximate savings of 24,000 gallons of water per year in addition to the 2.4 million gallons saved in the building,” Thyer noted.

Anyone can have innovative, energy and water conserving aspects to make a ‘green building’ or acquire a green home.

In fact, you can even become a green professional (like a LEED Green Associate) if you take up any of the myriad courses at CleanEdison.com.

Courses such as BPI Certification, LEED Certification, Solar Certification, Energy Auditor Training, Thermography Training, Wind Energy Certification, Weatherization Training and more are taken by the professionals who make homes, hotels and basically any building you require to be ‘green’.

by Robert Gluck

Going to catch some sun and sea at the Florida Keys this winter?

If you are, you might want to check out the ecologically-savvy newly ‘green’ Cheeca Lodge – a complete nature’s treat.

Because it’s going green; big time.

Dubbed by its owners as “the first ever concrete modular, green, luxury hotel guest suites”, the legendary Islamorada-based lodge will reopen December 15.

And when it does, according to owner Jerry Johnson, it will set a precedent for the hospitality industry as being uniquely ‘green’.

“The precedent was set for luxury construction in multi-million dollar homes, and now we’ve brought this innovative and green construction (read – LEED certified & green buildings) to the hospitality industry, as a first in the U.S. and possibly a first in the world,” Johnson said.

“We have been able to put up a green, concrete modular Guest Room wing in an unheard of 90 days, from pilings to topping off, and with a quality superior to that of conventional construction.”

In the sea-surrounded Florida Keys, the Premier Oceanfront and Island View suites will be part of Cheeca Lodge’s green, four-story Main Lodge which will set another milestone as the first four-story concrete modular building in Florida.

The 840 square foot ‘green’ suites were delivered complete to Cheeca Lodge, with fully-equipped bathrooms, from marble tile floors, granite counter tops, bath fixtures, and marble and glass rain showers, to all electrical wiring and cabling throughout the suite.

The green, fire-resistant modules are highly insulated, environmentally sustainable, and energy efficient. They are made of 30% recycled materials.

Johnson said this approach is true to Cheeca Lodge’s tradition of environmental sensitivity and preservation. The new Main Lodge in Islamorada is being built to LEED specifications set forth by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).

Sturdily built with high strength concrete roof, floors and walls, together with the addition of high impact glass windows, they can resist winds up to a category 5 hurricane and have a life span of over 100 years. They were manufactured in Okeechobee and trucked down to the Islamorada resort.

When you go with LEED AP Building Design and Construction, you manage to cut off carbon emissions and save on construction costs; and that’s exactly what they did for Cheeca Lodge. The rooms were built about 150 miles from Islamorada and brought in by truck.

The lodge’s four-story Main Lodge will also be a prefabricated green building.

After a huge fire last year, the hotel board decided to go the ‘green way’ when it came to re-building the lodge and ended up with ecologically-sensitive suites that were speedily built up.

According to Wally Sanger, president of Royal Concrete Concepts, the builders of the units, the strength of concrete modular construction allows for the use of higher end finished materials since there is no danger of damage during transport.

“Luxury finishes will be completed on site, including rich mahogany crown moldings, doors and cabinetry, textured walls, plush carpeted floors, floor to ceiling glass walls, and original art,” Sanger noted. “Twenty-four foot wide balconies will be added along with a signature open air round tub for two with dramatic overhead tub filler.”

“Besides the high quality of the product and its green and safety features, this modular construction has allowed us to fast track our entire construction process as well,” said Johnson. “Instead of the typical schedule of 36 months for construction of a Main Lodge, when you consider the time required to do the architectural plans, source the materials, and do the construction, we’re able to streamline this green, concrete modular construction to six months.”

All of the green modules have been put in place, on schedule for the Cheeca Lodge reopening on December 15; a nature-based resort with the main focus on renewable energy.

In addition to the new ‘green’ Premier Suites, Cheeca’s transformation will include –

• an expansive indoor-outdoor lobby lounge,
• a meeting room with ocean-view floor-to-ceiling windows,
• two new restaurants,
• a club floor with a sun deck and water wall overlooking the famous Cheeca pier
• and Atlantic Ocean, and 2400 square feet of retail space which includes a Cheeca signature store featuring Tommy Bahama products.

Set on a 27 acre private estate, the Cheeca Lodge in Islamorada is in the sport fishing capital of the world.

For more information go here:  www.cheeca.com

by Robert Gluck

Penn State gave us the distinctive, brilliant football legend – Joe Paterno and now they’ve given us a ‘green’ gem - C. Timothy Baird.

An associate professor of landscape architecture, Baird was honored for his ‘green’ work with Landworks Studio Inc., a Boston-based firm for which he serves as consultant and adjunct principal.

Landworks Studio’s landscape design for the Macallen Building in South Boston received an Honor Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) in recognition of being Boston’s first green residential structure.

The Macallen Building was featured in the film “The Greening of Southie”, a documentary directed by Ian Cheney and produced by Bullfrog Films.

The project also received a 2009 Award of Excellence from Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, and received Merit Awards from the Boston Society of Landscape Architects.

Awarded a gold rating by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building ratings system, the project continues to rack up honors and awards for the Macallen project.

Landworks isn’t done yet with its majorly ‘green’ & LEED certified enterprises.

One of the firm’s other projects, the ‘Blackstone Steam Plant’ renovation in Cambridge, Massachusetts, recently received a LEED platinum rating.

Baird and members of the firm developed and led a design charrette–an intense period of collaborative design activities in which a group of designers drafts a solution to a design problem.

The charrette, called “Making the Matrix: an Exercise in Material Space-Making,” was for the 2009 International Landscape Architecture Student Conference held at Penn State.

More than 30 students participated in the daylong ecological endeavor to design and build an interior spatial exploration installation.

On the faculty at Penn State since 2000, Baird teaches design, implementation, and the history of landscape architecture beyond Modernism. His research focuses on environmental art as land reclamation, sustainable designed landscape form, and the memorial landscape.

While with Landworks Studio he has played a pivotal role in developing the firm’s evolving body of earth-friendly work that reflects a commitment to proto-urban, strategic renewal efforts with aggressive ecological agendas.

According to Joel Bittle of GreenBuildingElements.com, the film “The Greening of Southie” is worth watching.

“I cannot recommend this film enough to anyone who is or wants to be part of green building,” Bittle said.

At the film’s website, www.bullfrogfilms.com you’ll find this description: “In the traditionally Irish-American working-class neighborhood of South Boston, MA, a new kind of building has taken shape.

From wheatboard cabinetry to recycled steel, bamboo flooring to dual-flush toilets, the Macallen building is something different: a leader in the emerging field of environmentally friendly design. But Boston’s steel-toed union workers aren’t sure they like it.

And when things on the building start to go wrong, the young developer has to keep the project from unraveling.

Building Boston’s first LEED Gold certified building turns out to be harder than anyone thought. Yet among the I-beams and brickwork emerges a small cadre of unlikely environmentalists who come to connect their work with the future of their children.”

by Robert Gluck

Brad Pitt is making headlines once more, but not the titillating, crunchy Hollywood kind; but environment-friendly ‘green’ news for a change.

The “Legends of The Fall” actor’s work in New Orleans was honored by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) at the Clinton Global Climate Initiative for providing high-performance, yet affordable, LEED certified green homes to the Katrina-devastated families.

USGBC President Rick Fedrizzi declared that the neighborhood being built by Make It Right New Orleans, the post-Katrina housing initiative launched by Pitt, is the “largest and greenest community of single-family homes in the world”.

Fedrizzi made that statement at the annual Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) meeting in New York.

Make It Right, which was announced as a “commitment” at the 2007 CGI meeting, has already LEED Platinum certified 13 homes and is building 150 sustainable, storm-resistant LEED Platinum homes in a Lower 9th Ward neighborhood of New Orleans wiped out by Katrina. The neighborhood was nearest to the disastrous breech of the Industrial Canal levee.

No other community comprises as many LEED Platinum certified homes.

Fedrizzi presented a LEED plaque to honor the humanitarian efforts of the famous actor known more for racy headlines of his personal life and other Hollywood buzz.

LEED Platinum is the highest possible green building certification.

Former President Bill Clinton honored the illustrious, humanitarian actor with an eloquent speech.

“In transforming the Lower 9th Ward, Make It Right is showing us how we can transform those parts of our nation that have fallen behind the most, whether through neglect, poverty or disaster,” Clinton said.

“Make It Right offers a blueprint for how to build homes that instill pride and combine to form communities of hope and opportunity. By following the Make It Right model, we can generate the ‘green collar jobs’ our economy needs to move forward and advance building practices that reduce carbon emissions, while at the same time growing neighborhoods where families can thrive.”

According to Fedrizzi, Make It Right reminds us that our work is not about buildings, but rather about the people within them.

“In facing our nation’s unprecedented economic and environmental crises, we must change the way the places in which we live, work, learn and play are built and operated. What we’re seeing with green building goes beyond energy-efficiency to a transformation of entire communities, and the lives of the people who live there.

Make It Right has proved that green building can be both affordable and high-performing.”

The actor twice voted as the “Sexiest Man Alive” by People magazine, also voiced out his humane concerns.

“While Katrina gave us the opportunity to think creatively about how to make green homes affordable for the low-income families who need them the most, it shouldn’t take a hurricane to make that happen in other cities,” the actor said. “Our plan is to take what we have learned in New Orleans and help other communities build healthy, safe and affordable green homes.

Our hope is to make these homes the norm, not the exception.”

The USGBC’s LEED green building certification system is the leading program in the U.S. for the design, construction and operation of green buildings known for high-performance homes.

Green homes give you superb benefits –

• produce less waste
• much more durable
• comfortable
• use much less water and other precious, natural, depleting resources
• overall energy-conserving and eco-friendly

Brad Pitt’s enterprise has proven that LEED AP CERTIFICATION homes are also affordable while remaining ecologically correct and high-performing at the same time.

The LEED certified ‘Make It Right’ homes have amazing ‘green’ features like include solar power, geothermal heating and cooling systems, tank less water heaters, ENERGY STAR appliances, superior insulation, and efficient lighting.

by Robert Gluck

Forget calling buildings green.

Call them “bright green” instead.

That’s supposed to be the correct way of saying the color that focuses on environment sustainability – bright green.

In an article titled “There Are Green Buildings, Then There Are ‘Bright Green’ Buildings”, written by Marie Morelli in the Syracuse, New York-based The Post-Standard, IBM executive Jane Snowdon is quoted as having a new idea that’s gaining ground.

“A bright green building is at the convergence of green buildings with intelligence,” Snowdon, a key executive in IBM’s Intelligent Building and Smarter City Research department at the T.J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, told Morelli.

Snowdon also told an audience of business people at the Healthy Buildings 2009 conference’s Opportunity Exchange why buildings need to be smarter (read: greener, earth-friendly, focusing on renewable energy and conservation).

Buildings consume 70 percent of the world’s electricity, 12 percent of its potable water and 40 percent of the raw materials used globally.

They create 136 million tons of waste per year worldwide.

“We now have the ability to measure, sense and monitor the condition of almost everything,” Snowdon explained. “The world will have 2 billion people on the Internet by 2011, 4 billion cell phone subscribers and 1 trillion connected devices — what IBM calls ‘an internet of things.’ Applying intelligence to green buildings is what can make them more than green — bright green.”

Hence going for a LEED AP certification maybe the more intelligent and greener choice to attain an ecologically-safe home/building.

According to Snowdon, IBM is working on making a lot of things smarter:

• cities,
• data centers,
• transportation systems,
• water systems
• and utility networks.

The Ninth International Healthy Buildings Conference and Exhibition took place in Syracuse from September 13-17.

This international meeting hosted by the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems brought together researchers, business professionals, and academics from across the globe to discuss built environments and how to make them healthier, more productive, and more sustainable places to live, work, and learn.

Courses as varied as BPI Certification, LEED Certification, Solar Certification, Energy Auditor Training, Thermography Training, Wind Energy Certification, LEED Green Associate and more are taken by the professionals converging at the Healthy Buildings Conference to make them qualified certifiable individuals helping people in turning the planet ‘green’.