Global Green Rating Systems: 5 Programs that aren’t LEED

By Vicki Zambito

LEED, LEED, LEED. In the United States you can’t discuss green building rating systems without focusing on the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating program. But it’s not the only party on the block—nor was it the first.

The first environmental certification program—the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM)—was created in 1990 in the UK. Since then, a variety of assessment programs have been developed around the world. Different rating systems apply differently in different climates and geographical conditions. Here’s a look at five other programs taking hold around the globe.

1. The First. The Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) in the UK touts itself as the world’s foremost environmental assessment method and rating system for buildings, with 200,000 buildings certified: http://www.breeam.org/index.jsp


2. Doing Good Down Under. The Green Building Council of Australia’s Green Star program has registered or certified more than 12 million meters of space in Australia and transformed the country’s property and construction market: http://www.gbca.org.au/


3. Hong Kong Goes Green. The Building Environmental Assessment Method (BEAM) used in the world’s most vertical city provides standards for building assessment, performance improvement, certification and labeling: http://www.beamsociety.org.hk/general/home.php


4. LEED’s Biggest U.S. Competitor? Green Globes® is a revolutionary green building guidance and assessment program that offers an effective, practical and affordable way to advance the overall environmental performance and sustainability of commercial buildings: http://www.thegbi.org/green-globes/default.asp


5. LEED India. Okay, this is still LEED, but it’s specific to India. LEED-INDIA launched in 2007 and provides building owners, architects, consultants, developers, facility managers and project managers the tools they need to design, construct and operate green buildings: http://www.igbc.in/site/igbc/tests.jsp?event=22869

Happy Birthday LEED v3!

by Jeff Nippes

Depending on who you talk to, LEED v3 is either just about to turn two or just turned two. LEED v3 was actually released in April 2009 but the new version of the test did not start until June of 2009. In either case, LEED v3 has reached the two-year mark.

Why is that significant? Because everyone credentialed under LEED v3 has credential maintenance coming due. If you are a LEED Green Associate or LEED AP with Specialty, you have 15 or 30 hours of credential maintenance coming up, respectively. If you are a Legacy LEED AP and you opted to upgrade to a LEED AP with Specialty, you would have 30 hours of prescriptive credential maintenance coming due.

Don’t get caught scrambling at the last second trying to figure out how to get your credential maintenance hours, what activities count, or how to report your hours.

Here are some tips:

1. Consult the Credential Maintenance Guides that are available on www.gbci.org. These guides are the law when it comes to figuring out what activities count and what limitations there are for various activities. Bonus Tip: Taking approved professional development courses have no limitations.

2. Check to make sure that the courses you take are approved. All approved courses will show on www.usgbc.org under education  Find Courses tab. Select advanced options and you can search by providers.

3. Don’t let your credential maintenance deadline sneak up on you! Go to the GBCI site under ‘My Credentials’ and your due date will show. The last thing you want to do is try to cram in 15 or 30 hours at last minute.

4. Consult the professionals. If you are still uncertain about how many courses you need or you just simply don’t have the time to figure it out, call someone who knows. At RedVector, we have educational advisors standing by every day to help you navigate your requirements. We have more than 50 USGBC-approved courses including plenty of LEED-specific options. We also have 30-hour Prescriptive Credential Maintenance packages that will have everything you need to upgrade to a LEED AP with Specialty without retesting.

Happy Birthday LEED v3 and good luck with your credential maintenance!

Blue is the New Green: 3 Water Conservation Sites You Wanna Check Out!

by Vicki Zambito

According to the EPA at least 36 states will face water shortages by 2013, which means the need to conserve water is becoming more and more critical. Everyone in the design and construction industry—as well as consumers—should take steps to reduce water consumption and increase sustainability. Below are three websites devoted to helping you learn how to save water.

WaterUseItWisely.com has a list of 100 ways to conserve water. And it deserves to be said that each way begins with you! The site also has a cool widget you can add to your own website. The Conservation Tip Widget displays a new tip each day of the month, so your site visitors can keep up with ways to save water.

http://www.wateruseitwisely.com

Kohler’s Save Water America website is presented through a partnership with Habitat for Humanity. The site includes a list of water-saving resources, a 90-second quiz to see how water smart you are, and an interactive map of the U.S. It also keeps a running count of all Kohler’s water-saving product donations to Habitat for Humanity.

http://www.savewateramerica.com

H2OConserve.org is an online source of tools and information that enables you to make water conservation part of your everyday life. It includes a water footprint calculator that calculates the amount of water you use in and around your home throughout the day, including the water you use directly and indirectly.

http://www.h2oconserve.org

Wanted: Clean Energy

by Jeff Nippes

Earth Day is just around the corner. How are you planning to celebrate? Earth Day is held annually on April 22, and this year’s theme is “A Billon Acts of Green”. That is a great theme, and a billions acts of green would certainly be a tremendous accomplishment. However, until we get serious about clean and renewable energy, it will remain little more than a novelty on a global scale.

Call it coincidence or irony or just bad luck, but Earth Day again coincides with an environmental disaster. Last year as we were celebrating the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, we were also creating the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. The Deepwater Horizon oil rig had just exploded, and though we didn’t know it yet the gulf was about to absorb the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry.

It seems as our technology increases, the danger we present to our planet increases as well. This year we have an ongoing crisis in Japan in the form of a potential nuclear meltdown. This disaster is a little different, since it was created as a side effect from a massive earthquake and not just carelessness or faulty equipment. Still, the common theme is energy. We need clean energy, we need safe energy. Drilling 10,000 feet below the surface and nuclear fission are both dangerous businesses. Oil is a fossil fuel and nuclear energy produces toxic byproducts and harmful nuclear waste that takes centuries to degrade. Our nuclear byproducts literally are a ticking time bomb.

Here on Earth we have the technology, but we need vast improvements in safe, clean renewable energy. We need solar, wind, biofuels, and tidal power. Humans have made some headway, but our renewable energy programs are still just a drop in the bucket compared to how much we spend on developing and researching traditional, non-renewable energy sources such as oil and coal. In the immortal words of Chief Brody, we’re “gonna need a bigger boat”.

The 4 Coolest Things Happening Right Now in Green

By Vicki Zambito

1. Facebook is taking green to the social level. The social networking giant’s executives are working with designers, city planners, and local residents of Menlo Park, California to come up with ideas on how to connect their new campus to the community while reducing fossil fuel emissions and benefiting employees and local residents. Read more about the outcomes of their recent design charrette: http://greensource.construction.com/news/2011/03/110323-facebook-campus.asp

2. The “G” in Google stands for green. The Internet Search Company just installed its first wireless electric car charger at its Mountain View, California headquarters. The Plugless Power charging station is based on technology similar to that of the electric toothbrush. The system streamlines the charging of electric vehicles and extended-range hybrids by eliminating the nuisance of the cord and the plug. Check out the product at: http://www.pluglesspower.com/

3. Need to save the world from energy waste? Technology to the rescue! Retroficiency, a startup software company out of Boston, has developed a software as a service (SaaS) application that can analyze the efficiency of commercial office buildings and determine the most cost-effective repairs and retrofits. As the company’s website boasts, “It’s time consuming and expensive to analyze energy savings opportunities and there are thousands of possibilities to consider. Retroficiency helps you accurately identify more, actionable opportunities in less time.” You can’t argue with that. Check it out at: http://www.retroficiency.com/

4. Household name Procter & Gamble just made an impressive commitment to earth. One of the world’s largest manufacturers of personal products has committed to pursuing LEED certification for all new facilities worldwide. According to P&G, its commitment to pursuing LEED will include all new office buildings, research facilities, and manufacturing and distribution centers. To learn more about P&G’s promise, visit: http://www.buildinggreen.com/auth/article.cfm/2011/3/3/Procter-Gamble-Breaks-New-Ground-with-LEED-Commitment/

ACT TODAY - Voice Your Opposition to HB 5005

ATTENTION LAND SURVEYORS, LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS AND INTERIOR DESIGNERS: Your voice is needed right now. The Florida Legislature is considering a bill that would dismantle regulation for land surveyors, landscape architects, interior designers and nearly 30 other professions in the state.

Time is critical. Your representatives need to hear from you.

This bill will be heard in the House Economic Affairs Committee beginning at 8:00am tomorrow, Thursday March 24th. It already cleared its first house committee stop last week. Click here to read a summary of the bill.

How Can You Help?
There are a variety of ways you can join in the battle against HB 5005:

1. Attend the House Economics Affairs Committee meeting on Thursday the 24th at 8:00 am in Tallahassee. The Committee will be meeting in Reed Hall (Plaza Level) of the House Building at the Capitol (400 South Monroe).

2. Contact your legislators TODAY and let them know you oppose the bill.
a. Find Your House Representative Here.
b. Find Your State Senator Here.

3. Contact the Economic Affairs & Appropriations Committee Members TODAY and let them know you oppose the bill. Their emails are listed below.

4. Use the legislative talking points provided by the Florida Surveying and Mapping Society, the Florida Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects, and the American Society of Interior Designers to argue against the bill. You can read those by visiting the following web pages:

http://www.fsms.org/legislation.cfm
http://www.flasla.org/
http://www.asid.org/legislation/resources/talkingpts/default.htm

5. Spread the word to your colleagues, friends and family. The more voices the better to help save your profession!

The Team here at RedVector will also be doing what we can to add our voices to the opposition on this bill.

Good luck!
The RedVector Team

Economic Affairs & Appropriations Committee Members Email List:
dorothy.hukill@myfloridahouse.gov; doug.holder@myfloridahouse.gov; frank.artiles@myfloridahouse.gov; esteban.bovo@myfloridahouse.gov; jim.boyd@myfloridahouse.gov; chris.dorworth@myfloridahouse.gov; brad.drake@myfloridahouse.gov; peter.nehr@myfloridahouse.gov; bryan.nelson@myfloridahouse.gov; jeanette.nunez@myfloridahouse.gov; ken.roberson@myfloridahouse.gov; ritch.workman@myfloridahouse.gov; geraldine.thompson@myfloridahouse.gov; joseph.abruzzo@myfloridahouse.gov; evan.jenne@myfloridahouse.gov; steve.perman@myfloridahouse.gov; irving.slosberg@myfloridahouse.gov; jim.waldman@myfloridahouse.gov; denise.grimsley@myfloridahouse.gov; bill.proctor@myfloridahouse.gov; steve.precourt@myfloridahouse.gov; robert.schenck@myfloridahouse.gov; william.snyder@myfloridahouse.gov; will.weatherford@myfloridahouse.gov; gary.aubuchon@myfloridahouse.gov; john.legg@myfloridahouse.gov; seth.mckeel@myfloridahouse.gov

Reducing Your Ecological Footprint

by Rumanda Young

This semester I asked my class to complete an ecological footprint assessment. An ecological footprint gives a person a measure of his or her lifestyle demand on Earth's ecosystems. The assessment outcome is an estimate of how many Earths it would take to support humanity if everybody lived a given lifestyle. Out of the entire class, I had the highest numbers of Earths.

The outcome of the assignment concerns me, as I teach courses on sustainability and feel that I do things daily (garden, recycle, compost, eat little meat) to help lower my footprint. Upon reflection, I realized travel was the culprit in my oversized ecological footprint. I admit I don’t drive the smallest, most fuel-efficient car, but I am convinced it is the travel associated with my jobs that takes up more than my fair share of Earth’s resources. My weekly commute to the university logs more than 240 miles. Also, I travel every other week for the government either by car or plane.

I dread traveling half a day and fighting airport crowds to attend a one-hour meeting that I could have attended easily via teleconference. I think it is a waste of time that could be spent with my children, but now I am realizing it is also an incredible waste of resources (both monetary and environmental). I know the time has come to adopt more sustainable ways to travel. As an important first step, I will learn how to say “no” to travel that does not necessitate face-to-face interaction. After a bit of Googling, I’ve also found a few tips (source: www.factoidz.com) on how to become a more conscious traveler:

Stay in locally-owned accommodations as opposed to hotel chains. Local owners benefit greatly from tourist support, and as a traveler you are able to eat local food and given an opportunity to take in local culture in a more intimate environment.

Visit national parks or conservation areas as part of your travel. The money you pay for such attractions is put back into protecting wildlife, habitat, and the environment.
Nature deserves our respect, so when you are done enjoying its splendor, it should be left as you found it. Leaving little evidence you were there ensures it will be enjoyed by other travelers for years to come.

Be mindful of your consumption of water, energy and the amount of waste you create. Practice the same recycling habits you would at home by using travel mugs and other reusable products.

When you shop local markets, remember this is one of the ways (and possibly the only way) local people support themselves. They work hard at their craft, and this small-scale fair trade exchange has a greater impact on their lives than on yours.

When it comes to transportation, flying imposes the biggest burden on the environment because of the fuel consumed and the emissions created. However, there is a way to offset your carbon footprint as a result of flying. By buying carbon credits that are used toward environmental efforts, you reduce your travel impact on the planet. This is a new and innovative way to promote responsible travel and is more and more widely promoted.

Finally, volunteer travel is one of the most sustainable travel practices that make a difference. There are always environmental efforts going on in various parts of the world that would welcome your time and energy, and these opportunities are a great way to learn about the culture, people and areas in most need of help.