LEED® for Homes: Call for expressions of interest in CaGBC’s Case Study Program

The Canada Green Building Council’s LEED® Canada Complete has just received a huge response to their call for expressions of interest in their upcoming commercial office buildings national pilot project.

The CaGBC is now taking expressions of interest (before September 13, 2007) from Canadian teams that are part of (or interested in participating in) the USGBC’s Pilot project of LEED® for Homes, for inclusion in the CaGBC’s Case Study Program. These participants will have a variety of benefits, including contributing to the development of the LEED® Canada for Homes rating system.

Canadian teams that already are involved or interested in participating in the USGBC LEED® for Homes pilot are invited to apply to the CaGBC Case Study Program before Thursday, September 13th, 2007.

LEED® Canada Complete is being developed by the CaGBC for launch in 2008 at the CaGBC’s first national summit, June 11-12, 2008 in Toronto, and full program launch in 2009. It is an expansion to provide low-cost, performance-based LEED certification at all stages of a building’s life cycle via a distributed, on-line, market-based delivery.

The CaGBC has ambitious goals, and LEED® Canada Complete is the tool to achieve them.

More on LEED® Canada Complete in the next issue of www.iGreenBuild.com’s e-newsletter.

Florida Green Communities Sets Eco Friendly Example

I just read about The Florida Community Loan Fund, the Florida Green Building Coalition and Enterprise and their effort to invest more than $2.5 million in green building in Florida. This funding will be used to build or remodel 200 homes in the state. Organizations with programs of this sort are starting to surface in other parts of the U.S. and are wonderful tools for increasing earth friendly awareness in business and community.

Learn more about Florida Green Communities here.

improving climate change reporting

A new study, entitled improving climate change reporting is destined to advance both the recognition and the implementation of green buildings’ utility in reducing energy consumption and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.

The report is published by ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) and the investment index organization FTSE. ACCA has global membership comprising 115,000 members plus 296,000 students, throughout 170 countries.

Some data from the study:
· of the 990,000 business entities in operation within the UK, 2,000 are energy intensive, and represent 45% of total UK emissions from business.
· of the balance of (non-energy-intensive) UK companies, over 60% of emissions arise from ‘buildings-related energy consumption.’ this is also the scenario for SMEs and public sector organizations.

As the title indicates, the report contains recommendations that companies are expected to demonstrate their actions to mitigate and adapt to climate change, and improve their climate change reporting. Implications are for energy efficiency, renewables and supply chain management including carbon labeling of products.

While the tone of the report’s recommendations appears to be voluntary, the urgency of the issues – and the opportunity costs of inaction - make these suggestions more of a warning or directive.