Climate Change: barn door has begun to close

Australian Scientist Tim Flannery, author of The Weathermakers: How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth, has told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that GHG emissions were at the ‘dangerous’ 455 parts per million level by the middle of 2005.

Though not an IPCC member, Flannery’s statement is based on his analysis of the three working group reports released earlier in 2007. He anticipates the upcoming November IPCC report will state that global greenhouse gas levels already are at the levels potentially contributing to dangerous climate change, which had been predicted for 10 years from now based on worst-case scenarios.

This disclosure will increase pressure to use green buildings to mitigate – and adapt to climate change.

Sustainability Leaps Forward

What do a Toyota Prius and a Platinum LEED green building have in common? Both are elegant solutions to a wide range of problem statements, and both come with some cost premium. If "elegance" can be defined as the value created for the energy expended, both the Prius and the Platinum building are elegant. Thinking of LEED as a "Quality Assurance" process makes the analogy clearer; green buildings are to typical buildings as a Prius is to a Chevy Malibu. They both represent a quantum leap in quality and performance from "yesterday's standard" to something that will be a viable product well into the future.

Read the full article by Sustainability expert Jerry Yudelson here.

German's Are Great Green Builders Says Jerry Yudelson

I just returned from a trip to Germany and there's a lot happening there in green building that we know little about, including "great" buildings, green technology and advanced thinking about energy efficient and zero net energy buildings. Read more about what caught my attention in this very interesting article.

Green Building Programs From Global Green

Local government officials and citizens interested in eco friendly construction and development take a look at this:

Developing Green Building Programs: A Step-By-Step Guide for Local Governments Global Green USA’s recently completed step-by-step guidebook outlining a six-step process that local agencies can utilize to develop their own green building programs. Download

Seattle Sets The Pace For Green Building In U.S.

I just read an interesting piece in the Seattle Times about King and Snohomish counties having a goal to build 10,000 Built Green homes by 2010. According to the Times the total already stands at nearly 12,000 homes. Amazing! Take a look at www.BuiltGreen.net and learn about how this organization provides consumers with rating systems for green-home construction and remodeling in Seattle. This is a great initiative that other cities and counties around the nation are learning from.

Cheers to BuiltGreen.net and our friends in Seattle!

Popular Green Building Article

Good morning, afternoon or evening...depending on where you are right now. Here's a quick preview of another article from iGreenBuild.com that has been forwarded to lots of readers from other readers on the web site. In partnership with local Native American communities, model homes that demonstrate the "eco" in both ecology and economy are taking shape as a class project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This is what we need to see happening in more of our higher ed programs.

Pass "Building Green For Less Green" to any other green building enthusiasts.

Collective marketing materials for owners and tenants, derived from the business case for green buildings

Business cases provide a plethora of support for green buildings, and input for marketing materials. To enable market proliferation of green buildings and common messaging, it is useful for associations to have a toolkit of collective marketing materials which articulate the information based on client need and focus, and are updated as new data arise.

Nils Larsson (MRAIC, Executive Director of the International Initiative for a Sustainable Built Environment), Mark Lucuik (P. Eng., LEED AP, Morrison Hershfield) and myself (lead author, MBA, LEED AP, Sustainable Alternatives Consulting) have just completed two projects for the Canada Green Building Council, intended to help members market green buildings to owners and tenants of leased properties, to enable data updates, and provide common messages. This material is derived from The Business Case for Green Buildings in Canada by Mark Lucuik, (lead author), Wayne Trusty, Nils Larsson and Robert Charette, with research updates.

Look for the material on the CaGBC’s website in about 6 weeks.

LEED Canada Launches Green Building Pilot Project

The deadline has been extended for submitting expressions of interest in participating in the LEED Canada Complete Pilot Project for Commercial Office Buildings.

This initiative has the support of REALpac and NAIOP who are encouraging their members’ participation in the pilot. Expressions of interest are to be submitted to Maura Chestnutt at the CaGBC: mchestnutt(at)cagbc.org or by fax to: 604-681-7817.

The CaGBC will be giving a 2-week notice when the submission period will be ending.

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.

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.