This month, I’m excited to share with you the news that the U.S. Green Building Council’s new Washington, D.C., headquarters office has been certified LEED Platinum under the new version of LEED for Commercial Interiors, becoming the first LEED-certified project under a LEED 2009 rating system.  This past March, USGBC moved into our new office space, but our journey here has been interesting. When I started with the organization in 2003, we were located in a mid-block Class B building in downtown D.C., where we eventually expanded into three separate office suites totaling 11,000 square feet of space. After…

With the launch of LEED for Retail just around the corner, I took the opportunity while in Chicago on other business to see for myself how restaurants are integrating green design into their facilities. This is interesting on several levels, both because restaurants are very energy intensive, and because the greening of design through major restaurant brands poses the opportunity to reach communities and consumers in a new and unique way. In some ways, green building has been an urban phenomenon, with advocates talking about how office buildings must be green if they still want to be considered Class A…

  Commissioning has long been an integral part of green building and the LEED green building rating system, and basic commissioning was built into LEED for New Construction as a prerequisite for certification. Commissioning is often misunderstood, especially among owners with no commissioning experience who often avoid the practice due to fears of initial high costs.  The commissioning process offers benefits to both building owners and occupants through improved building performance and heightened occupant satisfaction. ASHRAE Guideline 0-2005 defines commissioning as a quality-focused process that focuses on verifying and documenting that the facility and its systems and assemblies are planned,…

>How can I not write about the economic recovery package? The talk of Washington, DC, the economic recovery package is being closely followed by many business leaders.  USGBC has been actively working to ensure that the economic recovery package moves the U.S. toward the new green economy and related long-term economic and environmental benefits. While the possibilities are many and the opportunities for the real estate market are complex, there are a few key areas that our industry will want to watch closely. The Commercial Building Tax Deduction was established by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and permits building…