Last week, the U.S House of Representatives advanced an energy and public lands package largely on party lines. The House passed version of S. 2012, the Energy Policy Modernization Act, which includes energy-related positions passed as part of H.R. 8, the North American Energy Security and Infrastructure Act of 2015. The bill also contains a number of provisions dealing with extraction and forestry management on public lands. Many of these items have been previously voted on by the House...

Last October, USGBC stood alongside our counterparts from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) and Second Nature to pledge our collective commitment to the vision that by 2025, 20 million graduates across all majors will be global sustainability citizens, learning about relationships between natural, physical, economic, social and cultural systems; understanding how their personal and...

The world's largest conference and expo dedicated to green building and design is headed to Los Angeles this Oct. 5–7. With 600 exhibiting companies, 200+ educational sessions, nearly 20,000 colleagues and endless networking opportunities, Greenbuild is shaping up to be iconic. Register today Greenbuild International Conference and ExpoExpo: Oct. 5–6, Conference: Oct. 5–7Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA Like iconic screen roles and the Hollywood sign, buildings...

This article was originally published as "Green Standard" in the May/June issue of USGBC+. Read the original version. Amid the lush beauty and natural wonders of Vietnam is a surprising level of pollution. A booming population, rapid industrialization, water pollution and choking urban traffic—combined with the effects of climate change and other factors—have left the country and its 91 million people with significant health and environmental issues. The good news in Vietnam,...

PEER is teaming up with S&C Electric Company and the Smart Cities Council to create a live discussion on "Generating Value, Driving Sustainability and Improving Resiliency: Lessons from PEER-Certified Energy Systems" on Thursday, June 9, 2016 from 11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. EDT. Sign up for this webinar to learn how PEER has helped cities, developers and campuses not only improve the way they do business, realizing maximum, triple-bottom-line returns, but...

A comprehensive site assessment is a critical step that you want to complete before the design process of any project. Without it, you are not taking full advantage of the site you’ve chosen for your project. Not to be confused with an Environmental Site Assessment (Phase I ESA), which mostly looks at risks associated with the site, a pre-design site assessment primarily looks at the assets of your site so that you can maximize the effectiveness of your design—programmatic and...

Some 24 years ago, Kamal Meattle’s doctor told him that his health was being badly affected by Delhi’s polluted air. His lung capacity had been reduced by about 30 percent, and, as his doctor explained, it was slowly but most assuredly killing him. The doctor’s advice was for Meattle to move away from his home city of Delhi, to a place where the air was clean. Instead, Meattle decided to find a way to create a healthy and productive indoor environment that would allow him to...

USGBC is excited to provide scholarship opportunities to attend Greenbuild 2016: Iconic Green, in Los Angeles. Scholarships increase access to Greenbuild and serve as a point of entry for people who are new to the green movement. Scholarships are competitive, and preference is given to individuals from underrepresented audiences and who demonstrate a need. These scholarships allow USGBC to invest in individuals who share our vision and want to be champions for the movement. Hear from several...

Recently, we announced that the second LEED Lab project has received certification. Led by instructors Cassidy Green and Brandon Kaysen, the University of California, Santa Barbara’s (UCSB) Student Resources Building achieved LEED Gold certification under LEED v4 Building: Operation and Maintenance (O+M). We met up with Cassidy and Brandon to discuss why they started a LEED Lab at UCSB, how the course has affected students, and more. What was the impetus for starting a LEED Lab?...

Materials matter, and in June, they are the focus of our LEED v4 education. LEED v4 changes the paradigm for how decisions are made about materials that go into the buildings in which we spend so much of our time, by giving new information to decision makers. Instead of saying a product is good or bad based on one attribute, such as recycled content, LEED v4 enables project teams to have a more robust dialogue with manufacturers about optimizing environmental, social and health impacts and...

By now, most of us in the green building field have heard of environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) and its use in the LEED v4 Materials and Resources credit. But have you heard of social life cycle assessment (SLCA)? SLCA uses the same “thinking”—looking at a product or service from “cradle to grave” or “cradle to cradle”—but instead of focusing on environmental impacts, SLCA explores effects, both positive and negative, on people...

USGBC’s mission is to bring the environmental and human health benefits of green buildings to all, and it is committed to accelerating the adoption of LEED in new and existing markets.  LEED Earth offers certification at no cost to the first Platinum project in any country to certify using the newest version of LEED (v4). It also offers free certification to the first project to be LEED-certified in one of the more than 100 countries where LEED has yet to take root.  The LEED...