Headlines from Greenbuild 2009

November 18 , 2009

The USGBC presented the Greenbuild 2009 conference in Phoenix last week. A few well-known companies seized the opportunity to make announcements about their accomplishments in the Green movement. Beyond the fanfare of their press releases, the good news is that their efforts will create real change.  And that’s good for all of us.

LEED wakes up with caffeine…

Coffee giant Starbucks announced it has become a part of the USGBC’s Volume Certification Program. Its membership in the program will help Starbucks achieve its 2010 goal of having all company-owned new stores LEED certified by the end of that year. The Volume Certification Program is a pilot program that aims to rapidly certify a large number of buildings as LEED-ready when built to qualifying specifications. The first Starbucks store opening under this program is in San Diego. Ten other locations will follow in the next six months.

LEED beds down with Marriott…

Hotel Chain Marriott International Inc. has also become a part of the LEED Volume Certification Program. Its green hotel portfolio will expand tenfold with the help of the pre-certification of its prototype designs. Marriott will seek basic LEED certification. Expectations for this level are that water and energy consumption be reduced by about 25 percent compared to national averages. Marriot will roll out the first of its prototypes in April of 2010 for the Courtyard brand.

Planning a virtual retrofit

Software company Autodesk released several announcements at Greenbuild. One of them was the expansion of its online Guide to Sustainable Design for Architecture, Engineering and Construction. The expanded guide provides users with virtual walk-throughs of renovation projects, white papers and podcasts. It also includes a decision grid tool to help users evaluate building options during the retrofit process. Two-dimensional images of an existing building can be transferred to a 3D model to perform an energy analysis while the user explores green power options.

Green jobs get the green

The USGBC released its 2009 green jobs report. It predicts that the green building industry will be responsible for the creation or support of 7.9 million jobs, contributing $554 billion to the U.S. GDP in the next four years. More information from the report is available at USGBC.org.

Vetrazzo leads by example

The manufacturer of recycled-glass surfaces announced during Greenbuild that it has published an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD). Customers can now verify the reduced impacts of Vetrazzo’s product line. The EPD, which uses a green audit to measure the full lifecycle impact of products, was developed by MindClick SGM and registered in The Green Standard. Vetrazzo is one of only a small number of firms to file a complete EPD with The Green Standard.