NEWS

2007 GBA Education Calendar Kicks Off with “Green Building 101” Brown Bag Lunch
An exciting year’s worth of new green building education events has just been released. The professional development calendar starts January 18 with a session designed to give you the basic information to embark on your green projects. This program delivers an overview of sustainability, integrated design and the economics of green building. Presenters will introduce the LEED® process, including LEED online, discussion on effective use of modeling, commissioning and measurement & verification, and green operations. To view our 2007 Calendar of Events, please visit here. To register for Green Building 101, visit here.
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Call for Membership
Please join us!  If you have not yet completed a 2007 GBA membership application, you are about to miss out on 12 full months of benefits.  Member discounts await you on four remarkable tours, a repeating brown bag lunch series on green building basics, four stimulating Alliance Building Breakfasts and the March 15, 2007 Green$ense Conference--the premier conference on green building for the mid-Atlantic and Ohio Valley regions!  In addition, special members-only networking events are being planned that will provide an excellent opportunity for you to catch up on what is happening on the green scene.  Please visit http://www.gbapgh.org/membership.asp and complete an application soon. 
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GBA Welcomes New Deputy Director
As GBA's deputy director, Jeaneen Zappa will be managing much of the organization's day-to-day operations. Transitioning from a career in managing marketing strategy and tactics, she has worked in the logistics and transportation, health care and technology industries. Prior positions include Director of Strategic Marketing at Descartes Systems Group, where her duties included managing competitive intelligence and global collateral production; and Marketing Services Manager at Vocollect, where she developed and managed a closed-loop demand generation program that consistently exceeded sales goals and directed a corporate re-branding effort, as well as the implementation of a five-language web site.

Along with undergraduate degrees in both magazine journalism and marketing from Syracuse University, Jeaneen also holds an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh. She has completed additional professional development through the internationally recognized Dale Carnegie and Pragmatic Marketing training programs, and is a November 2006 graduate of the Coro Center for Civic Leadership Women in Leadership training program.
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Growing Green at the Conservatory, Botanical Garden Welcome Center Featured in AIArchitect
IKM Architects’ Welcome Center at the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Pittsburgh opened last year, providing a grand new entry to the beloved Lord and Burnham Victorian greenhouse, originally erected in 1893. The design contains many sustainable features that has resulted in the structure obtaining a Silver LEED® rating. It also realizes the mission of industrialist Henry Phipps, who founded the conservatory to teach and inspire visitors while bolstering their mental and physical health. The architects and conservatory officials call Phipps the most “energy-efficient conservatory in the world.”
Read the full article here.
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First Tenants Move Into Westmoreland’s GreenForge Building
After four long years of standing empty, a former business- incubator building along Donohoe Road in Greensburg, Westmoreland County, is again becoming a vital part of the community as its first new tenants – the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development organization – settle in.The occupancy is a major accomplishment in a two-year-long effort by a group of nonprofit partners to transform this nondescript 1980s-era cinderblock structure into distinctive, contemporary office space and a model of green-building rehabilitation.

GreenForge includes a number of conservation features, such as: a 9,000-square-foot green roof, a geothermal heating and cooling system, naturally lit and naturally ventilated space, and native landscaping. Overall, GreenForge’s commitment to conservation will create more comfortable space for its tenants and have the potential to save them money by moderating the building’s use of energy, which means more stable heating, cooling and electric costs.
Source.
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Reguest for Proposals: LEED for Neighborhood Development
USGBC, in partnership with the Congress for the New Urbanism and the Natural Resources Defense Council, is now seeking a consultant or team of consultants to assist in coordinating the LEED for Neighborhood Development pilot program, to provide customer support for projects participating in the pilot program, to assist in the review and assessment of certification submissions, and to provide support for the LEED for Neighborhood Development Core Committee during the implementation of the pilot program.
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BD+C White Paper 2006: Green Buildings and the Bottom Line
Three years ago, when Building Design+Construction published their first White Paper on Sustainability, they could not have predicted with any degree of certainty whether the green building movement would survive. They now report that green building is alive, well and active in virtually every major city in America. Green building has, however, changed dramatically in recent years. What started out as a charismatic environmental crusade has matured into an established sector of the U.S. construction industry. Green building's early adherents have proven that they can build high-quality, high-performance structures in a professional, businesslike way. Their passion has not diminished, but it has become more firmly grounded in the realities of the marketplace. This new reality has begun to attract the attention of the financial community. Investors are asking: Do green buildings command premium rents? Do they lease faster than conventional buildings? Are they more valuable than other real estate investments? What is the market potential for green buildings in the future?

BD+C examines the bottom-line issues of green building across a wide range of building types. They conclude with 10 constructive recommendations and an Action Plan for consideration by stakeholders in the green building movement. Click here to download the White Paper.  (PDF 3.93MB)
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BOMA International and U.S. Green Building Council Sign Memorandum of Intent
The Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced the signing of a Memorandum of Intent (MOI) to work cooperatively to promote energy efficiency and environmentally responsible building operations and maintenance practices to the BOMA community of building owners, operators and property managers. Collectively, this community represents nine billion square feet of commercial real estate. The announcement was made at the recent Greenbuild Conference held Nov. 15-17, 2006 in Denver.

Among the initiatives outlined in the MOI are joint promotional activities, including collaboration at BOMA's North American Commercial Real Estate Congress®, the Office Building Show in New York City in July 2007, and USGBC's Greenbuild Conference and Expo in Los Angeles in October 2007. Joint educational offerings, including Web-based seminars on energy efficiency and green building practices, will also be offered. More information.
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AIA Accepting Nominations for Top Ten Buildings for 2007
The Top Ten Green Projects program seeks to identify and recognize the benefits of high performance, sustainable design; to educate the architectural community and the public at-large on the increased value that sustainable design provides for developers, building owners and occupants; and to acknowledge architects as experts in the creation of energy conscious and environmentally responsible design solutions. For more information on submitting a project, visit here. Past winners.
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January 18 - Green Building 101: Getting Going with Green Building
This introductory brown bag lunch presentation delivered by the Green Building Alliance provides basic information to embark on your green projects. Includes an overview of sustainability, integrated design and the economics of green building. Presenters will introduce the LEED® process, including LEED online, discussion on effective use of modeling, commissioning and measurement & verification, and green operations. Register here.
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February 7 - The Green Scene for Homeowners: Hip & Healthy Home
Learn how to apply green building principles to home renovation projects. This session will spotlight salvaged and environmentally friendly products. Register here.
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February 22 - Green Building Tour: TBD
GBA tours feature green buildings in our region, allowing participants to enjoy behind-the-scenes access, remarks from the owners, and the opportunity to ask owners questions about their experiences operating their building.
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March 15 - Green$ense 2007
Are you looking for ways to differentiate your properties in the marketplace? Come hear keynote speaker Susan Eastridge and others at Green$ense 2007 as they reveal their proven strategies for gaining a competitive advantage by investing in high-performance green buildings. Eastridge, developer for the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust's riverfront project, will describe how the biggest downtown housing initiative in city history and its commitment to green building is a smart way to build profits.

As chief executive officer and founder of Concord Eastridge, Inc., she is one of many nationally recognized experts from the green development field who will share their secrets to financial success through green building. Breakout sessions will be geared both to green building novices, as well as seasoned professionals. Afternoon tours of Pittsburgh-area green buildings will be offered, and the conference will also include the third annual Shades of Green Leadership Awards luncheon. Nomination forms are available at www.gbapgh.org. Deadline is Jan 31st, 2007.