University of Pittsburgh Laboratory Earns LEED Gold Rating: The U.S. Green Building Council recently assigned a Gold LEED rating to the University of Pittsburgh's McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine Laboratory Building. Pitt Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg accepted the award from USGBC board member Rebecca L. Flora, executive director of the Green Building Alliance. Currently, Pitt is the only university in Pennsylvania to have received a Gold rating and the Institute is one of just 13 buildings across the Commonwealth to have attained that level.

AIA Pittsburgh Announces Design Award Winners: GBA would like to congratulate this year's winners of AIA green citations, special awards for Architectural and Interior Architecture Award Entries that excel in green design:

Silver Medal and Green Design Citation
Project: The Barn at Fallingwater
Client: Western Pennsylvania Conservancy
Architecture Firm: Bohlin Cywinski Jackson
Contractor: Clearview Project Services Company

Certificate of Merit and Green Design Citation
Project: Urban Biophillic Pavilion
Client: Jan Hamilton-Sota and Ernie Sota
Contractor: Sota Construction Services, Inc.

Green Building Market to Climb to Great Heights:
A new report released at the U.S. Green Building Council's Greenbuild conference this month by McGraw-Hill Construction says that the green building market will reach $10-$20 billion over the next five years. Research findings presented in the Green Building SmartMarket Report indicate:

· Green building comprised approximately two percent of nonresidential construction starts in 2004, valued at $3.3 billion;
· By 2010, the green building market is expected to be five to ten percent of nonresidential construction starts (excluding non-building construction), valued from $10 billion to $20 billion;
· Over 70 percent of a representative sample of architects, engineers, contractors and building owners anticipate sales growth from green building;
· Sixty percent of architects, engineers and contractors are currently specifying and installing green building products in their construction projects; and
· Operating costs of green buildings are expected to be between eight and nine percent lower than other buildings, as well as having increased values of 7.5 percent.

The document also offers recommendations and suggestions about business opportunity areas based on conducted research. To purchase the publication, please visit the SmartMarket Report webpage.

USGBC Spearheads Initiative Designed to Embed Sustainable Strategies in Gulf Coast Rebuilding Efforts: Together with the Enterprise Foundation, Habitat for Humanity, Trust for Public Land and other organizations, the U.S. Green Building Council announced a "full complement" of initiatives and ideas to assist with rebuilding Gulf Coast communities ravaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. For more information, please click here.

Adobe and USGBC Team to Streamline Green Building Certification Process: Adobe Systems Inc. announced it is joining with the U.S. Green Building Council to deliver a series of enhancements to the LEED Green Building Rating System documentation and certification process. As a result, the USGBC expects to both dramatically reduce the overall cost of LEED certification for project teams and accelerate the industry's ability to adopt green building practices. In order to make LEED more user-friendly, what used to be a cumbersome, paper-intensive process can now be done entirely online. Through the use of Adobe LiveCycle server software, building project teams will now have the ability to complete and submit LEED certification forms over the Internet in Adobe pdf format. This method will not only increase accuracy, but will also save time. For more information, please visit here.

LEED for New Construction 2.2 Passes: At the Greenbuild Conference & Expo in Atlanta, the U.S. Green Building Council announced that LEED-NC v2.2 has been approved by their membership and will be launched soon, including the availability of project registrations. In addition, the USGBC has extended the deadline for LEED-NC v2.1 project registrations until December 31, 2005. For more details, please click here.

The Energy Performance of These Small Businesses Will Reduce the Impact of This Winter's High Heating Costs: The 2004 ENERGY STAR Small Business Award Winners will save even more money this season than they originally expected due to the predicted 50% average rise in heating costs. Combined, the nine winners undertook energy efficiency improvements that annually save $40,000 in energy costs and more than 590,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions.

The 2004 winners are: The Exhibit Place, Inc., McKee's Rock, PA; RE/MAX Alliance in Fort Lauderdale, FL; Inn Serendipity, Browntown, WI; Nature Center of Shaker Heights, Shaker Heights, OH; Arrowhead Credit of Southern California; Harmony Farm Supply and Nursery of Sebastopol, CA; Intex Solutions, Montebello, CA; World of Carpets, Santa Rosa, CA; and Yorkshire Development, Pasadena, CA.

Applications for the Seventh Annual Awards competition are currently being accepted. The deadline is December 31, 2005. To apply, visit http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=sb_success.sb_awardsapp.