Rebecca Flora, executive director of the Green Building Alliance and chair of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), gave a 30-minute presentation at the BE Conference titled, Beyond Green Building: A Roadmap for Transforming Our Built Environment. The USGBC are the founder of the LEED lifecycle assessments tools for infrastructure, which has now spread to 69 countries. I took extensive notes during Flora’s presentation, and present a summary here.
Flora’s rapid-fire and passionate presentation encouraged us to move well beyond business as usual to think about the survival of our world and society within the next generation. She was encouraged that we’re on the verge of a green renaissance in how we behave as people and societies. We’re increasingly looking at the things that we do to impact our planet as an opportunity for innovation and technology. How we value our natural world is becoming a growing driver for our economy. Regulation and incentives will be part of the solution to regenerate our natural world and ensure that everyone has a safe place to live.
The USGBC is undergoing phenomenal growth with 500 new member organizations per month, and 23,000 people at their annual conference. The USGBC sees its role as that of a convenor of disciplines, with multiple players at the table from all corners of the building industry.
Buildings are a large part of the solution, and we need to adopt the principals of green building because it’s critical. USGBC studies have shown that it’s possible to increase savings and improve performance at rates of more than 30% each for energy, CO2 savings, water use and waste cost savings. The scale has tipped on the commercial real estate construction side now. If you don’t open a green building these days, it will be obsolete before it opens.
The USGBC is currently working on a new strategic plan that will set priorities for the next 5-10 years. The LEED standards go beyond just buildings to sustainable cities and communities. How we design the systems and cities will become part of their focus, and LEED standards will extend to existing buildings and homes. The organization will also extend their reach to natural resource management, as building are a huge segment of the impactors in water and extraction industries.
LEED just started a Portfolio Program that gives companies with multiple branches such as banks or retail a way to certify all of their buildings at one time. They’re also working on a green building certification institute as an easier means to train professionals. The LEED 2009 standards were just released and they’re packaged differently, as a bookshelf rather than a checklist. They’ve also made significant changes, focused on higher capacity buildings.
Flora made many references to her children and role as a mother in her speech. She cautioned that the dramatic changes in our world will be experienced in the short-term, with out children having to learn to live in a very different place than our current world. She also states that we have to take a close look at what’s causing conflict in our world, saying that a lack of resources is the primary driver.
In her closing appeal Flora implored, “If we fail to act, what will we tell our children? That it costs too much or that change is just too hard? Is it okay to dump our garbage on others. We are in a closed loop system, and our resources aren’t unlimited. We need to understand the issues effecting our planet.”
