Former Secretary of State and retired Gen. Colin L. Powell will give the keynote address at the annual Greenbuild International Conference & Expo being held Nov.17-19, 2010, in Chicago, Ill. The Greenbuild International Conference & Expo is sponsored by Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Green Building Council that is committed to a prosperous and sustainable future for our nation through cost-efficient and energy-saving green buildings. With its 80 nationwide affiliates, 16,000 member companies and organizations, and more than 155,000 LEED Professional Credential holders, USGBC is the driving force of an industry that is projected to contribute $554 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product from 2009-2013. General Powell will deliver the keynote address. Greenbuild 2010 will feature an array of inspiring speakers and more than 100 education sessions and the world’s largest exhibit hall devoted to green building with over 900 exhibiting companies with over 1,800 booths showcasing the latest in innovative, cutting-edge products and services. “General Powell has made another career of sharing his lessons of leadership.” said Rick Fedrizzi, president, CEO and founding chair of USGBC. “His keen insights and global perspective are especially relevant to our movement in these times of great challenge and change. He exemplifies that leadership is about more than a title: It’s about taking charge during times of great crisis.” As a sign of General Powell’s wide-ranging leadership and the powerful message he will bring as Greenbuild’s opening keynote speaker, a LEED Platinum affordable housing building in his childhood neighborhood bears his name. The General Colin L. Powell Apartments in the South Bronx, N.Y., is a cutting-edge 50-unit multifamily project resulting from a partnership between Habitat for Humanity-New York City and Blue Sea Development. General Powell participated in the LEED certification ceremony.
Tag Archives: LEED
Presidio goes for green neighborhood LEED
San Francisco continues to hold its own as one of the great green cities in the world. Up there with Vancouver BC, Portland, OR and Malmo Sweden. Malmo incidentally is Sweden’s third largest city and is known for its extensive parks and has been an “ekostaden” eco city for sometime now. Vancouver gets nearly 90% of it’s electricity from hydropower and was green long before the 2009 Winter Olympics which further showcased its green reputation.
Now one of San Francisco’s oldest neighborhoods, the Presidio is moving toward a Leadership 
in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification for the neighborhood; after decades of debate over the district’s future some of which had been off limits to the public. The once abandoned Marine Hospital and a handful of residences in the 42-acre district located at 15th Avenue and Lake Street on the southern edge of the Presidio, have now been converted.
Writing for San Francisco Press Victoria Schlesinger states “The district now contains roughly 170 new rentals units, the lion’s share of which are in the converted Marine Hospital. A row of tony new townhomes stand along Belles Street and 11 former physician residences on Wyman Avenue have also been restored.” The Presidio Trust just hosted tours of the new green neighborhood.
Clifftop home is both gorgeous and green
Joanne Ellis’ new clifftop home on Bainbridge Island shows green can also be gorgeous.”It’s pretty darn awesome,” Ellis says in describing her dream home with floor-to-ceiling windows that look east to Seattle. Yet its drama and Puget Sound location is only part of its allure. It’s also energy-efficient.
Courtesy of Coates Design
“The whole house is designed to passively cool and heat itself,” Ellis says. It’s oriented to capture sun and shade, and its concrete floors and concrete interior wall hold the heat.
On a 100-degree day last year, she says the house was comfortable without air conditioning. Ellis” home — chosen as “This Week’s Green House” — earned the top or platinum rating in June from the private U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) program. Her architect Matthew Coates says it’s the first LEED-platinum house in Washington that’s not in Seattle. The 2,450 square-feet home, which has a separate 700 square-foot apartment, spared no expense on its green features, which include geothermal heating, two 1,500 gallon cisterns, a vegetated roof, a 4-kilowatt solar array and Loewen triple-pane wood windows. Read on