USGBC announces Greenbuild 2019 initiatives, visions for future
- November 2, 2020
- Posted by: Alan Hageman
- Category: News
The Greenbuild International Conference and Expo, presented by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and owned and operated by Informa Exhibitions, concluded in Atlanta in November, where more than 10,000 members of the global green building community gathered.
Greenbuild 2019 featured four days of inspiring education sessions and keynote speeches every day of the conference. Keynote speakers included civil rights activist Dr. Bernice King, architect and MacArthur Fellow Jeanne Gang, youth climate activist Jamie Margolin, climatologist Dr. Marshall Shepherd, and former U.S. President Barack Obama.
“Many people may not be thinking about how a building impacts them or their environment,” said Kim Heavner, vice president, conferences and events at USGBC. “That’s why this year’s theme, a new living standard, explores how we can broaden that conversation and help connect the dots between people and the places where they live, work, learn and play.”
USGBC made several program updates and announcements:
USGBC Equity will advance social equity in communities
USGBC Equity, announced at Tuesday’s summits, is a new initiative that is designed to highlight and bring attention to the broad spectrum of work that USGBC and is doing around social equity. This initiative will take the pulse of USGBC members and the green building community, will help determine what individuals are doing to advance social equity in their work and home life, and determine how LEED buildings, cities and communities are contributing to social equity.
USGBC announced vision for LEED Positive
USGBC announced LEED Positive, a vision statement and LEED development roadmap that will lay the foundation for a future of LEED that is regenerative. The LEED Positive vision will guide USGBC in transitioning LEED from strategies that reduce the harm done by buildings to strategies that cause no harm and begin the process of healing and repair.
Insight feature to help green building projects prioritize sustainability strategies and improve performance
Insight is a new data-driven feature that highlights building project design features that can lead to better performance. Insight is available as a feature of the Arc platform and provides information on the design attributes of LEED certified buildings within a specified geographic region. Project teams can then compare and rank potential sustainability strategies to see how they stack up against the performance of other buildings.
Arc Skoru announced a number of improvements to enhance user experience; performance certificates at the energy, water, waste, transportation and human experience level; help to improve scores for continued advancement of Arc projects; and introduced Arc for All, which makes Arc available free of charge for all users.
GBCI added two sustainability credentials to its suite of green business services. Originally developed by the ISSP, GBCI will maintain, promote and deliver the ISSP Sustainability Associate (ISSP-SA) and ISSP Certified Sustainability Professional (ISSP-CSP). The credentials provide third-party verification of competency in the field of sustainability and recognize individuals committed to making the world more economically, socially and environmentally sustainable.
Atlanta received LEED certification
The City of Atlanta was LEED Silver certified, making it the 100th certification for LEED for Cities and Communities. USGBC launched LEED for Cities and Communities in 2016 as a globally consistent framework for measuring and tracking sustainability at the city and community scale. The rating system tracks progress across key performance indicators, including energy, waste, water, transportation, resilience, health and equity.
Held annually in the U.S. since 2002, Greenbuild is a large conference of green building and sustainability leaders. Greenbuild 2020 will be in San Diego in November.
