When you’re already one of the pioneers in building sustainability, how do you keep your edge? You use training to keep your staff engaged in the strategies and work practices that make buildings green. That’s exactly what Vornado, one of the largest owners and managers of commercial real estate in the U.S., has chosen to do.

Vornado is part of a growing group of real estate owner/operators who fully understand the positive impacts of sustainable operations on the bottom line. They have 30 million square feet of LEED-certified space and 25 million square feet with the ENERGY STAR label. They have structured their sustainability department to be a core part of their operations, managing all utility and energy efficiency spending, but they are not resting on their laurels.

In years past, Vornado ensured that managers were trained on the ins and outs of LEED and operating staff earned BOC (Building Operator Certification), but this time around, they wanted something broader to get management and operations speaking the same language.

GPRO proved to be the perfect solution and complemented what they had already learned from the LEED and BOC classes. GPRO goes beyond the required LEED checklist approach and explains WHY different elements of sustainabilityare important and what building managers and operators should be doing in their buildings.

Vornado partnered with Urban Green and the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 94 to train their staff.  Vornado arranged time for the chief and assistant chief engineers to attend dedicated daytime GPRO classes at the union training facility and provided training space for the managers’ and assistant managers’ courses.

“GPRO is such a great course because it provides a whole new way for the chief engineers to look at—and be excited about— their work,” noted IUOE Local 94 training director Howard Styles.

Before classes began Urban Green worked with Vornado and Local 94 to ensure that the customized portion of the classes was the same for both groups – facilitating a common vocabulary throughout the organization.

The courses were well received and Vornado is already using some of what they found during the training to improve their work practices.

“We were thrilled to offer GPRO to Vornado staff.  Working with the GPRO team made everything so easy, even down to the logistics of getting the instructors and books. The curriculum was great – very comprehensive and engaging,” said Sukayna Paciorek, Vornado’s vice president of corporate sustainability.

GPRO was created to help organizations bridge the “green gap” between conventional practices which are still deployed at even the most forward-thinking organizations and green practices that will reduce operational costs, increase building value, improve occupancy and rental rates and create healthier indoor environments.

To learn more about how GPRO can help your organization, contact Matt Rolnick, GPRO Business Manager at mr@urbangreencouncil.org.

Students at Explore Charter School in Brooklyn

Recently, Director of Programs, Tiffany Broyles Yost and I were invited to speak about sustainability in the classroom at Explore Charter School, a K-8 public school in Flatbush, Brooklyn. At Urban Green Council, most of our educational events are geared towards building professionals, so it was a nice change to meet with middle school students newly introduced to the world of green building.

We took the opportunity to speak with the students about USGBC’s Center for Green Schools’ Green Apple initiative to provide healthy and environmentally responsible schools. We wanted to discuss how schools with clean air and plentiful access to daylight have more engaged students and that better acoustics and more comfortable classrooms enhance productivity and alertness.

This information was not news to the 7^th and 8^th graders at Explore. Our first question to them was, “Why does it matter if your school is green?” The first student to answer said it mattered because schools need to be a healthy environment, so children can learn and take care of the planet for the future. I was impressed! As we presented images of “green” schools, the students immediately recognized the sustainable features, including everything from skylights to bicycle racks. The students also spoke of the difference between their school’s current location, in a large building with plenty of operable windows, and its previous location, inside an “old warehouse” with fewer and smaller windows. They described how hot it had been, which made it difficult to concentrate, or worse, made them tired.

Throughout our presentation, Tiffany and I emphasized the importance of conserving resources and how “using less” is really the first step to going green. By simply turning off lights, students can help lower the school’s energy use. The students also offered several ideas for renewable energy sources, citing biomass and geothermal among the more common solar and wind. To end our discussion, we talked about some innovative systems, such as soccer balls that generate power, solar backpacks, and energy producing sneakers. The response was fantastic!

In addition to being a nice change from the office, our visit to Explore was an extremely encouraging experience. The students already had a firm grasp on sustainable practices and how they can positively impact their environment. They are now more aware of the benefits of green buildings and will inevitably bring that knowledge home to their families. As they continue through school, they’ll want to attend green colleges and eventually work in green offices, creating a demand for sustainable building. That’s a good sign.

Greenbuild kicked off on Wednesday with a great welcome from San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee and an inspiring presentation about the USGBC’s Center for Green Schools.  Arguing that “where we learn matters,” Geraud Darnis (President & CEO, UTC Climate, Controls & Security, and Urban Green 2012 Gala Honoree) and Rachel Gutter (Director, Center for Green Schools at USGBC) spoke about the educational and social benefits of healthy schools. We worry about what our children eat and what they watch on television, but we often neglect to think about the buildings in which they learn. The Center for Green Schools is trying to change that.  In New York, Urban Green Council’s Emerging Professionals have been involved in sustainability-focused curriculum development at a Manhattan green school under the GELL program, so we’re well aware of the benefits of this type of work.

No presentation about green schools is complete though without a video of adorable children in day-lit classrooms. Gutter obliged and, by the end of the video, the audience at the Opening Plenary seemed fully convinced by the tiny voices that told us  ”where I learn matters.” Now with a young child of my own, those cute little kids totally got me – I was ready to to run out of the conference hall and get to work designing and building a great green school for every child everywhere!

That sentiment would have to wait though, because Rick Fedrizzi was next. I’ve heard USGBC President and CEO Fedrizzi speak on several occasions, and even had a chance to chat with him at Urban Green’s Gala.  Had he not founded USGBC, he could have been a motivational speaker. Fedrizzi’s talks are often inspirational, but this speech at Greenbuild was one of the most rousing I’ve seen.  He seemed fired up and ready to go in a new way. Fedrizzi called on the green building community to collaborate more with other groups and to talk not just to each other, but also to those outside of our circle. Here I was reminded of Urban Green’s conference, Cooling on Climate Change. This concept was exactly what we were arguing there; panelists spoke about climate change messaging and how to better communicate with those concerned about carbon pollution versus those indifferent about mitigating or adapting to a changing climate.

Fedrizzi linked the green building movement to social justice campaigns from women’s suffrage and civil rights to today’s gay rights and marriage equality efforts, all of which required hard work, lots of discussion, and time. Like these movements, widespread acceptance of healthy and sustainable building is not a question of if but of when. The USGBC leader argued for collaboration and, referencing Majora Carter’s sentiment about improving one’s neighborhood, stated “you don’t have to leave this country to build a better one.”

That’s good news and it’s up to us to make the change we want to see.  As we learned at Cooling on Climate Change, to do so requires that we speak about the issues we are concerned about to a variety of audiences. Fedrizzi also reminded us that our mission (healthy buildings, neighborhoods, and cities) is not only a just cause, but also supports a strong economy and offers a sound business case. He called on us to get to the hard work of reaching out and making green building standard building and left us with this mantra to remind us why we are working so hard: “We are right.”

“If you have information that is important to the public, you should try to communicate it.”
-Dr. James Hansen, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies

A couple weeks ago Urban Green gathered a NASA scientist, leaders of environmental organizations responding to climate change, academics with expertise in understanding how Americans assess risk and deal with this issue, and design professionals trying to communicate their environmentally responsible intents to clients. As one of the organizers of the event, I was anticipating a good conference full of new information and insight.  What I didn’t anticipate was the fluidity of the morning and the fantastic ability of the speakers to play off of one another to draw out new conclusions and leave the audience with a such clear set of principles for talking about climate change.  Actually, make that carbon pollution.

As noted in our live blog posts and other pieces since the conference, it’s clear that climate change and carbon pollution can be challenging topics for discussion. It’s a global problem that requires immediate action and potential sacrifice to produce benefits in a near or distant future, but it’s not widely viewed as a pressing problem.  It’s easy to think someone else will sort it all out for us. Unfortunately, we know this is not the case, but luckily our speakers discussed a host of ways we can hone our message and get through to our colleagues, clients, and others.

If you were unable to attend or you were in the audience and would like a refresher, we’ve provided an overview below. Urban Green Council members can also take a look at the presentations through our secure weblink.

How to talk about climate change in five easy steps:

1. First and foremost, know your audience. All of our communication experts agreed it’s best to have multiple messages for different groups; family, friends, staff, clients, public, etc. Talk to scientists with graphs and charts, speak to clients about health and cost savings, encourage colleagues with business opportunity and productivity improvements, and stir family members to action with personal benefits to children and grandchildren.

2. Scientific facts alone do not convince many people of the dangers (or existence) of climate change. However, talking about climate pollution and associated health risks, for example, make the problem more real and actionable. According to speaker David Ropeik, the brain is four parts subconscious and one part conscious, which means reason is only one-fifth of the decision-making process. He suggests discussing risks that are local and personal instead of global and abstract.

3. Credibility is key so speak from your area of expertise.  Trusted validators from various fields need to deliver the message. All of us in the green building community from developers to construction workers should be speaking out.

4. Counter specific arguments.  This means you must be well-versed in the arguments made by those who support climate action and those who do not.

5. Talk about solutions and quality of life improvements. Don’t just dwell on the problem without proposing solutions. It can be very dismal as compared to opportunities for improvement. Show how changes that mitigate climate change improve health and quality of life and can also improve business. Panelist Dan Probst of Jones Lang LaSalle argued that you can increase financial returns while reducing carbon pollution.

Once you figured out what to say it’s important to remember to do more than talk; act.  As part of the green building community we have the ability to speak out about climate change and the risk of carbon pollution AND take action in the projects we design, develop, and occupy. Let your organization be a driver of change.

That’s all it takes. For those of you who were there, we would love to hear your comments on the day and what you’ll take away from the conference.  Do you have new ideas on how to speak about climate change? Please add your comments below.

“1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8, I believe it’s not too late!  Together we can change the world.”  These were the words sung by PS41 Senior Songbirds at the Opening Ceremony on September 21, 2012 for New York PS41 Greenroof Environmental Literacy Laboratory (GELL).  GELL is a 9,000 square-foot roof atop the Greenwich Village Elementary School.  After playing an important role in developing curriculum for the school’s Urban Eco-Club enrichment class, I was excited to join Emerging Professional members Mariah Howard Porath, Chad Ondrusek, and Rollie Jones at the opening ceremony.

Last spring, Urban Green Council’s Emerging Professionals partnered with Vicki Sando (PS41 science teacher and Founder of GELL) and her colleagues to help create a special curriculum aimed at teaching students about environmental building practices. EP volunteers also collaborated on the delivery of these lessons over the course of the eight-week program.  One activity had the students experimenting with the water retention and heat absorption benefits of a green roof through the use of a hand-made model of the school.  Later in the lesson series, students interacted with a game that allowed them to create dream [green] homes in various climates around the world.  The EP volunteers hope that this connection will support a lasting partnership between New York City’s educational providers and Urban Green Council’s emerging green building experts.

Also at the ceremony were the policy makers, donors, sponsors, and project management team.  Jonathan F.P. Rose of Jonathan Rose Companies praised both Sando and Kelly Shannon (PS41 Principal) for their dedication and perseverance that lasted throughout the six years it took to bring the project from inception to completion.  Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and State Senator Tom Duane emphasized that the laborious planning, fundraising, evaluation and construction process will serve as a prototype for other schools and communities interested in installing something similar.

New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn was thrilled that the green roof would serve as a supplemental classroom, giving young students a place to be excited by science.  The outdoor garden will allow children to be taught through demonstration, supplementing the verbal learning that more typically dominates a classroom and transforming their educational experience.  Lessons in ecology, chemistry, biology, mathematics, nutrition, and fine arts will become more integrated with every student’s curriculum through the GELL Project.

It was clear that those in attendance at the opening ceremony believe that GELL will help pave the way for future projects with similar environmental and educational benefits.   Also important though, is to recognize the potential in this project to make our children and future generations better stewards of our planet.

Urban Green Council relies on our interns to help with our monthly educational programs, assist with fundraising, and work on developing our national certificate program GPRO. The Fall 2012 Internship season is upon us, and we wanted to take this opportunity to introduce you to our summer interns and thank them for their incredible work over the past three months.

JESSICA JOANLANNE
[GPRO Intern] Recent graduate from the New York School of Interior Design with an MPS in Sustainable Interior Environments.

Interning at Urban Green Council has been such an amazing experience!  The entire staff is truly dedicated to spreading the message of sustainability, and I am so happy for the opportunity to learn from them and contribute to their mission.  Working on GPRO has been especially rewarding, because I’ve been able to apply so much from my recent graduate studies to the development of the different course modules.  After this internship, I hope to implement all that I’ve learned to advance my career in the field of sustainable design and advocacy.

JAMIE KLEINBERG
[Research Intern] Graduate of Tufts University with a B.S. Chemical Engineering

As a research intern, I have been working on the 90×50 project, which aims to describe the energy efficiency measures necessary to reduce citywide greenhouse gas emissions 90% below 2010 levels by the year 2050. It is truly an eye-opening project, and I hope to see a greener New York City as a result of it! Working on 90×50 has taught me so much about the careful interaction between scientific research and feasible policy. I am so thankful for the opportunity to see the project through to its end, and I expect to use what I’ve learned about sustainability in all of my future endeavors.

NATALIE SELZER
[GPRO Intern] A California native and recent Tufts University graduate with a B.A. in environmental studies and English. 

The past three months at Urban Green Council have been a great learning experience. Working on GPRO curriculum development allowed me to combine my two primary interests—urban sustainability and writing/editing—in a really interesting way that I hadn’t experienced before. It opened my eyes to a new set of professional possibilities in environmental education and training, which I may not have otherwise considered. I was also lucky to work with the small, dedicated staff of GPRO. They gave me both independence and support, and really involved me in the big projects they were working on. They welcomed me as a part of their team, and I was able to learn so much about sustainable building practices, curriculum development, and the nonprofit workplace because of their inclusive attitude. Once my time with Urban Green Council ends, I hope to pursue a career in environmental journalism or communications (anything that involves both words and the environment!).

CHARLOTTE STANLEY
[GPRO Intern] California native with a B.S. in Environmental Science from UCLA.
I’m so glad I got the opportunity to continue my spring internship at Urban Green Council through the summer. As a member of GPRO’s curriculum development team, I gained additional responsibilities and helped with research, writing, editing, and more for the Construction Management and Operations & Maintenance modules. I’ve really enjoyed all aspects of my internship and I’m excited for my next step – joining Urban Green’s staff full-time as GPRO’s Curriculum Associate!

Best of luck to Jessica, Jamie, Natalie, and Charlotte on their future endeavors! We are now accepting applications for our Fall 2012 internship positions through the end of August.

This spring, Urban Green Council’s Emerging Professionals embarked on a special partnership with Public School 41 in the West Village to bring green building practices into the classroom.  Working closely with 2nd-4th grade science teachers Vicki Sando, Joaquin Rodriguez and Allison MacCallum, a few EP members volunteered to help develop lesson plans for the school’s Urban Eco-Club enrichment classes. The EP volunteers worked with the teachers to create experiments, worksheets and games incorporating environmental architecture for a class of 30 students.
The partnership was a product of two separate endeavors to improve sustainability education in New York schools. Six years ago Vicki Sando, a science teacher and parent of two former students, spearheaded a green roof project for the school and helped raise the needed funds. She now oversees the maintenance and planning for the green roof, which Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer has called a prototype that could be implemented in other public schools. In addition to providing several environmental benefits, the roof serves as hands-on classroom for the school.

Last year, EP Member and USGBC Emerging Professionals Leadership Academy participant Mariah Porath began developing a curriculum proposal to inspire New York City area schools to teach children about environmental building and LEED certification. The EP Leadership Academy is a unique program that brings local members of national Emerging Professional groups together to enhance their leadership skills; individual participants are tasked with developing a community project for their local chapter. Mariah’s project focused on an integral part of the USGBC Center for Green Schools’ overall mission and was an opportunity for EP members to get a chance to share their knowledge with the next generation.

Connecting the school and EP brought about a great pilot program that we hope will forge a strong ongoing partnership with education providers and Urban Green Council’s Emerging Professionals. Classes included Stormwater & Heat Island experiments, a Dream Green Home interactive game, and presentations by leading experts in the areas of urban farming, architecture, engineering and more!

Any LEED Green Associate or LEED AP with specialty who does not decide to retest in order to maintain their designation must fulfill credentialing maintenance requirements by means of, what some may describe as, a dizzying process.

In June of 2009, The Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI) made some big changes to the LEED credentialing and testing process, adding more exam options, eligibility constraints, and credentialing maintenance requirements.

Beginning the day an individual earns their LEED Green Associate or LEED AP credential, or an existing LEED AP opts into the Credentialing Maintenance Program (CMP), they have two years (minus one day) to complete fifteen or thirty hours of continuing education hours, respectively.

As of March 2012, some changes were made to the CMP, a few of which may make this daunting process a bit more manageable.

Live presentations that have not been approved by a third party Education Reviewing Body (ERB), Self-Study, and Committee/Volunteer work can now count toward up to 50% (combined) of your required CE hours!

Whether participating as an attendee, speaker or discussion leader at a live, facilitated presentation, you can earn 1 CE hour for the first hour of presentation, and 0.5 hours for each additional full half hour. Studying via audio, visual, or online media, or by other means such as examinations or readings, can earn you 1 CE hour for the first hour of study, and 0.5 CE hours for every additional half hour. Holding a leadership position at your local USGBC chapter, (such as Urban Green!), will get you 2 CE hours closer to completing your maintenance.

Are you currently a LEED AP who has opted into a specialty, and need to fulfill Prescriptive Credentialing Maintenance? Urban Green Council has now added suggested CMP reporting categories to all monthly programs posted on our calendar! Easy for us, easier for you.

You can find out about these updates and more by downloading the March 2012 Credentialing Maintenance Program Guide, and visiting the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI).

Does CMP still have you confused? Tune into this webcast. Your questions will be answered by Mara Baum, LEED AP BD+C, Senior Associate and Healthcare Sustainable Design Leader at HOK.

Thanks to everyone who attended The Building Blocks of Sustainable Ops a couple weeks ago.  The content developed by the speakers was insightful and gave an in-depth look into how they created their Sustainable Management programs.

From deferred maintenance at the City to “constant commissioning” at Hines, the presentations dug deep into the key components of maintaining proper operations, training and education, and awards and recognition plans.  We heard about the need for support at a corporate level and the implications of tenant behavior on building performance.

In addition to the photos in our gallery, watch out for video of the training coming soon. You can view the presentation here and download it here (also available from our website).

Thanks to our speakers for what we felt was a really fantastic series of presentation. We’ve been getting a lot of feedback on the training and welcome more input. Please leave your impressions in the comments to this post.

Finally, if you attended the training and would still like to purchase 3 GBCI Continuing Education Credits, you may do so for $75 here.

Given the stark reality that we are now in a time of deficit spending of the earth’s capital, it is imperative that we regard our economic systems as inextricably bound to ecosystems. The two words, ecology and economy— in fact, are derived from the same Greek root: eco, which means house.  Food systems are a primary example of the interaction of the two disciplines, and a closer look at food through the dual lenses of ecology and economy reveals many startling inefficiencies and even absurdities in how we currently grow, produce, distribute, consume and dispose of food.

Studying the lessons of wild ecosystems provides some valuable direction for redesigning efficient and non-depleting methods and practices for feeding humans.  As clever as we are, we have not yet developed technological processes that are better than nature for renewability.  All human-designed products and processes require a draw-down of the earth’s capital stock.  Wild ecosystems, in contrast, build organic material and resist stresses, performing this work on contemporary sunlight (as opposed to that embodied in fossil fuels) indefinitely and for free.

We have millennia of wisdom – embodied in wild ecosystems and human thought and experimentation – from which to learn.  To cite just one example, the practice of milpa agriculture in Mesoamerica has evolved over hundreds of generations into a mutually beneficial network whereby farmers temporally and spatially shift the growth of maize to feed local populations while sequentially regenerating small forest areas.

In our rapidly urbanizing world, can we design cities that more closely emulate dynamic and productive ecosystems like the milpa?  Perhaps agriculture, reinvented as a form of urban infrastructure, could offer such promise, particularly if combined with the multiple synergies of food production, biomass creation, CO² reduction and sequestration, nutrient recycling, resource renewal and purification, economic revitalization and social vitality.

Author Carolyn Steel will kick-off a day of discussions about these issues at Transforming Cities: How Food Systems Shape Cities on May 2 by explaining her concept of Sitopia (food-place), an integrated design tool with which to address the complex challenges of present and future dwelling. We hope you will join us.