GSA okays Green Globes; USGBC counters forestry industry concerns

Green Globes, a LEED rival, was recently declared to be nearly equal with LEED standards by the General Services Administration. Amid lumber and chemical industry support of Green Globes over LEED, the number of Green Globes-certified building projects around the country doubled in the past two years, now totalling 850.

But the forestry industry’s objections to LEED may not be warranted, contends the USGBC. The LEED sustainable wood standard amounts to just one point in the scoring system, out of 110 potential points.

“We’re encouraging the use of wood more than ever,” says Scot Horst, senior vice president for LEED for the U.S. Green Building Council. “All wood gets better treatment under LEED v.4.”

(http://portlandtribune.com/pt/9-news/198549-clash-of-the-green-giants)

New York City has two very large buildings dedicated to answering the 911 calls of its five boroughs. With more than 11 million emergency calls annually, it makes perfect sense. The second of these buildings, the Public Safety Answering Center II (PSAC II) is located on a nine-acre parcel of land in the Bronx. It’s an imposing 450,000 square-foot structure—a 240-foot-wide by 240-foot-tall cube. The gleaming aluminum cube risesthe equivalent of 24 stories from behind a grassy berm, projecting the unlikely impression that it might actually be floating. Like most visually striking structures, the building has drawn as much scorn as it has admiration.