USGBC ready to catalyze LEED Positive future

The U.S. Green Building Council rolled out new programs and updates to foster the LEED Positive approach.

The goal is to move LEED further down the road to net zero and prepare for a shift to regenerative strategies. The new initiatives include:

· USGBC ALL IN – A new equity program to serve as a roadmap for how the organization and the green building community can better contribute to addressing social, health, and economic disparities in communities around the world.

· Living Standard – An expanded Living Standard campaign will become the organization’s pivotal grassroot initiative, a tool to share best practices.

· Return on Investment (ROI) Study – This program is intended to help the industry better quantify the benefits of green building. USGBC will conduct an ROI study that looks at the value of investment and the impact of green building.

· LEED Zero for design – A LEED Zero rating system will be released for projects in the design phase.

“The world today is facing intersecting crises that cannot be resolved with fragmented solutions, but require integrated, equitable practices and an industry-wide commitment to standardizing those practices,” said Mahesh Ramanujam, president and CEO of USGBC, Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI), and Arc, in a news release.

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.