Green SharePoint

Going sustainable is a community effort, and we’d like to share the resources we’ve discovered with others in our field. The Breakell Sustainable Building SharePoint Site—currently in development—will be a community resource for current information regarding green building.

This website will serve as a local community bulletin board to post building experience and information that can be shared with interested parties in order to promote sustainable environmental construction in Southwest Virginia. The site will focus on: available products, technology, legislation, changes in standards in programs such as LEED and Earthcraft, statistics, local professionals and events in our region.

Publications and Links

Business

Corporate Governance

Connecting Climate Change and Corporate Governance
(Energy Star; Ceres Report 2006)
“This report is extremely valuable because it provides investors with an unprecedented window into how companies most affected by climate risk are responding at the board level, through CEO leadership, and in strategic planning,” said Connecticut State Treasurer Denise L. Nappier.

Green Business

50 Ways to Green Your Business
By Mark Borden, Jeff Chu, Charles Fishman, Michael A. Prospero, and Danielle Sacks
Half-a-hundred options for cleaning up your business, from the universal (catch that rainwater!) to the specific (lose the plastic bowls!).

The New Black is Green
By Suzanne Deffree
Going green has many benefits, the chief of which arguably is that it’s good for the environment. But green efforts aren’t without other benefits, namely financial ones.

Energy

Wind power growth gusts strongly in USA in 2007
By Paul Davidson, USA TODAY
Wind energy is blowing up a storm.
U.S. wind power grew 45% in 2007, the sharpest rise since the 1980s, as developers responded to a federal tax credit, a growing number of state renewable energy mandates and global warming concerns, the American Wind Energy Association said Thursday.

Industry

ASHRAE Healthcare Standards
The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers is providing design guidance for green health care facilities. Working to make advanced energy efficiency guidance mainstream, ASHRAE is developing a code-intended baseline sustainability standard for health care facilities.

Leadership/Governance

Seattle’s Recycling Success Is Being Measured in Scraps
By J. MICHAEL KENNEDY
EVERETT, Wash. — Out here next to Steamboat Slough and the lumber mill, piles of garbage from Seattle are lined up in neat rows and blanketed with a fabric similar to that used in high-end Gore-Tex clothing.

Legislation

The Green Jobs Act
The U.S. House of Representative approved the Green Jobs Act of 2007, legislation introduced by Congresswoman Hilda L. Solis (D-CA) to help train American workers for jobs in the renewable energy and energy-efficiency industries.

Products

Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is a non-profit organization devoted to encouraging the responsible management of the world’s forests. FSC sets high standards that ensure forestry is practiced in an environmentally responsible, socially beneficial, and economically viable way.

Science

EPA Pollution Prevention and Toxins
EPA's Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) manages programs under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and the Pollution Prevention Act (PPA) of 1990. Under these laws, EPA evaluates new and existing chemicals and their risks, and finds ways to prevent or reduce pollution before it gets into the environment. They also manage a variety of environmental stewardship programs that encourage companies to reduce and prevent pollution.

Vehicles

Plug-in Hybrids Hold Great Environmental Promise, Study Finds
By: GreenBiz.com
PALO ALTO, Calif., July 20, 2007 -- A comprehensive report released yesterday by the Electric Power Research Institute and the Natural Resources Defense Council finds that widespread use of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles in the United States could reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality.