10,000 Buildings Certified!
The Live Oak Family Resource Center in Santa Cruz, CA, courtesy of Google Street Views
Today the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced a milestone! They have officially certified the 10,000th LEED commercial project! Whoot whoot!
I don’t get the chance to quote Bruce Lee very often, so I’ll keep it short.
In the immortal words of Bruce Lee,“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”
LEED is the one kick, and now it has not only been practiced but implemented 10,000 times!
10,000 buildings certified is a huge accomplishment, not only for the USGBC, but for all the project teams and building owners that made the commitment to this market changer.
It is also a great thing for the occupants out there enjoying these buildings! The 10,000th certified building was The Live Oak Family Resource Center in Santa Cruz, Calif., which was awarded LEED Platinum today. The local paper, the Santa Cruz Sentinel, did an article about the opening of the building in March of this year. Writer Jenna Brogan interviewed volunteers and community members that are utilizing the center. They told stories of their previous building being cramped, inefficient and rundown. Susan Cabrera, president of the board for the Volunteer Center, reminisced about brushing the termite dust off her desk every morning in their old building and Karen Delaney, executive director of the Volunteer Center, has already seen a significant decrease in power costs. “I can’t believe it costs less to be here than in our leaky old trailer,” she laughed.
The Live Oak Family Resource Center is not only a LEED milestone but an embodiment of the USGBC's Vision to create “buildings and communities [that] will regenerate and sustain the health and vitality of all life within a generation.” The center is a place for families to find guidance, information and referrals on childbirth and parenting, health education and services, youth and senior programs, food distribution and other community needs. All this under a roof that doesn’t leak, but collects water and generates solar power.
“We’ve just scratched the surface of what’s possible in the green building field,” said President, CEO and founding chair of the USGBC Rick Fedrizzi, in their press release today. “In 10 short years, we’ve fundamentally changed how we construct and operate buildings and communities, and during that time LEED has continued to evolve, pushing sustainable building practice forward with each evolution. But there’s much more to do. The market continues to embrace LEED as the leadership standard it was meant to be and our kids deserve the outcomes that green buildings contribute to their future.”
As Canadians we should be proud that 101 of these USGBC projects are actually in Canada! They were registered and in some cases certified before the different LEED systems were available in Canada from the Canada Green Building Council - 4 of which received the highest certification of Platinum.
To end the way we started, I might as well throw in some more Bruce Lee, “There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.”
So lets go beyond 10,000 certifications, and look forward to the day when LEED is integrated into our building code and considered best practices. We can all dream of that day and work hard towards it.
