Archive for October, 2008

A Week of Epiphanies: Go Green or Die Not Trying

The final Green Building Law Update epiphany for the week will come in the form of a headline I came across this past weekend:  

In the LEED:  Green certification will be the norm in a few years

Last week, Green Building Law Update focused on how the economic downturn may result in a slowdown of green building developments.  [...]

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Market Transformation and the Importance of Paperwork

Nothing is as dangerous in architecture as dealing with separated problems. If we split life into separated problems we split the possibilities to make good building art.

Alvar Aalto

Theory
Fulfilling the promise from my last post, I want to step back and explain that something I witnessed last weekend that confirmed my belief in the power of [...]

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A Week of Epiphanies: I Don’t Mean to Diminish This But. . .

In continuing our week of epiphanies, here’s another one that struck us here at Green Building Law Update:  should governments consider getting out of the green building certification process? 

Yes, I realize this epiphany is out there and that practically every state has implemented some sort of green building regulation.  Over the past few months, [...]

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A Week Of Epiphanies: My Own Backyard

Over the weekend, we here at Green Building Law Update had some green building epiphanies.  So let’s start with epiphany number one.  As I was driving into my law firm’s office in Tyson’s Corner on Saturday, I looked out at the construction and thought to myself, why am I not writing about that? 

This isn’t [...]

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Lights Go Out on Green Stadium Litigation

 
Today we are going to take a hiatus from the discussions of green building in the current financial markets and, instead, wrap up what potentially could have been major green building litigation.  On October 17, 2008, the Lerner family and the D.C. Government resolved litigation stemming from the LEED-Silver certified Washington Nationals Stadium. 
 
In previous Green [...]

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Can State Budgets Support Green Building?

As part of our review of the economic downturn’s effect on green building, on Monday we looked at private projects that have cut LEED certification due to associated costs.  Today, we move from private projects to public projects.  Despite this shift, the theme is the same:  the economic downturn will result in less public projects [...]

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7 Reasons the New PDF LEED Checklists Stink

I realize I haven’t sounded like much of a supporter of LEED lately, deciding instead to rant about problems like slow LEED-Online service. I do promise a post this week about why I love the USGBC and LEED in particular, but for now I have a little more bitching to do.

BOO creepy [...]

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LEED-NC vs. LEED for Schools: What’s Different?

If you’re like me, you grew up with LEED for New Construction and have a penchant for sapphire martinis. Earlier today I was helping a few people in my firm run through a checklist for a feasibility report for a local school we’re designing. I was extremely embarrassed when half-way through the checklist [...]

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Projects Cut Out LEED Certification

Previously, Green Building Law Update wrote that the struggling financial sector may impact the number of projects seeking LEED certification. This past weekend, an article highlighting this point came across my desk that I had to share. Gazette.Net profiled numerous green building projects in Maryland that, despite initially incorporating numerous green building strategies, will not [...]

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Cutting Edge LEED on the Chopping Block?

Green Building Law Update would be remiss if it did not comment on the recent financial struggles and the impact these events will have on the green building industry. Simply put, here at GBLU, we anticipate scaled back green building efforts as developers struggle to obtain financing.
A recent article in Globe and Mail (Canada’s National [...]

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