Featured News

On Monday April 16th, USGBC announced a 4th Public Comment period for LEED 2012, which will run from May 1 – 15 consistent with the process outlined in the  LEED Foundations Documents. 

The purpose of this comment period is to make final technical revisions based on public comment feedback, incorporate a complete copyedit into a public version of the draft, and - most importantly - give the public an opportunity to view a version of the draft where credit documentation development has positively impacted the credit requirements.
 
Concurrent with public comment and ballot, credit documentation, reference guide and education development will continue.  This development operates under the guiding principles of creating intuitive and flexible documentation that focuses on collecting key data points for certification, reference guide content that enables project team understanding and achievement of requirements, and education for the successful implementation of new and challenging content in LEED 2012.  Public engagement opportunities to provide feedback and assist in the refinement of this work will be announced later this month and throughout the ballot period.
 
Fourth public comment period will not impact the published schedule and ballot is scheduled to begin on June 1.  As a reminder, USGBC members who are interested in participating in ballot must opt into the LEED 2012 consensus body by May 1st.

In partnership with the U.S. Green Building Council - Georgia, the Atlanta Business Chronicle announced their second year LEED Showcase Award winners.  These awards were presented to LEED projects, certified in [or before] 2011 and were featured in the March 23rd issue of Atlanta Business Chronicle and honored at a special breakfast event that same morning at the Georgia Aquarium.

Awards were presented for Innovation in LEED  - recognizing the change makers - companies who are setting the bar for innovative LEED concepts, practices and projects. This category will be divided into three categories: small companies (100 or fewer employees); medium companies (101-500 employees); and large companies (501 or more employees). 

Winners were:

Small Company - Sustainable Fellwood

Medium Company - Perkins+Will Atlanta

Large Company - CBRE Inc. Atlanta

Congratulations to all of the winners of the 2011 High Performance, Healthy Schools Leadership Awards.  During our first annual awards luncheon on November 3rd at the High Performance, Healthy Schools Regional Summit, six green school leaders were recognized for their outstanding work by Lt. Governor Casey Cagle.  The winners included:

Leadership in LEED adoption (K-12) - Atlanta Public Schools
Since 2007, APS has supported the creation of a green building program and is working continuously to achieve LEED Silver certification on all major capital projects where applicable.  APS understands the importance of teaching by example to future generations.  Atlanta Public Schools currently has 16 registered LEED facilities on file with USGBC and have achieved one Gold Certification and two Silver Certifications to date. (Lt. Governor Casey Cagle pictured left with Jere Smith, Director of Capital Improvements for Atlanta Public Schools)

Leadership in LEED adoption (Higher Ed) - Emory University
Emory University has been a pioneer and leader in LEED-certified building in the Southeast since they built their first LEED facility in 2000.  In 2001, Emory’s Board of Trustees passed a resolution requiring all future construction to meet LEED standards.  As recently as 2006, Emory had more LEED-certified space than any other campus in the country. Emory made no secret of the economic benefits it enjoyed from building to LEED standards, and its example has been used many times to encourage the trustees at other institutions to follow suit.

Leadership in Energy Efficiency - Gwinnett County Public Schools
Gwinnett County Public Schools strives to meet the highest standards in building and operating facilities that are resource efficient.  With more than 21 million square feet of ENERGY STAR certified, GCPS leads the nation for K-12 ENERGY STAR certified space.  They currently have 111 schools ENERGY STAR certified and expect to have them all certified in the next year.  Energy saving initiatives such as Total Darkness (all lights off at night at 87 schools and counting), their energy management system, and their intention to have energy audits on all 130 schools completed this year further demonstrate their commitment to environmental stewardship.

Leadership in Water Efficiency - Georgia Institute of Technology
Georgia Tech was an early adopter of water sustainability practices, conserving and capturing rainwater and building condensate water through cisterns, water gardens, and xeriscaping, as well as installing low flow fixtures and replacing damaged and leaky pipes.  Between 2001 and 2007, Georgia Tech reduced water consumption by 23%.  In 2008, Tech developed a visionary Cistern Master Plan and currently more than 50% of irrigated areas on campus are served by harvested water including all athletic facilities.  A 1.4 million gallon cistern was recently constructed in the center of campus and is the largest cistern on a university campus as well as one of the largest in the country.  Along with 32 other cisterns and water harvesting devices, Georgia Tech is well on its way to eliminating any reliance on potable water for irrigation.  (Lt. Governor Casey Cagle pictured at right with Scott Jones, Director of Design & Construction for Georgia Tech)

Leadership in Environmental Curriculum - Arabia Mountain High School
While many schools may teach lessons about the environment, Arabia Mountain High School’s entire curriculum captures environmental issues.  Every student conducts investigative research that connects each content standard, participates in service learning for the community, and defends findings to local businesses that have the ability to implement the students’ design plan.  By having students construct their own theories and experiments, they are well-prepared to enter college or the work force as leaders in the environment.  Last year, Arabia Mountain had a 94% average pass rate on the Science section of the Graduation test.  This was the highest pass rate for a traditional high school in DeKalb and exceeded the State and System average.

Leadership in High Performance, Healthy School Design - Perkins+Will
Perkins and Will has designed more LEED or LEED tracking schools than any other firm in the country.  More importantly, however, their commitment to sustainable, high performance design can be seen in all their K-12 projects.  Whether going for LEED or not, they design all their schools as high performance, healthy facilities:  orienting the buildings to face north and south, minimizing heat loads, using white roofs and white paving, using recycled and recyclable materials, and installing energy efficient mechanical systems – including incorporating geothermal fields as they have done for buildings at Woodward Academy and Springdale Park Elementary School in Atlanta; and wind power at a High School stadium in Roanoke, Virginia.

Congratulations to the 2012 Branch Leadership Groups elected in September.  Thank you for all of the tremendously talented professionals who chose to run for Leadership this year - and to everyone who voted! BLG members who were either re-elected or newly elected are indicated by italics.

Atlanta Branch Leadership Group
Juli Abbott (Gensler)
Jonathan Barge (Carter)
Carlie Bullock-Jones (Ecoworks Studio)
David Freedman (Freedman Engineering Group)
Alyson Laura (Southface)
Brandon Jones (Southface)
Jim Mabes (Nucor)
Vikram Sami (Perkins + Will)
Cecilia Shutters (GA Tech Graduate Program)
Henry Slack (EPA Region 4)
Michael Swick (Choate Construction)
Reed Thomas (JE Dunn East)
Paula Vaughan (Perkins + Will)
Alan Wieczynski (Breedlove Land Planning)
Tim Williamson (Green Building Certification Institute)

Savannah Branch Leadership Group
Roger Bowman (Gulfstream Aerospace)
Mike English (Queensborough Bank & Trust)
Don Ernst (Kool Coatings)
Mark Fitzpatrick (JT Turner Construction)
Denise Grabowski (Symbioscity)
Ellen Harris (chatham County-Savannah MPC)
Buzzy Hill (Mingledorff's)
Honor Hutton (Thomas & Hutton)
Garrison Marr (City of Savannah - Housing Sustainability Coordinator)
Sam Olin (SCAD)
Jessica Pedigo
Suzanne Shelledy (MultiStone Enterprises)
Teresa Wade (Experience Green)
Jean Uhl (Georgia Southern University)

Commercial Energy Efficiency Program

Program Overview

Georgia Power's Commercial Energy Efficiency program encourages customers to incorporate high efficiency measures into their facility. Available incentives help customers reduce the cost to install high efficiency equipment, resulting in lower power costs through a reduction in energy use. Georgia Power offers incentives to eligible customers in the following areas:

Lighting
HVAC
Thermal Measures
Other Electric Equipment and Measures

Click here for a full list of measures, incentives and limits.

Program Eligibility

The program is available to both new and existing Georgia Power commercial customers. We have a number of Prescriptive measures, which are pre-defined, common energy efficiency measures [or technologies] that have pre-determined incentives and do not require complex engineering analysis. For commercial customers looking to improve the efficiency of all facility lighting fixtures, we offer lighting measures through our Custom track.

Click here for a full list of Georgia Power Rates eligible for the Commercial Energy Efficiency Program.

Program Limits

Lighting incentives are limited to a total of $5,000 for tax paying customers, and $10,000 for non-tax paying customers. Non-tax paying customers have a higher limit, because they are not eligible for Federal and State tax incentives. Additional incentives, beyond the lighting limits, are available for all other Prescriptive track measures.

Click here for a full list of measures, incentives and limits.