USGBC Advocates Updates: Weekly Update: August 23, 2013

Thank you to everyone who sent me feedback on the new look. Keep it coming! I want to point out a feature of the new look, the Twitter feed to the right of your screen. A lot of the feedback I received was chapter members wanting to hear what other chapters are doing. The Twitter feed is another tool to help you do that.

#LEEDWorks

Social media is a powerful tool, and grassroots mobilization is critical to using it successfully. Our federal elected officials are in their home districts during the month of August, and we want to remind them when they return to Washington about the importance of green buildings. We are asking the USGBC community and its networks to join us on Twitter and Facebook to let U.S. Senators know that#leedworks.

It’s as simple as posting/tweeting or retweeting @USGBC using the hashtag: #leedworks and encouraging your followers to do the same! Click here for quick and easy instructions on how to set-up a Twitter account, how to tweet, and most importantly, what to tweet. Also, here's a a blog to give you some ideas for more tweets http://www.usgbc.org/articles/let-them-know-leedworks

Back to (Green) School Time!

It's that time of year where kids head back to school. Here at USGBC, we hope they are going back to a school that incorporates green building design! In Washington, DC, we were fortunate to attend the ribbon cutting of the new building for Dunbar High School. The school is designed to achieve LEED for Schools platinum certification.

Displays showing design features of Dunbar High School

The Dunbar High School Marching Band

National Caucus of Environmental Legislators

Also, in anticipation of a new school year and a few state legislatures poised to reconvene, last week, during the 2013 National Conference of State Legislatures, the Center for Green Schools at USGBC staff co-hosted a breakfast with our friends at the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators. A report was released highlighting a landmark volume of green schools activity in state legislatures around the country.

Here’s the short of it: since the beginning of 2013, we've followed more than 125 bills across 34 states that seek to advance healthy, high-performing schools. At the time of this blog, at least 25 of these bills have been passed by state legislatures and/or signed into law, with many more still being debated this year. Read more on the report and meeting.

Green Apple Day of Service

It's almost that time of year! Here's what the chapters achieved last year with service projects. Let's raise the bar even more this year! Register a project, today.