Friday, September 27, 2013

Week in Review: September 27, 2013


I know the vast majority of you have been busy planning, promoting, and recruiting for your day of service events. Some of you may have even had yours already! The Northeast Ohio USGBC chapter held their event on September 18th. Over 50 people attended a composting seminar, where they not only learned how to compost, but also about LEED in Ohio and Green Apple Day of Service.Thanks to Kathy Rocco for sharing pictures of her event with us! Please send us pictures of your service events!
Kathy Rocco, teaching attendees about composting.













In other green schools related news, Senator Harkin calls on the GAO for new survey on the condition of America's schools. We are pleased to announce that U.S. Senator Tom Harkin, Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, has formally requested the U.S. Government Accountability Office to conduct a new survey to help identify the current conditions and needs around our school facilities – at study that hasn’t been conducted in 18 years.

Looking Ahead to 2014

I know, I know! It's not even October and I'm bringing up 2014, but there are less than 100 days in 2013 and we want to make sure all of you are prepared to hit the ground running with advocacy in 2014. We will be walking you through a couple of things to think about when it comes to 2014 advocacy planning on our next advocacy call on October 8, 2013 at 3PM EST. Here is the Webex information:
Meeting Number:             750 497 187
Meeting Password:          Adv0cates
Go to https://usgbc.webex.com/usgbc/j.php?ED=220666962&UID=507270947&PW=NMjIwNDhiODU5&RT=MiMxMQ%3D%3D
Phone only: 1-866-650-429-3300 code: 750 497 187#

Please email me any topics you would like to see addressed on the Monthly Advocates Call. Also, to give you a taste of the resources we want to provide for chapters to increase their advocacy capacity and skills, next year, take a look at this article from "Nonprofit Quarterly" about the role nonprofits play in educating the public about issues.


Federal Update

There are no new updates to the Shaheen-Portman bill. Congress is now on countdown to shutdown mode.

Campaigns


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Friday, September 20, 2013

September 20, 2013

Happy (Almost) First Day of Fall

The Autumn Equinox is this coming Sunday!








Federal Update

Thank you to everyone for their hard work in talking to your senators about Shaheen-Portman!

Further consideration of a bipartisan bill to promote greater use of energy-efficient (S. 1392 aka Shaheen-Portman) will be postponed as the Senate receives stopgap spending legislation from the House. This move raises questions about whether Senate leadership will reconsider the measure in the coming weeks, especially as there has yet to be a breakthrough on potential amendments to the bill.  USBGC staff will continue to monitor and inform chapters on the next steps of this legislation and relevant amendments that have been filed to the bill.

Walmart Announcement


Green Apple Day of Service 

Rachel Gutter did 24 news interviews and virtual tours to promote Green Apple Day of Service around the country. They were all with networks affiliates across the country. 

Also, the day of service project coordinators and volunteers all received a template media advisory and press release.

Chapter Corner

New Jersey
AB 3680/Chapter 161, sponsored by Assembly Commerce and Economic Development Committee Chair Albert Coutinho, D-Newark, was signed into law on September 18 by Republican Gov. Chris Christie. This law creates “The New Jersey Economic Opportunity Act of 2013” and merges five economic development incentive programs into two programs. The Economic Development Authority is now required to establish standards based on the Green Building Manual prepared by the Community Affairs Commissioner. These standards are referred to as “minimum environmental and sustainability standards.” In addition to an initial tax credit given through the bill, $250 will be given each year for each full-time employee for projects exceeding the minimum environmental and sustainable standards, with an additional $250 a year for projects exceeding the LEED “silver” rating system.

USGBC Inland Empire
The USGBC Inland Empire Chapter (USGBC-IE) has been reaching out beyond architects, engineers and builders to low-income communities through its Sustainable and Healthy Community Initiative. This initiative aims to provide green building education and hands-on project experience to underserved communities, and to increase engagement with local programs related to green homes, green schools, green workplaces, and healthy communities.

 CTGBC and Urban Green Council (NY Metro USGBC Chapter)
Inter-chapter joint programming for Climate Week NYC: "Sea Change: The Shifting Relationship Between Sustainability and Resiliency."

Resiliency

Today, September USGBC and ICLEI hosted a National Leadership Speaker Series on Resiliency and Security in the 21st Century at the National Press Club. Sacramento Mayor, Kevin Johnson. More to come soon!



Common Ground Around Green Schools
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Friday, September 13, 2013

Advocacy Weekly Update: September 13, 2013

Happy Friday the 13th! 

Watch out for those black cats, ladders, and broken mirrors, today! The Advocacy Team was out of the office last week on a staff retreat, so there was no update; which means, today's update may be a bit longer.

Federal Update 

This week, the Senate began consideration of a bipartisan energy efficiency bill, S. 1392, commonly referred to as Shaheen-Portman. The consideration of the base legislation and voting on relevant amendments to the bill have been held at bay through procedural efforts in an attempt to force a vote on elimination of federal contributions for health premiums for members of Congress and staff members under the health care overhaul. Majority Leader Reid and Minority Leader Reid have, as of yet, been unable to reach agreement on how to either address or dismiss this “non-germane” amendment  and proceed to regular order on S. 1392.

Many of you may have seen the amendment filed by Sen. Landrieu on Wednesday evening related to green building programs. It is now basically instructs agencies to do on-going review of credits, as opposed to selecting rating systems. Several USGBC members companies have been working behind the scenes to get chemical to back away from the “ban LEED” approach.
This amendment does not ban LEED, although it does increase the amount of bureaucratic red tape for the agencies, but they have reviewed the draft. LEED meets all the criteria specified in the amendment.

We greatly appreciate the support you have all provided in raising awareness what was being attempted and we are very thankful for the consistent message from our grassroots community and will keep in touch about how S. 1392 proceeds, if at all.

The #LEEDWorks campaign was extremely successful and we learned a lot about how to integrate social media into an advocacy effort. Take a look at some of the data and tweets!

Market Briefs 

We now have at our fingertips—state-by-state and region-by-region—an impressive collection of some of the countless, market-moving highlights of our 50-star studded flag under one green building nation.


Resiliency at the National Press Club - September 20th

The luncheon event features a keynote address by the Honorable Kevin Johnson, Mayor of the City of Sacramento and Chair of the Resilient Communities for America campaign, who will lay out a vision for a new national movement to safeguard our communities, adapt to a changing climate and transform adversity into economic opportunity. RSVP here 

Chapter Corner

USGBC-CA has been very busy the past few weeks!

  • AB 127 (Skinner), a bill that bans the use of flame retardant toxins for plastic spray-on foam insulation, passed the California Senate today 26-4 with support from the California Professional Firefighters and CBIA and recently converted "neutral" positions from the American Chemical Council, CMTA, Cal Chamber and the Spray Foam Manufacturers. 
  • AB 341 (Dickinson), new green building standards, passed an Assembly concurrence vote 77-1 (after a 38-0 Senate vote) and was enrolled and delivered to the Governor's desk.

USGBC-Illinois Victory: Energy benchmarking ordinance approved by Chicago City Council.
The new ordinance will provide another opportunity for Chicago building owners and tenants to learn about their energy use and work together to lower their costs. In addition, the ordinance sets a strong precedent that will help promote energy benchmarking and energy efficiency measures elsewhere in Illinois.

This event will bring together representatives from the local real estate industry, utilities, government, and NGO groups for a high level discussion the barriers and opportunities for successful adoption of upcoming changes to energy policy in Montgomery County.

Green Apple Day of Service - Have you invited your elected officials?
GADOS is only 2 weeks away! Remember to invite your lawmakers. You don't have to invite all of them, just invite the ones that you want to build a relationship with. Also, make sure that the event you are inviting them to will offer them an opportunity to meet with USGBC members and volunteers. Here is an invite that was put together for an event in Ohio to get you started.


Campaigns

I will be linking to each campaign's Yammer page. We will post and archive any interesting articles regarding each issue there. So I recommend you check it regularly!

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Sunday, September 8, 2013

We'll Be Back on September 13th!

The Advocacy team was at a staff retreat this past week! So no full update.

Just a quick reminder about about the monthly advocates call on September 10th at 3pm EST. To register, here's the link.
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