Friday, October 25, 2013

Advocacy Week in Review October 25, 2013

Federal Update -BREAKING NEWS


Breaking News: LEED Green Building Program Remains Preferred Rating System for Use in Federal Buildings
Today the General Services Administration (GSA) finally made the much, much anticipated recommendation to government agencies on their use of green building certification systems. LEED remains a program of choice, and the recommendation comes over a year after more than 1,250 businesses and organizations urged GSA to continue to use LEED, and 8 months after the National Academy of Sciences recommended LEED Silver for Department of Defense projects.  Read more here.

Congress
With the Senate in recess this week and the House on an abridged schedule the focus of the hill was largely on problems with the health care law’s federal insurance exchanges and how to address improve the programs performance.
The lull in activities this week will be short lived as Senate Budget Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-WA) and House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, (R-WI), are set to convene the first formal meeting of the budget conference committee on October 30. As many recall, this conference is one element that lawmakers agreed to in part to re-open the federal government. While this effort could have dramatic implications on long term debt and deficit issues there is a great deal of skepticism that much will actually come from the effort.

2013 USGBC Board Elections

Have you voted yet?  Board elections are happening right now for the USGBC board. You can view the ballot and the slate of candidates. You have until October 30, 2013 to vote for new board members. Make your voice heard!

Affordable Housing Summit - November 19-20 at GreenBuild

This two-day summit will educate, advance, challenge and inspire those who already are involved in providing green affordable housing and community development, as well as engage those who are just being introduced to this exciting and active development sector. For more information click here.


Green Schools Nominations

The Best of Green Schools list highlights green schools leadership across 10 categories. The Center for Green Schools is now accepting submissions for the Best of Green Schools 2013 list. You can find the online submission form here. 
We invite you to nominate any stories that moved you this year, and ask that you please share the call for submissions with your networks. Nominations must be submitted online by Friday, November 29. Learn more about the 2011 and 2012 recipients here.
The 2013 Best of Green Schools nomination categories are:
  • K-12 (school or district)
  • Higher education (institution or system)
  • Policy maker (person)
  • Ambassador (person)
  • Community event
  • Collaboration
  • Student Leadership
  • Business Leadership 
  • Transformation
  • Moment of the movement
This has been another monumental year for the green schools movement and we’re excited to see this year’s submissions. Thank you for your continued support and please let us know if you have any questions about this process.


Save the Date: November Advocates Call - November 12th at 2pm ET (Please note change of time)

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Friday, October 18, 2013

Advocacy Week In Review: October 18, 2013

State Focused

Ohio Capitol Dome

O-H-I-O

This week's update will be more about the work that is happening out in the states as Jeremy Sigmon, Nate Allen, Emily Riordan, and myself spent most of the week in Columbus, Ohio. We had the opportunity to meet with chapter members, connect with legislators and help support the chapters' legislator education efforts. Also, green homes rater and USGBC-Cincinnati  Regional chapter volunteer, Paul Yankie submitted testimony about the energy efficiency aspects of LEED and green building to the Policy and Legislative Oversight committee. Unfortunately, due to the length of testimony from other witnesses, Paul couldn't testify to committee members. However, the topic of his testimony was noted by the committee chair, as it brought in an additional point of view - energy efficiency -  to Ohio's current energy policy discussions, which has largely centered on energy production.
Jeremy, Paul, and Christina at the Ohio Capitol
Jeremy, Christina, Emily, and Nate at the Ohio
state display inside the Ohio Capitol.
Although, we did not find out about this until after the store opened. Walmart opened its first LEED registered store in South Euclid, Ohio.


Victory in New Mexico.


The Policy: The entire rule change as it was written (which included the piece about striking down LEED) was voted down by the State Board of Finance this week. 

The Chapter: This year’s tumultuous advocacy and policy challenges in New Mexico has reinvigorated the founding board chair, Karen Cook. Through the work this year, she reconnected with the USGBC-NM board and is initiating a planning process for further growth in the New Year and beyond. On the advocacy front, meetings are being scheduled in Santa Fe to make sure the Chapter has enough face time to reemerge as an effective voice for green building in the state. Also, through the advocacy process and the Green Ribbon Schools program, the Emerging Green Builder network has grown from zero to a multi-university participation with roughly 25 students and growing.

Federal Update

After more than two weeks of tense negotiations the federal agencies have resumed regular operations and the borrowing authority of the federal government has been extended to the beginning of next year. With one fiscal crisis resolved, the next round budget fights and policy battles are beginning. As part of the deal to re-open the federal government, lawmakers are preparing for the first budget conference committee in four years that will cast a wide net on federal spending. USGBC will be following the progress of those negations and will update chapters and our membership with more information as it becomes available.

Campaign Corner


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Friday, October 11, 2013

Advocacy Weekly Update: October 11, 2013

The Shutdown Continues

The second week of the partial government shutdown is coming to a close, while the debt ceiling limit is looming next week. For any statistic nerds out there, The Wall Street Journal and NBC released a poll that was taken last week. Here it is for your reading pleasure.





October Advocates Call

Thank you to everyone who made it for the October Advocates call. For those who missed it, here is a recording of the WebEx. A special thank you to Patti Mason for sharing Colorado's advocacy planning experience.

Chapter Corner

California
California Governor Jerry Brown signed AB 341 into law – a victory for the continually improving California Green Building Standards Code (CALGreen).  The bill, cosponsored by Assembly members Dickinson and Gordon, was both conceived and actively supported by USGBC California and the California Building Industry Association, among others. 

LEED v.4 Resources

A suite of LEED v4 resources for chapters is now available and includes a presentation with talking points, an FAQ and information on how you can host the free Introduction to LEED v4 Webinar Series to your members for CE hours.

2014 and Beyond

Chapter Grants
Just a reminder that the Letters of Inquiry for chapter Strategic Investment and Impact grants are due on Tuesday, October 15th. If you are planning to include advocacy in your grant request, please feel free to reach out to me with questions or suggestions!

Sample Plans
I posted a few old campaign/issue plans on Yammer as a reference for chapters as they start looking to put together their priorities and activities for 2014. Please take a look and send me any questions you may have.

Advocacy Weekly Update Hack

The format of this update has been a big change - better or worse - for subscribers to this weekly update. I want to offer one recommendation to help ease the transition. It depends on how you like to receive this information. 

If you prefer to receive the content of the email right in the body of the email, then you should subscribe to this blog. You can subscribe by entering your email in the top right hand corner of the blog. See the screenshot above. You will receive an email with the weekly update in the body of the email; once it is live. If you still want to receive the link in the email, then you don't have to do anything.





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Friday, October 4, 2013

Advocacy Update and Reminder October 4, 2013

Green Apple Day of Service Round-Up

Many of you tirelessly worked to make your day of service projects a success! I hope you are celebrating all that you and your chapter accomplished. Here is a quick round-up of how Green Apple went around the country.

Reminder: Advocates Monthly Call - Tuesday, October 8th @3pm ET

This month advocacy call will focus on looking ahead to 2014 and what you an do to prepare. To join via Webex: https://usgbc.webex.com/usgbc/j.php?ED=220666962&UID=507270947&PW=NMjIwNDhiODU5&RT=MiMxMQ%3D%3D
Meeting Number:             750 497 187
Meeting Password:          Adv0cates

 Call-in only: 1-650-429-3300 code: 750 497 187#

 The Chapter Community team helped us spread the word to the chapters about 2014 advocacy priorities. Take a look before the call on Tuesday and come prepared to ask questions!

 Also, unsure of how to get more resources for advocacy in your chapter? Have you looked at the 2014 Chapter Grant Opportunities? Letters of Inquiry (LOI) are due October 15, 2013. I'll be helping the Community team go through the advocacy portions of any LOIs.Please let me know if you have any questions.

Federal Update

As the federal government shutdown enters its fourth day, there will be another tense weekend session during which Senate Democrats will keep pressuring the House to pass a stopgap spending bill without any controversial policy riders. Meanwhile, the House is preparing 11 individual spending bills in an attempt to reopen parts of the government and keep pressure on the Senate to negotiate. Some of those bill are expected to be considered by the House floor as soon as today. However, there seems to be little optimism that the current impasse will be resolved anytime soon.

Malcolm Lewis Impact! Award

Do you have an outstanding advocacy volunteer that has left his/her mark on your chapter? Are you that volunteer who has more than just "contributed" to your chapter? If you answered "Yes!" to either of those questions, then you need to submit a nomination for the Malcolm Lewis Impact! Award.

2014 Advocacy Day at Your State Capital

Some chapters have already started thinking about advocacy days at their state capitals. The New York chapters are bringing a new partner for their 2014 advocacy day, one of their champion state representatives. Michigan is considering having an advocacy day before the Michigan Legislature gets into the weeds with budgets. Has your chapter started planning your advocacy day? Share what you will be doing at your state capital and ask any questions you may have on Yammer.

Campaign Updates

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