Army to Congress: LEED doesn't cost more
BuildingGreen.com
The federal government has been one of the biggest supporters of LEED certification in the past few years, with the General Services Administration requiring basic LEED certification for all federal buildings starting in 2003 and then upping that requirement to LEED Gold in 2010. The military has been on the cutting edge of green building from the beginning.More

Behind the top 10 list for green building markets
GreenBiz
It's always interesting to learn how the leaders in any top 10 list emerged as the front-runners, especially in the sustainability arena where green rankings abound. Rankings, spankings and scorecards usually are accompanied by summaries — if not full reports — from ratings organizations on why certain companies, cities or schools made the cut for any given list.More

California loans planned for state agency that aided Solyndra
Bloomberg
California is working with banks to develop low-interest loans for owners of commercial and industrial property to finance upgrades that curb energy use, state Controller John Chiang said. A pool of funds would be made available under criteria set by the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority, Chiang said in a recent telephone interview.More

Study: Demand for green home building and remodeling on the rise
Mother Nature Network
Some encouraging and not entirely surprisingly news from the housing front: According to recently published findings from McGraw-Hill Construction's Green Home Builders and Remodelers Survey, the construction of eco-friendly single-family homes represented an impressive 17 percent — or $17 billion if you want to put a economic activity-related price tag on it — of the overall American residential construction market in 2011.More

USGBC preps for 2012 LEED update
GlobeSt
The third draft of the U.S. Green Building Council's proposed 2012 update to its LEED green building program will be open to public comments starting March 1, and ending 20 days later. With so many multiple rounds, USGBC is quick to remind that LEED's strength comes from its continuous evolution.More

What comes next after green building?
Daily Commercial News and Construction Record
Now that green building practices widely have become accepted by the global architecture-engineering-construction industry, what comes next? Studies predict that future innovation will be driven by the need to reduce energy use and cost, but the AEC industry will move at a different pace and in different directions, depending upon where you are. More

Real estate leaders working together to make it easier for people to buy, sell green homes
WHO-TV
Buying a new home can be confusing, especially when you throw in terms like energy star and sustainable. As more new and existing homes are built to a green code, leaders in the industry are working together to help homeowners figure out the business of buying a green certified home.More

Report shows environmental benefits of retrofits
EcoHome
Renovating an existing building is almost always more environmentally beneficial than demolishing an existing structure and building a more energy-efficient one, according to a new report by the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Preservation Green Lab. The report asserts that renovating an existing structure is more environmentally beneficial because it takes between 10 and 80 years for the benefits of a new energy-efficient building to compensate for the carbon emissions incurred during its construction.More

Across the pond
EcoHome
If you focus only on the reasons why European home builders are a decade or more ahead of the United States in the quality and performance of sustainable housing, you'll miss the available, proven and affordable technologies and tactics that can travel over the Atlantic to close that gap.More