The End of a Crazy Year

by Marcy Marro | December 1, 2020 12:00 am

Congratulations, we’ve made it. We’ve finally made it to the end of 2020, a year that has been unlike any in our lifetime, and hopefully unlike any to come. We’ve managed to shelter in place with our families and learned how to visit and stay connected with friends and loved ones through FaceTime and Zoom calls. We’ve figured out how to work from home while helping our kids learn from home. We’ve lived through one of the most intense presidential campaigns and have come out the other side unscathed for the most part. It’s been a weird year as we’ve celebrated birthdays, anniversaries and holidays not with our usual parties and dinners but with drive-by parades and video calls.

And while we haven’t had the opportunity to travel and attend tradeshows like we have in the past, in many instances, the show must go on, and Greenbuild[1] was no exception. This year’s event, sponsored by the U.S. Green Building Council[2] (USGBC), was virtual and took place over three days, November 10-12.

One of the new initiatives USGBC announced is ALL IN[3], an equity program that will focus on developing tools and resources to help address social, health and economic disparities through green building. To kick off the program, USGBC is funding 500 people[4] in underserved communities in their effort to pursue a LEED credential.

The USGBC also announced it will be releasing a LEED Zero[5] design rating system for new construction. A compliment to LEED certification, the new program will verify a project’s achievement of net zero goals for carbon, energy, water and waste.

Additionally, USGBC President and CEO Mahesh Ramanujam announced the aspirational goal for all new construction LEED projects to be LEED Positive[6] by 2025, and existing buildings by 2050. LEED Positive is a vision to help push the market beyond lessening the negative impact of buildings to reach a future that allows buildings, cities and communities to become vehicles of restoration and repair. There are four elements to LEED Positive, including continued investment in LEED v4.1; performance category certificates for existing building in categories like water or energy by using the Arc[7] performance platform; more stringent energy goals for existing buildings; and required net positive performance in carbon, energy and other LEED categories for both new construction and existing buildings.

Even at a time when things feel seemingly out of control, it’s important to keep an eye to the future. Designing buildings with a goal for a better future is beneficial for us all in the long run.

Source URL: https://www.metalarchitecture.com/blog/the-end-of-a-crazy-year/

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