It's Easy Being Green

Community News story posted 6/13/07:

It's Easy Being Green, Experts Say

It's easy being green - that's what a recent event announcement proclaimed. With environmental issues at the forefront, many Chicagoans are wondering what they can do to reduce global warming and live more sustainably. A June 7 event, part of an Illinois Humanities Council series hosted at the Chicago History Museum, gave residents some ideas about how to lead a greener life.

The city's newest green building, the Center on Halsted, grabbed much of the event's spotlight. Center Chairman Robert Kohl spoke proudly of the building at 3656 N Halsted St. - for both its design and purposes.

"When we began planning and designing the building, we knew of (Mayor) Daley's fondness for green," Kohl said, and thought "how cool it would be to have a green roof."

One center advocate understood the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) codes and knew that "a lot of grant money was available," Kohl said. "And because we had significant commitments from city and federal government, it felt like good stewardship for us as leaders of our communities to do this green building."

The center earned a silver rating in the LEED program, which provides points for design, construction and operation. The five areas evaluated are: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor-environmental quality, according to the U.S. Green Building Council, which established the rating system.

In Illinois, there are more than 300 LEED-registered projects, according to the U.S. Green Building Council project list dated April 12, 2007. These projects include government and office buildings, libraries, schools and non-profit organizations. Slightly more than half of the projects are in Chicago.

For full story:
http://chicagotalks.org/wiki/it-s-easy-being-green-experts-say
(c) Keri Lynch 2007