South Carolina Chapter, U.S. Green Building Council

Chapter News and Events
2009 USGBC-SC Chapter Board of Directors & Branch Election Results

The results of the election are as follows: Midlands BOD Seat (1-year): Allen Taylor
Midlands BOD Seat (3-year): Laura Cloud
Upstate BOD Seat: John Hansen
Lowcountry BOD Seat: Dennis Knight
Grand Strand BOD Seat: Whatley Bush

Upstate Branch Steering Committee: Lee Chapman Brett Caldwell Jeff Gentile Aimee Morrow	Lowcountry Branch Steering Committee: Jennifer Gilmer Ashley Hamlett Jerry Hunt Bob Duke

December Annual Chapter Business Meeting
When: Friday, Dec 12th, 2008: 11:30 am Lunch & Meeting
Where: USC Green Quad & Learning Center in Columbia, SC
The date for our annual business meeting and social is set. Stay tuned for more details soon, and don't forget about our Annual Green Toy Drive!

USGBC-SC Challenge Grant Fund Drive

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

$10,000

$8,000

$6,000

$4,000

$2,000

USGBC-SC was fortunate to earn one of only six matching grants in the amount of $25,000 to help with the cost of hiring paid staff. The Chapter has determined that it has $15,000 in its current operating budget towards this goal, but it needs to raise $10,000.00 to receive the matching grant from national.

Our membership is exploding, and we are currently an all-volunteer organization. To take full advantage of this unique opportunity to hire a professional to maximize our effectiveness in creating a more sustainable South Carolina, our Chapter's very first Executive Director has been selected, Ms. Jenny Wiedower from the Lowcountry. She will come on board in November.

Please take a moment and click below for a donation form and make a completely tax-deductible contribution!

USGBC-SC Chapter Executive Director Hired

We are honored to welcome our very first staff member to the Chapter. Please join us in welcoming Jenny Wiedower to our Chapter family, our very first Executive Director to serve our Chapter and Branches. She served as the first Coordinator for the South Carolina District Council of the Urban Land Institute. Shortly after earning her Masters in Environmental Studies from the College of Charleston with an emphasis in Environmental Policy, began working with the Navy Yard at Noisette's Community Association and Business District Association, and also served as administrator of the Navy Yard Design Resource Board.

Vote on the proposed draft of LEED 2009

USGBC invites all member company primary contacts to vote on the proposed draft of LEED 2009. The draft includes LEED for New Construction, Core and Shell, Schools, Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance and Commercial Interiors with future plans to incorporate other LEED rating systems into the structure.

Overview
Continuing to strike the optimal balance between market uptake and technical advancement is one of the driving forces behind LEED 2009. Much has been invested in the current LEED rating system and a concerted effort has been made to ensure that LEED 2009 capitalizes on the existing market momentum while addressing the needs of LEED users. Consequently, the LEED Steering Committee has created a LEED structure that will be familiar to those versed in the current rating system. Most of the structural and technical changes incorporated into LEED 2009 were designed to create a rating system that can be part of a continuous improvement cycle.

LEED 2009 is not a "tear down and rebuilding" of LEED, but rather a reorganization of the existing rating systems along with several key advancements. LEED 2009 consists of prerequisite and credit alignment and harmonization, transparent environmental and human impact credit weighting, regionalization, and a predictable development cycle. Prerequisite and credit alignment and harmonization has enabled USGBC to organize and administer LEED in a new way. The LEED "bookshelf" is an organizational structure that will be used to administer the rating system. This framework allows credits and prerequisites to be housed uniformly across multiple rating systems where possible. The rating systems that are currently undergoing USGBC member ballot are outputs of this bookshelf organized in a way that will be familiar to LEED users. Changes currently under development for LEED Online are envisioned to update the way project teams access LEED, but the credit, prerequisite structure and mix of credits remain the same. Since the LEED bookshelf is an organizational framework and not a change to the requirements in LEED it is not part of the ballot process. Additional information about LEED Online will be available in the coming months.

Member Ballot
The USGBC is seeking member approval to release LEED 2009 for use. The member ballot is the final step in the process used to develop, test, evaluate, revise and publish LEED rating systems and credit mandates. Your organization is strongly encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity to contribute to the evolution of LEED.

Period for Vote
In accordance with the USGBC Balloting Procedures, the ballot period will be open for 30 days from Tuesday, October 14th through Friday, November 14th at 5:00 PM EDT.

In order to pass, LEED 2009 needs to reach a quorum of 10 percent of USGBC members and two-thirds affirmative votes.

Who can Vote
All USGBC member organizations in good standing are entitled to one (1) vote. Your organization's primary contact is the only individual from your company permitted to represent your organization in this vote. According to the USGBC Bylaws, liaison organizations are not eligible to vote. To identify the primary contact for your organization, visit the USGBC Member Directory to enter the name of your organization. If you are not the primary contact for your organization and are receiving this email, please contact us at leedinfo@usgbc.org.

Each member organization may vote to approve with or without comments, disapprove with comments, or abstain. There is no option to disapprove without comment. You may view comments and responses from the public comment periods below. USGBC is not required to respond to comments submitted during the ballot. Once a ballot is cast it cannot be modified.

How to Vote
To vote on the LEED 2009, please click here.

Documents for Ballot
To view the documents that are up for USGBC member ballot, please click on the link below.
LEED 2009 Draft Rating Systems for Ballot

More Information
LEED 2009 Public Comments & Responses
LEED 2009 Final Scorecards

Supporting Documents
LEED 2009 Vision & Executive Summary
Credit & CIR Alignment
Weightings
Regionalization

News

GREENBUILD 2008 in Boston ... Nov 19-21, 2008

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