In response to the growing number of requests to provide information about green building to groups around the state, the SC Chapter is organizing a Speakers Bureau, which will allow our Chapter to provide up-to-date, accurate information on the growing green building movement, in the form of presentations given by Chapter Members to civic, professional, government and academic organizations.

WE WANT YOU to apply to be a member of our bureau!
Are you comfortable speaking to groups about a topic about which you are passionate? Are you eager to be a part of spreading the word about the benefits of green building and sustainable communities?
We hope you will volunteer to serve the Chapter as a member of our speakers bureau and be “on call” to speak with groups about the benefits of green building!

Please see our Speakers Bureau FAQ for more details about how the program will operate and how to apply!

By Andy Owens
aowens@scbiznews.com
Published May 26, 2010

Millions of dollars could come to Charleston over the next three years under a pilot program that gives the city up to $1 million upfront to make homes and businesses more energy efficient.

Charleston Mayor Joe Riley and representatives of local, state and national organizations including the U.S. Department of Energy, S.C. Energy Office, Coastal Conservation League,Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance, Trident Technical College and The Sustainability Instituteannounced the joint effort Tuesday in Charleston City Council Chambers.

Charleston is one of several cities across the country using $400 million in federal stimulus money to increase energy efficiency and green jobs in 25 different projects. Communities in eight Southeastern states are sharing in $20 million administered by the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance for the program dubbed Retrofit Ramp-Up.

Charleston will get up to $500,000 to design the program and another $500,000 for the weatherization work to be done. If the program goes well, the city could be in line for millions of dollars more, said Ben Taube, executive director of the alliance.

“It’s really about the second or third year of the program,” Taube said of the potential lasting impact of the program.

Gil Sperling, senior adviser at the Department of Energy, said a project such as Retrofit Ramp-Up creates jobs, helps reduce environmental impact and can save on the $130 billion a year that Americans spend on energy costs.

“As much as 50% of that energy is wasted,” Sperling said. “We have the technology today that pays for itself.”

Riley said the U.S. Conference of Mayors made energy conservation a top priority a number of years ago and was able to propose a programwhen The White House started looking for shovel-ready projects to stimulate the economy in 2008.

“Fortunately, we had that vehicle in place when President Obama and his team were working on the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act,” Riley said.

The first phase of the program will be to design it; the second phase will be to implement it. The Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance said the program is a pay-for-performance model, which means future funding will be based on cities’ performance. The grant is based on the provision of affordable, accessible financing programs to a combination of small and large residential, commercial and public buildings.

Bryan Cordell, executive director of the Sustainability Institute, said, “It’s a good opportunity to both weatherize homes in our community and give people jobs.”

Contractors could see work from the project by the end of the year, Sperling said. He said that getting financing in place for homeowners will take some work and mentioned rebates and tax credits. He said that if a homeowner had money to spend, the funds likely wouldn’t go toward efficiency improvements.

“They’re likely to spend it on granite countertops than energy-efficient systems,” Sperling said.

Last year, the Department of Energy did 150,000 retrofits, and few were privately financed. He said Americans need to retrofit and weatherize 10 million homes a year to make an impact.

“The only way to do that is the private sector. The private sector is eager,” he said. “To do that, the markets have to function properly.”

Our Chapter has partnered with the Conservation Voters of South Carolina (CVSC) to host a day at the SC Legislature on Tuesday April 13, 2010. The meeting will provide us with an opportunity to speak with our elected officials to promote green building and high performance building standards in our state.

Speaking directly with your legislator about how they plan to vote is the most effective way to influence decision-makers. Elected leaders notice when constituents take the time to speak with them about an issue.

WHEN: Tuesday, April 13
11:00 am  - 3:00 pm (or as long as you can stay)
WHERE: Meet at the Nickelodeon Theatre, 937 Main Street on the south side of the State Capitol, Columbia (Map)

Volunteers are NOT expected to be experts on all the issues. CVSC Staff and professional lobbyists will be on-hand to answer your questions and help you craft your message.

A major initiative of the Chapter Advocacy Team this year is to encourage all members of the House and Senate to join Senator Leventis’ Green Schools Caucus to promote the design, construction, operation and maintenance of high performance, green education facilities in South Carolina. In addition, please be sure to thank Senator Leventis and his staff for establishing the Green Schools Caucus.

Speak directly with your representative about your position on green building and its impact on our state and our planet.

Learn more about the Conservation Voters Lobby Day program, and please reply to Michael Criss if you plan to attend.

Thank you in advance for your time and participation in this great opportunity to have our mission and collective voices heard!

Message from Dennis Knight, SC Chapter Advocacy Chair:

Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Another year has passed and the USGBC SC Chapter Statewide Advocacy Committee is preparing for a very active legislative year promoting green buildings, energy efficiency and increasing the green jobs industry in our state.

The best way to do this effectively is to develop a strong, well connected, grassroots network of dedicated volunteers willing to talk to their elected officials about these issues and to take appropriate action when called upon.  It is the desire of the Chapter and me personally, that the Chapter be represented on this committee with a diverse cross section of the chapter membership and the citizens of our state.  The committee should represent and give voice to every social, economic and business sector.

To that end, I would like to solicit every member’s help and participation to create and grow this network.  To be clear, I am not asking you to attend monthly meetings, conference calls or face-to-face meetings.  We will do this from time-to-time and you are certainly welcome to come and participate, if you have the time.  However, if you are willing and able to participate, even in a small way, please provide me with as much of the following information as you feel comfortable sharing and let me know how much time and effort you feel like you can invest in the advocacy efforts of the Chapter.

Please take a minute to fill out the short questionnaire about your interest and depth and breadth of experience in our state’s governmental system, found here.

Please forward your response to me at: dknight@liollio.com.
If you have any questions or need additional information, please contact me.
Thank you in advance for considering this information I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Dennis Knight
USGBC SC Statewide Advocacy Committee Chair

TOPIC: Green Legislation

WHEN: Friday, February 12
Registration starts at 11:30 am; lunch served at 11:45 am; Program runs 12:00 pm – 1:15 pm
WHERE: Midlands Technical College, Northeast Campus (Map)
The program will be held in the main auditorium on the first floor, accessible from the front door.
COST: $10/person includes lunch

RSVP by February 8, 2010

Learn about the 2010 legislative priorities of the South Carolina Conservation Common Agenda, from the green advocates and lobbyists who work with the General Assembly.  Topics include developing a comprehensive state energy policy that focuses on efficiency and alternative energy sources, water withdrawal permitting, and funding the South Carolina Conservation Bank.

SC Renewable Energy Forum: Energy Legislation – Impacts & Opportunities

For the first time, this meeting will be combined with representatives of the solar, biomass and wind energy industries to discuss federal and state legislation that would impact renewable energy development in South Carolina. A meeting agenda for the ‘SC Renewable Energy Forum’ will be circulated in the near future.

WHEN: Monday, January 25th from 1pm to 5pm

WHERE: Columbia Convention Center (1101 Lincoln Street, Columbia, SC)

COST: Free to the general public

RSVP: By Monday, January 18th to Erika Myers at emeyers@energy.sc.gov with your name, affiliation, title, and email address.

House Conservation Briefing

“Conserving Communities…naturally”

Wednesday, January 13^th

Blatt Building, Room 101

8:30 – 9:30 am

Hosted by House Majority Leader, Rep. Kenneth Bingham

and House Minority Leader Rep. Harry Ott

Conversations with Conservationists

“Conserving Communities…naturally”

Wednesday, January 13^th

Gressette Building, Room 105

10:30 – 11:30 am

Hosted by Sen. John Courson

Chairman of the Senate Education Committee

At both briefings, a presentation will be made on the 2010 priorities, followed by a Q&A session:

• Protecting Our Water (Water withdrawal permitting, water utility notification, and 3-strikes spill bill)
• Fueling our Economic Engine (Funding our natural resource agencies)
• Keeping the Conservation Bank Alive (Increased land protection funding; remove 2013 Sunset Provision)
• Standing Up for Public Health (Changing DHEC)
• Reducing Mercury Exposure (Adopt stricter standards for mercury emitters)
• Re-energizing South Carolina (Adopt a renewable portfolio standard and energy efficiency resource standard)

Cleantech Approach (www.cleantechapproach.com, a research and advisory organization focused on providing specialized research and advisory services to municipalities, institutions, and global development organizations utilizing or advancing the use of sustainable technologies and practices) recently published a report on energy efficient lighting, conducted at the request of a top-five municipality.

The municipality requested the report because they are considering retrofitting their facilities and infrastructure in order to make them more sustainable.  The report benchmarks solid state/LED lighting solutions against their conventional lighting counterparts (incandescent, halogen, CFL, linear fluorescent, and metal halide) across three end-markets (residential, commercial office, and retail).  The report identifies end-markets in which these next generation lighting solutions outperform, their relative costs of operation, and their payback periods.  The report has been well received by the sponsoring municipality; other municipalities with infrastructure sustainability needs; architects and lighting designers; real estate developers, operators and owners; and institutions (i.e., universities) who have remarked that they have not had a central resource that presents the information as clearly.

In this report, CTA takes a detailed look at a market that offers cities a tremendous energy saving opportunity, solid state lighting (SSL).  Through their rigorous benchmarking of SSL solutions versus their conventional lighting counterparts, they have determined the markets in which SSL solutions outperform, their relative costs of operation, and their payback periods.

Check out the Executive Summary here!

Mayors Alliance for Green Schools

Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels announced on October 1 the formation of the Mayors Alliance for Green Schools, a coalition of mayors seeking to strategically harness the leadership and creativity of mayors across the country to promote the benefits of green schools in their communities. Developed in partnership with the U.S. Green Building Council, the Alliance will to work to accelerate implementation of programs supporting the 2007 U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) resolution calling for green schools for all children within a generation.

“As first responders to the needs of their communities, mayors are the vanguard of sustainable development in our country,” said Rick Fedrizzi, president, CEO and founding chair of USGBC, “and USGBC wants to do all we can to support them, especially in this critically important initiative. We have Green School Advocacy Committees in 80 local USGBC chapters throughout the country, and we are putting them at the mayors’ disposal to advance opportunities, programs and initiatives that champion green school causes and help them publicly celebrate their successes.”

Together with Mayor Diaz and Mayor Nickels, Mayor Gavin Newsom, San Francisco, Cal; Mayor Will Wynn, Austin, Texas; Mayor Frank Cownie, Des Moines, Iowa; and Mayor George Heartwell, Grand Rapids, Mich.; have put forth a call to mayors around the country to join this important effort to support green schools for all children.

Mayors across the country are leading efforts to deliver the benefits of green schools to their communities. For example, in Miami, San Francisco, and Chicago, EcoMedia is working with mayors to leverage innovative public‐private partnerships that create new opportunities for green school projects.

Other Alliance initiatives will work to:

• Develop and create public‐private partnerships with a local business to allow schools to plant a green roof, install a solar garden or start a recycling program.
• Help school districts green their existing facilities through the Clinton Climate Initiative’s K‐12 Retrofit Program.
• Encourage state legislatures to create policies and incentives for green school improvements.
• Engage in a national dialogue about green schools, green jobs and green infrastructure.

Click here for more info on Green Schools

The Advocacy Committee organizes around significant public issues facing green building at the state and local levels, as well as with USGBC’s national initiatives. The Chapter committee also works on local and municipal policy matters.  The committee serves as a voice for pending legislation and communicates such matters to Chapter members through regular communications.  Contact the Committee chair to get involved in the issues of interest to you.