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Save the Date
July 30 - Aug 2, 2008
Orange County Convention Center
Orlando, FL
Featuring education programs presented by the
industry's leading experts, plus over 1,000 exhibits to keep you
ahead of the competition.
GreenTrends is a great opportunity to showcase
your green building products, services and resources to over
16,000 industry professionals - from residential to commercial
builders and developers, to designers. For exhibitor
information, contact Terri at 850-224-4316 or email
trea@fhba.com
Again this year we are co-locating with the
Southeast Building Conference.
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Calendar
Upcoming Events of Interest
April 1, 2008
Residential Photovoltaic Systems
- Practical Aspects
The A-Z of residential solar systems,
plus marketing tips, financing options and incentive
programs.
Contact: Cheryl
(239)
262-0304
ext 266
April 5-8, 2008
Tallahassee, FL
FHBA Spring Conference
The Florida Home Builders Association
annual legislative conference plays a key role in
grassroots efforts for affecting legislative policy.
Contact FHBA at 850-224-4316.
April 6, 2008
2:30 pm - 3:30 pm
Tallahassee, FL
FHBA Green Building Committee Meeting
FGBC members who are also members of FHBA are
encouraged to attend this committee meeting to help
promote the FGBC programs and influence FHBA
position on green building issues.
April 24-25, 2008
Tampa, FL
FGBC Mid-Year Conference
Contact FGBC at 850-894-3422.
May 11-13, 2008
New Orleans, LA
NAHB Green Building Conference
Network with designers and suppliers,
attend exceptional education sessions and develop the
skills you need for profitable green building. For
more information visit the
NAHB Green Building
Conference website.
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FGBC Mid-Year
Conference Set
Innisbrook Resort in Tampa to Host Event April 24-25
The Florida Green Building Coalition will hold its
mid-year general membership meeting
on April 24-25 at the Innisbrook
Resort in Tampa. The event is free to
all FGBC members and provides an excellent opportunity
for networking and expanding your business contacts.
Working committees begin at 2 p.m. on Thursday and are
followed with a reception that evening. Standing
Committees meet Friday morning and the conference
concludes with a general session from 10 a.m. to 12
p.m.
Plan now to attend. FGBC is only as strong as our
members' voices!
Register Now.
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PSC Lets
Consumers Sell Back Power
Net Metering
Should Boost Solar Energy Installations
Florida's Public Service Commission ratified a rule
recently that allows users of renewable energy
generation techniques, such as solar power, to offset
the costs by selling the excess power back to the
utility.
The PSC says the rule also expands the size of eligible
systems from 10 kilowatts to 2 megawatts, expands the
type of eligible systems from solely photovoltaic to all
renewable technologies and expedites interconnection of
customer-owned renewable generation.
Bruce Kershner of the Florida Solar Energy Industries
Association said the policy, called net metering, will
promote the use of solar energy and create a more
robust solar energy industry in Florida.
Read the
full story from the Jacksonville Business
Journal
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Buford Brings Green
to Martin County
Wakeman Home is first
FGBC-Certified Green Home in Stuart
 Buford
Construction has built the first green-certified home in
Martin County, which received a score of 131 under the Florida
Green Building Coalition Green Home Standard. Much of the
original landscaping was saved, and added landscaping complied
with or exceeded the Florida Yards & Neighborhoods practices. |
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Progress Energy Turns
to Windmills
Central
Florida to be site of demonstration project
Progress Energy Florida will evaluate opportunities
for wind energy generation by using five wind turbines
at five different locations across the state. The
demonstration project will provide 15,000 kilowatt
hours of wind energy every year, about enough to run a
single household for a year. Proposed locations for
the windmills are on land in Pinellas, Citrus, Levy,
Sumter, and Orange or Lake counties pledged by
Progress Energy and Florida's Turnpike Enterprise. [more]
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Palm Harbor Modular
Is First to Receive
Palm Harbor Homes' Bimini model is the first modular
home to receive the U.S. Department of Energy's EnergySmart
label. The Bimini is rated at 57 HERS based on the Home
Energy Rating System index developed by the Residential
Energy Services Network (RESNET). This 57 rating means that
the home is 43 percent more energy efficient than the
typical new home built today and, at 3,644 square feet, the
home has an expected average bill of less than $150 per
month for electricity and gas. The Bimini was built in the
company's Plant City, Florida building center.
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First Carbon Offset Products Certified
Green-e Climate verifies GHB emission
reductions
The Center for Resource Solutions announced that
Green-e Climate, a new independent certification
program for carbon offset products, has certified products
offered by retailers 3Degrees, Bonneville Environmental
Foundation, Community Energy, and Renewable Choice Energy.
These products have met or exceeded Green-e Climate's
standards for project verification and measurement, consumer
transparency, and truth-in-marketing claims, and will be
granted the use of the Green-e Climate logo.
Green-e Climate is a consumer-protection program
requiring that greenhouse gas emission reductions be
verified according to a project-level certification program
that ensures the reductions have taken place, are permanent,
and come from projects that would not have happened under a
"business as usual" scenario. Project-level certification
programs that are endorsed by the program include: the Clean
Development Mechanism, the Gold Standard, the Voluntary
Carbon Standard, and the Green-e Climate Protocol for
Renewable Energy. Sellers of certified offsets must provide
customers with a product content label that explains where
the reductions were sourced from, including the locations
and types of projects, such as renewable energy, forestry,
and methane capture. Sellers must also undergo a yearly
audit to ensure their supply of offsets matches their sales,
and comply with Green-e Climate's
consumer-disclosure and truth in advertising requirements.
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Crist Co-Chairs
Conservation Coalition
Southeast
region's states will set energy efficiency goals
SEEA is mobilizing the leadership of
governors to encourage the use of energy efficiency within
the eleven southeast states. With the support of SEEA
Associates, foundations, DOE, and many others, SEEA has
created a coalition that will be lead by two prominent
Governors in the Southeast. Governor Crist of Florida and
Governor Bredesen of Tennessee have agreed to co-chair this
coalition. SEEA seeks a region-wide commitment from the
eleven Southeast governors to adopt the goal of displacing
some percentage of projected energy demand growth through
the effective deployment of energy efficiency and
conservation. The region's states will work together with
other private and public sector leaders, at the invitation
of the governors, to develop the plans, policies and
programs necessary to achieve the dialogued goal. The first
meeting of the coalition will occur in March.
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DOE Launches
'Builders Challenge'
Goal set at 220,000
EnergySmart Homes by 2012
DOE launched the
Builders Challenge recently, calling on the U.S.
homebuilding industry to build 220,000 high-performance,
energy efficient homes by 2012. Homebuilders have already
pledged to build 6,000 high-performance homes under the
new voluntary national program. DOE ranks all homes
participating in the Builders Challenge on the EnergySmart
Home scale, or E-scale, which rates a home based on its
overall energy performance.
DOE aims for 1.3 million of these high-performance homes
to be built by 2030, allowing the owners of those homes to
collectively save as much as $1.7 billion in energy costs
while avoiding the greenhouse gas emissions equal to the
emissions of 606,000 cars.
To support builders participating in the challenge, DOE
has made available "builder option packages," which
provide guidance for building high-performance homes in
different climate zones. These packages also outline the
criteria for qualifying for a $2,000 federal tax credit
per the Energy Policy Act of 2005. To earn the credit,
homes must use only half as much energy for heating and
cooling as an average home of comparable size. Currently,
the credit applies to homes bought by the end of this year
for which construction was substantially completed after
August 8, 2005. See more information about the tax credits
on the
IRS Web site.
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Leon County
to Host Climate Summit
As county
moves forward on a climate action plan
Leon County, along with the
International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives
(ICLEI), is hosting a Climate Action Summit to create
awareness and promote conservation strategies for
businesses, citizens, civic groups, neighborhoods, and
governments for the purpose of helping reduce the region's
contribution to global warming.
The event, set for March 28 in
Tallahassee, is designed around three primary
tracks: Homeowners/neighborhood, business, and land
use/transportation. This is a great opportunity to learn
how to reduce your carbon footprint. Registration is $10
per person. To register visit
www.leoncountyfl.gov/growinggreen.
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NewsNotes
Bits and Pieces of Trivia
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Suzanne B. Cook, CAE
Florida Green Building Coalition |
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