Green Home Aurora Awards - Submittal Deadline April 23, 2004
This award program will recognize the most outstanding affordable home, custom home, production home, and demonstration home that have been certified "Green" by FGBC. Sponsored by Icynene.
Detail information (pdf)
Application form(MSWord)

GreenTrends 2004 - Green Building Enters the Mainstream
May 3 -5 in Jupiter Florida
Read press release (html), or distribute press release in pdf format
Register now
Featuring
Alex Wilson Executive Editor of Environmental Building News & President of BuildingGreen, Inc as keynote speaker,
Paul Bertram, Jr. , FCSI, CDT-LEED AP President/CEO of PRBDesign in Orlando,
Charles J. Kibert Ph.D., P.E. Holland Professor and immediate past Director of the M.E. Rinker Sr. School of Building Construction at UF
Eric Althouse, the Environmental, Safety, and Health Director for the Florida Department of Education
Elmer Burger, Vice President/Principal of Commercial Architecture at Astorino, responsible for leading the firm's award-winning green or sustainable design and LEED™ (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) projects
full list of speakers
one-page (two-sides) flyer - pdf format
full website

Plus four pre-conference workshops (May 3) and a tour of Abacoa and Evergrene on the afternoon of May 5

Want GreenTrends to Convene in Your City?

The GreenTrends Planning Committee is now accepting applications for becoming a host city for 2005 (deadline April 26, 2004) or 2006. Host Site information (pdf).

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Roy O. Bonnell, Jr. – FGBC Executive Director – ExecDir@FloridaGreenBuilding.org -(239) 263-6819

STATEWIDE CONFERENCE ON GREEN BUILDING ANNOUNCED

JUPITER, Fla. (March 26, 2004) - GreenTrends 2004, a Florida focused statewide Green Building Conference and Trade Show being held this year on May 3-5, 2004 at the Florida Atlantic University campus in Jupiter, Florida has been announced by the Florida Green Building Coalition, Inc. (FGBC). The theme for this year's event is “ Green Building Enters the Mainstream , ” reflecting the rapid growth and adoption of green building and sustainable development standards by major developers and building contractors from across the state of Florida. These standards recognize environmental stewardship and allow consumers and government agencies to rely on certified green projects to assure there is no “greenwashing.” The Conference will serve as a forum to bring together those businesses, organizations, professions and individuals who are involved with or interested in learning about green building and sustainable development in Florida. It will provide participants with an opportunity to keep up-to-date on the various green building related programs, projects, standards, incentives, resources, technologies, and new materials that are currently available.

Full and half-day Pre-Conference workshops are being held on Monday, May 3, 2004 and include sessions on: (1) Checklist for Sustainable Development offered by the Florida Solar Energy Center; (2) Preserving Wildlife Habitat in Residential Developments offered by the University of Florida – Energy Extension Service; (3) GreenSmart®Pro 101- Marketing & Sales Course offered by GreenSmart Realty, LLC ; and (4 ) Florida Yards and Neighborhoods Course offered by the Florida Yards and Neighborhood Program. All of these workshops have CEU credits available.

The main Conference, held on Tuesday and Wednesday, May 4 & 5, 2004, will feature plenary sessions on a variety of green building related topics. The morning sessions on Tuesday will include: The New Green Building Trend in Florida presented by Paul Bertram, President of PRBDesign in Orland o; The Green Lodging Standard by Michael Ohlsen, Florida Department of Environmental Protection; The WaterStar Program by Kathleen Ruppert with the Florida Energy Extension Office; and the Keynote Address Green Building Products: Beyond Recycled Content presented by Alex Wilson, President of BuildingGreen, Inc. and Executive Editor of Environmental Building News.

Tuesday afternoon sessions will include: Green Development in Florida – The Developer's Perspective, which will feature presentations on (1) Verandah – FGBC's First Certified Green Development by Cynthia Caterham, The Bonita Bay Group, (2) Developing Green at Lakewood Ranch by Bob Sisum, SMR Communities, and (3) New Urbanism – The Abacoa Development by Nader Salour, Abacoa Development.; and Greening Local Government in Florida, which will feature presentation on (1) FGBC Green Municipal Standard for Cities and Counties by Eric Martin, Florida Solar Energy Center, (2 ) The Process of Greening Sarasota County by Susan Scott, Sarasota County Government and (3) Green Practices in the City of Gainesville – Pegeen Hanrahan, Gainesville City Council.

Wednesday morning will feature sessions on: Greening Commercial Buildings , with presentation on (1) How to Excel in Greening Commercial Buildings by Dr. Charles Kibert, University of Florida, (2 ) Green Commercial Building Case Studies by Elmer Burger, ASTORINO, (3) Building Green Schools by Eric Althouse, Florida Department of Education, and (4) FGBC's New Green Commercial Building Standard by Paul Shahriari, Greenlight Strategies; and Residential Green Building Certification , with presentation on (1 ) National Green Home Trends by Alex Wilson, BuildingGreen, Inc., (2) WCI Communities Green Home Strategy at Evergrene by Jim Adams, WCI Communities, and (3 ) Helping Custom and Production Builders with Certification & Marketing by Jennifer Languell, Trifecta Construction Solutions.

Two tours will be available during Wednesday afternoon. Karen Childress of WCI Communities will lead a tour of the Evergrene Development & Green Model Home, and Ed Maietta of Florida Atlantic University's Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions will lead a tour of the Abacoa Development. Display booths of innovative green building products and services will be available in the Exhibit areas for attendees to visit during the Conference.

GreenTrends is organized by the Florida Green Building Coalition, Inc., Florida's leading green building organization. For detail information and to register for GreenTrends 2004, visit our website at: www.GreenTrends.org . For more information on the Florida Green Building Coalition, Inc. go to: www.FloridaGreenBuilding.org .

Sarasota County is a leader in Sustainability Movement -
Sarasota County, one of the local governments helping the Florida Solar Energy Center and FGBC develop a green municipality standard for designating green cities and green counties, is taking a leadership role in the sustainability movement.

Sarasota County's goal in this sustainability movement is to ensure that today's natural resources are available for future generations. The county's most visible examples in this sustainability movement are recycling, the Florida Yards and Neighborhoods program, water resource management, purchasing environmentally sensitive lands and energy conservation, which is exemplified in our "green building." Other examples include integrated pest management and environmental landscape, along with an emphasis on purchasing environmentally friendly office and cleaning products. Green buildings are showcased in the Florida House, the new Twin Lakes office complex and the North County Library. The county has formed partnerships with architects, builders and suppliers such as Carlson, W.G. Mills, Kimal Lumber and others. Efforts to support sustainability are winning recognition and awards. Twin Lakes, for example, recently was honored with a state recognition for its sustainable design. The county promotes sustainability by building models, facilitating conversations and developing partnerships. Government can choose to regulate reactively, or to proactively model behaviors and balance. Government obviously has to regulate, but is also charged with an ethical obligation to provide a fair and balanced point of view when it comes to the community - in a way that the private sector doesn't have to - because a local government has to consider more than "the bottom line." These days, issues need to be considered strategically. Balance and fairness are required because this concept of sustainability runs through the middle of all our issues. Transportation and growth management are perfect examples. Financial sustainability means balancing just enough growth to keep tax bases stable and healthy, while avoiding growth that would overwhelm us. If you look at the seven strategic initiatives the Sarasota Board of County Commissioners has identified, you won't see the environment singled out. That's because the commissioners have determined that a sustainable environment needs to play a role in every strategic initiative. It's the same thing with recycling or integrated resource management planning. Rather than just building a water supply, the county is looking at how to manage water resources as a whole, including those impacts to the environment. In that regard, the county has taken the lead in this sustainability role. Sustainability becomes a theme verbalized through our value-added conversations, built into the models and developed in the partnerships with the private sector, other government agencies and with our community. Sarasota has plenty to celebrate in continuing to lead by example, not only for the local community, but also for our state, our nation and in some cases, the world.

Sarasota County has taped a half-hour TV segment to air on Access Sarasota TV-19 (available on Comcast Cablevision or may be viewed at www.scgov.net ). Click on the link below to view a short video clip from the program: http://scg.co.sarasota.fl.us/videos/20040308sustainCH19.asx
Link requires the free software Microsoft Windows Media Player to run (free download: www.microsoft.com/mediaplayer ). If you have trouble opening the video link, please respond to Sarasota County Public Communications only for support at pubcom@scgov.net . [story based on County press release].