Dear Readers,

The Cascadia Region Green Building Council is excited to announce the launch of the Living Building Challenge that was released recently at GreenBuild in Denver. This challenge is being issued to all building owners, architects, engineers and design professionals to build in a way that will provide all of us with a sustainable future. The Living Building Challenge is attempting to raise the bar and define a true measure of sustainability in the built environment. Projects that achieve this level of performance can claim to be the most sustainable in North America. Cascadia has created a protocol that builds on the logic and wisdom of the LEED system - yet is inherently simpler as it has no credits - just prerequisites. 16 Simple and Profound Prerequisites that need to be met in order to be called a Living Building.

The USGBC has responded to Cascadia's vision by announcing a national design competition. More information on this initiative will be released shortly. We encourage everyone to visit our website www.cascadiagbc.org and click on the link for the living building. The standard is free to download and everyone is encouraged to join the Pursuit of the Living Building. Interest in the standard is coming from all over the US, Canada and around the world. More information to come in subsequent newsletters!

The Cascadia Region Green Building Council is joining forces with the Healthy Building Network to launch the Pharos material protocol which promises to transform the way people look at green materials in the marketplace.

The Pharos Project seeks to define a consumer-driven vision of truly green building materials and how they should be evaluated in harmony with principles of environmental health and justice. The Project’s foundation will be building a community to develop this vision, comprised of those who use building materials working with those who study their impacts on health and the environment. The principles of the Pharos Project are transparency, comprehensiveness, independence, accuracy and fairness applied to analyzing the impact building materials have on human health, the environment and communities – during production, use, and at the end of their useful life.

Over the next year, Pharos will create tools and forums to enable architects, designers, specifiers, commercial and retail purchasers, and other interested parties to help develop the Framework and use it to compare products. Participants will engage in discussions about how to define green materials; set ideals and criteria for evaluation of products; and, offer and evaluate available information about specific building products.

For more information visit www.pharosproject.net

Sincerely,

Jason McLennan, CEO
Cascadia Green Building Council

Living Future 07 – 1st Annual Regional Conference
The Cascadia Region Green Building Council and the AIA Seattle Committee on the Environment (COTE) are working together to host a regional green building conference in April 2007 in Seattle, entitled Living Future.
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E-mail marni@cascadiagbc.org to get involved.

EGB Natural Talent Design Competition
Cascadia is hosting a local 2007 EGB Natural Talent Design Competition. The competition will be for two sites in Cascadia being developed as LEED H projects
Registration opens on Dec 15th
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Grants for Innovative Green Building Projects
The Portland Green Investment Fund encourages innovation in waste and toxins reduction, water conservation, on-site stormwater management and reuse, energy conservation and on-site renewable energy. A total of $425,000 is available in the current round of funding.
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Become a Member
Cascadia has 451 members. Click here to learn how to become an individual member to vote in the 2007 Cascadia Elections and get member benefits

Post Occupancy Opportunity
USGBC is embarking on an effort to better quantify energy savings associated with green building, and asking all owners of completed LEED buildings to participate in a survey of post-occupancy energy use. Participants receive a report of the energy and survey results of their own building.
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Cascadia thanks its latest member of the 100 Friends of Cascadia sponsorship program
Certified: The Threshold Group
See our sponsor recognition ad from the Greenbuild Show Program

New LEED Certifications
Wayne L. Morse Federal Courthouse, Eugene, OR. LEED-NC Gold

ED+C Designing for Sustainability Web Seminar
This course helps define issues that are affecting the environment today; how the framework of Lifecycle Thinking can help us (together) develop more sustainable design.
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LEED AP Handbook
Download a copy of the LEED AP handbook here.
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USGBC Guiding Principles
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Opening Plenary Remarks by S. Richard Fedrizzi
President, CEO & Founding Chairman S. Richard Fedrizzi shares his opening remarks in Denver, CO at Greenbuild 2006.
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The Cascadia Report
The first news website dedicated to spotlighting Cascadia's business, politics and culture - from a regional perspective.
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Mitigating Climate Change One Building at a Time
Do you know how to meet the 2030 Challenge? Visit architecture 2030 to learn what you can do.
Sign up for their e-news and take action today

View the USGBC’s unveiling of eight actions against climate change.
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Who's Green 2007 Annual directory published by Ecotone Publishing, designed to serve as the pre-eminent resource book for locating firms, companies, organizations and institutions that are actively participating in the growth of the green building industry. Buy the Book

The Ecological Engineer Volume One: KEEN Engineering by David R. Macaulay and Jason F. McLennan Celebrates the most innovative engineers in North America and the practices and principles they use to produce functionally outstanding structures, systems and technologies, in a way that embraces the emerging philosophy of sustainable design. Buy the Book

The Philosophy of Sustainable Design by Jason F. McLennan Tapping into the work of many pioneers and ‘green design philosophers’ McLennan clearly presents a framework for people to understand Sustainable Design and how ultimately it will become the future of architecture and design. Buy the Book The Philosophy of Sustainable Design Journal. More Info

The Dumb Architects Guide to Glazing Selection by Jason F. McLennan Serves as an excellent introduction for architects and designers wanting to make intelligent decisions on how to pick glazing for their building designs in order to lower environmental impact, save money and increase comfort. More Info

LEED "Flash Cards" Available Cascadia has developed LEED 2.1 "flash cards" to help you prepare for the exam. The 280 questions and answers can be cut into "flash cards." Purchase Flash Cards

Build It LEED! Toolkit
The Toolkit is offered by Cascadia Green Building Council to complement the Build it LEED! training or as a stand alone tool. Authored by Ann Schuessler, Director of Sustainable Building Practices at The Rafn Company, and Elizabeth Powers, Project Manager at O'Brien & Company, the Toolkit provides the complete, step-by-step process of LEED Project Management from pre-construction through documentation including checklists for each phase, prepared forms for working with subcontractors, and tools for preparing LEED documentation. The Toolkit includes blank forms and tools on CD, ready to be adapted to your company's needs and put to work on your next LEED project.
Purchase Build It LEED! Toolkit

The Insider's Guide to Marketing Green Buildings by Jerry Yudelson. Over 200 pages charting the future direction of green building. Feb. 2005 update edition. Buy the Book

Rebuilt Green 120 pages, $10. "Rebuilt Green is the first book to explore the true meaning and social dimensions of green building." --Paul Hawken. Buy the Book

USGBC Honors Green Building Leaders
by Taryn Holowka, USGBC
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USGBC Earns ANSI Accreditation
Press Release, USGBC.
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Green Building: It will take a lot of Green Villages
by Ted Rose, WorldChanging
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Building Green; The District finds a way to cut greenhouse emissions
Washington Post
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BNIM Architects Wins Autodesk Green Building Leadership Award
Autodesk Inc., Earth Times.org
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Green Build: The View from Here
by Joel Makower, WorldChanging
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Developers hold Green Building wins Gold
by Linda Cargill, Oregon Live
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Power Down, Energy Saving Tips
by Annika Wallendah, Renton Reporter
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Facilities: Building ‘Green’ Saves Banks Green
by Karen Krebsbach, Bank Technology News
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FHLBanks Host Forum Including 'Green' Affordable Housing
Press Release, FHLBanks
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New Initiative Bolsters Green Affordable Housing Efforts
By Stockton Williams, USGBC
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Neil Kelly is hiring for a Project Manager position.
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Center for the Built environment (CBE) is hiring a Research Specialist
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Second Use Building Materials, Inc. is looking to hire for their Architectural Salvage Field Crew
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Celilo Group is hiring a Market Director
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Living Shelter is looking for design professionals, email
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Rebuilding Center is hiring for an Intern position
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