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Link to Bloomberg (Jan. 17, 2025) | California politicians are rushing to make it easier for residents to rebuild their homes incinerated in the Los Angeles firestorms. That means waiving green construction mandates designed to combat climate change — which is driving such conflagrations by making conditions hotter and drier — as well as suspending environmental […]

LOS ANGELES (January 16, 2025)  The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded USGBC California (USGBC-CA) and its team of partners $3.8 million to accelerate building decarbonization in collaboration with municipalities throughout California including the City of Los Angeles, the County of Los Angeles, and local trade organizations. The funds come from the Resilient and […]

The introduction of LEED v5, the latest update to the world’s most popular green building certification program, marks a shift in decarbonization priorities. With a legacy spanning over three decades, the US Green Building Council (USGBC) continues to lead the charge in transforming the construction industry through LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). This […]

Link to LA CityView35 (Dec. 6, 2024) | Mayor Karen Bass was joined by the Los Angeles Department of Transportation and LA’s Department of Water & Power [and USGBC-CA] to announce more green jobs, historic electric vehicle infrastructure expansion, and improved alternative water access. (Watch full segment; USGBC-CA Exec. Dir. Ben Stapleton at 11:00 min. mark)

Project Background Starting in 2019, Salesforce, a cloud-based software company, wanted to better understand the total embodied carbon impacts of their growing real estate portfolio, inclusive of these often-missed emissions. At the direction of their Real Estate and Sustainability teams, Brightworks Sustainability and WAP Sustainability began developing a methodology to determine uncertainty and define a […]

Awards to be Presented at the 20th Annual USGBC California’s Green Gala on Dec. 11th in Hollywood OC Sanitation, L’Oréal, SBCCD, EJ Center at Puente Hills Landfill Park, Contra Costa County Admin Building, Rising Sun and Green Sports Alliance to be Awarded, Among Others LOS ANGELES (December 2, 2024) – On December 11th at the […]

The Challenges of Recycling Commercial Carpet When managing construction projects, lots of attention is paid to what is being constructed…less attention goes to what is being deconstructed or torn out. And yet, for the project to be successful,  deconstruction/recycling must be part of any project’s plan from the very beginning. Upon tear-out at a commercial […]

Link to SD Union-Tribune / Encinitas Advocate (Nov. 12, 2024) | Earlier this year, the City of Encinitas, Encinitas Chamber of Commerce, and U.S. Green Building Council California partnered to create a local Encinitas Green Business Network. As a result of the partnership, businesses have numerous resources to advance sustainable business practices and are able […]

Link to Architect’s Newspaper (Nov. 11, 2024) | What do architecture, construction, climate, and real estate industry leaders have to say about the 2024 U.S. Presidential election results? … U.S. Green Building Council California (USGBC): Ben Stapleton, executive director of USGBC California, said that, after this latest election season, the path for climate experts has […]

California can fast-track a guideline that reliably reduces heating and cooling energy demand up to 70% below the current Title-24 baseline: Passive House. Together, we can put this climate resilience standard onto builders’ and owners’ radar, simply by adding a voluntary Passive House alternate pathway into California’s Title-24. Without this extension, few will know that Passive […]

Link to Architectural Products (Sept./Oct. 2024, pgs 14-16) | What was once a novelty has become the norm. Green Building, sustainability, and efficient use of resources is a given in nearly every new architectural design, as well as for major renovation projects. But what about net zero? When it comes to carbon, waste, water, and […]

In 1990 my family took a road trip from our hometown in rural Washington down the west coast to Disneyland. The road trip was fantastic, stopping along the way to see beautiful redwoods and rugged coastlines – that is until we drove into Los Angeles. There we were, sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the largest […]