Turning Transparent in a Green World

Welcome ThermaSteel Panels

ThermaSteel Panels has joined the Green Building Pages ranks. It manufactures foundation, floor, wall, roof and ceiling components for residential, commercial and industrial applications as well as infill or curtain for high-rise construction. It's a pre-insulated light gauge steel framing, utilizing galvanized steel and EPA (both 100% recyclable).ThermaSteel carries and Energy Star Rating and UL, ASTM and others.

ThermaSteel came to Green Building Pages on the recommendation of the Los Angeles Community College District. As soon as the ThermaSteel team answered the triple bottom line questions on Green Building Pages, Green Building Pages sends their link back to Lilian the LACCD procurement specialist. Now Lilian has all the answers to anything she needs to know at her fingertips (as does everyone else at LACCD). 

But that's just a starting point...

Lilian heads up the interiors procurement operations and acts as the filter for all products coming into the LACCD, but she doesn't specify products and materials that will be used to build the buildings. That job goes to one of the 150 or so architectural and design firms contracted with the LACCD. 

Educating the architects to use Green Building Pages and also flag the firms on new products is Amber Olson. With this same link, she can share ThermaSteel's LEED Credit opportunties in energy performance, controllability of systems - thermal, thermal comfort - design, recycled content, innovation and design.

Thank you ThermaSteel for making the transferring of knowledge through LACCD so easy.

LACCD is Selected to Host the UC/CSU/CCC Sustainability Conference 2010

The Los Angeles Community College District has another "first" on its list of accomplishments. It's the first community college system selected for the annual UC/CSU/CCC Sustainability Conference which will be held at the LACCD's Los Angels Trade-Technical College in 2010.

Here is the rest of the news release:

Conference organizers say the District was selected to host the event largely because of its leadership in sustainability and academics, as well as the partnerships it developed with neighboring schools, including USC. The statewide conference has been a resource on sustainability issues since 2001.

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"Hosting next year's UC/CSU/CCC Sustainability Conference is a tremendous honor and opportunity for the District," said Sylvia Scott-Hayes, a member of LACCD's Board of Trustees who helped bring the conference to the District. "It solidifies our hard work and commitment to green building and helps bring greater awareness to the role community colleges are playing in advancing sustainability. We are thrilled to have this exciting opportunity."

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“It is an incredible honor that our District will be the first community college to host this remarkable conference,” said Marshall E. Drummond, chancellor, LACCD. “We take great pride in this opportunity to share our Sustainable Building and Net Zero Energy Programs with an audience that is as devoted to green building and to saving the planet’s resources as we are.”

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Next year’s conference will be held June 20-23, 2010, and will bring together teachers, researchers, staff, students and others interested in campus environmental issues from the University of California, California State University and California Community Colleges.

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This year’s event, "Working Our Way to Zero," at UC Santa Barbara will explore best practices in such topics as green building, energy, social equity, environmentally friendly purchasing and academics. Early registration for the June 21-24 conference ends May 19. For more information, visit www.sustainability.ucsb.edu/conference.

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News of the District’s selection as the 2010 conference site comes as it also is being recognized with awards by CoreNet Global and the Society for Marketing Professional Services, Los Angeles Chapter.
LACCD won CoreNet Global's 2009 Sustainable Leadership and Design Development Non-Profit award for its innovative, $5.7-billion Sustainable Building Program. As part of the program, the District plans to construct about 90 green buildings at LACCD’s nine colleges, making it one of the nation’s largest environmentally friendly building projects. The award was presented today (April 27) at CoreNet Global's "Buck the Trend" Summit in Dallas, Texas. For more information, visit: http://www2.corenetglobal.org/summits_events/dallas_2009/index.vsp.

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The District also is among 10 international finalists being considered for the 2009 Global Innovator’s Award, which is given to the agency with the most innovative project. Finalists will give presentations to CoreNet’s selection committee at Emory University in August and the winner will be announced at the organization’s North American Summit in Las Vegas, October 12-14.

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The Society for Marketing Professional Services, Los Angeles Chapter will present its Public Sector Industry Honor Award to the LACCD at the 27th annual Leonardo Awards Program on June 11 at the Jonathan Club in downtown Los Angeles. SMPS/LA honors agencies that use creative marketing and innovation in promoting building projects. For more details, visit: http://www.smps-la.org/events9-53/27thAnnualLeonardoAwardsProgram.

 

Build-LACCD Furniture Vendor Reach out - May 4th

Attention all sustainable furniture manufacturers, dealers, specifiers and suppliers. You're invited to come learn about the FF&E procurement process, master agreement bidding and contract opportunities at the Los Angeles Community College District.

The after hours event will run between 5:30-7:30 pm on May 4th and held at the LACCD SourcePoint, resource center, 811 Wilshire Blvd., downtown LA.

RSVP to Lilian.Magallanes@build-laccd.org by April 29, 2009.

Speaking:

• Larry Eisenberg, Executive Director of Facilities Planning and Development, LACCD
• Tom Hall, Director of Facilities Planning and Development, LACCD 
• James Sohn, Program Director, Build-LACCD

For more info go here. 

LACCD needs these building products...

While the rest of the economy continues to struggle, life is good in LA - if you have building products that is. The LA Times reported that the LA Community College District awarded $400 million in contracts out of the $5.7 billion it has to work with.

If you sell building products into educational facilities, you're probably wondering what they need and how can you get your foot in the door. Here's the next advertised group. If you don't have your products listed on Green Building Pages. Do so now. Go here for more background. Good Luck!

Child Development Center Furniture & Equipment Recycle Bins / Parking Lot Sweepers/Green Golf Carts ZEV Utility Carts Pool Supplies Appliances (ADA Compliant + Lab) Library/Lounge Seating, Tables, Misc. Storage Library Shelving/Back Office Shelving (pcm) Recycle - Waste Paper Containers IT Smart Walls, Boards - classroom 40 yard roll off and storage bins Boom Lifts, Scissor Lifts, Forklifts

LACCD at Greenbuild 2008

Greenbuild 2008 was all that it had promised to be - packed with potential (about 30,000 attending) to change the world through low energy, high performance products and buildings. The biggest "potential" came from LA Community College District. I felt like the tooth fairy being able to talk to vendors about the LACCD opportunity. "Hi, do you work with schools? I have $6 billion to spend..." It's amazing how fast people smiled and asked you to step into their booth.

Greenbuild already had an air of hopefulness due to the recent election, but there is nothing like cold hard cash during a tight economy to get companies engaged and excited again. Did you miss getting an invite? Go hereto have a full rundown on the LACCD opportunity and the how you can become involved. After "hopefulness," "transparency" had to be the other key word covering the 3 days. On each corner, aisle and seminar, vendors spoke of Life Cycle Assessments, Third Party Audits and Sustainable Product Standards. Some companies floated their certification flags, others are holding off until a dominate standard comes forward, but everyone agreed that LCA's are the future and that putting it in writing (whatever your shade of green) is where it all begins

CoreNet Corporate Citizen of the Year - LACCD

Congratulations to LACCD and Larry Eisenberg who accepted the CoreNet Remmy on behalf of the LA Community College.

For those of you who are new to this blog, Larry Eisenberg is the executive director, LACCD Facilities Planning and Development. For the past few years, he's been championing the tandem growth of green campuses and curriculum to match. Most recently, Measure J (for jobs) was passed in LA County to help fund the building of 50 new LEED Platinum Certified buildings.

The CoreNet Remmy Awards ceremony was held last night at Warner Brothers. This award reaffirms the energy and leadership Larry has provided to not only create green jobs in LA, but also provide green job education to the manufacturers/contractors of those products plus bring "sustainable thinking" to all disciplines taught at LACCD.

What makes this an even bigger award is that fact that it was given out in Los Angeles, one of the world's largest building and trading centers. Being recognized in this market shines a big light on the work that is being done at LACCD to use their development power to change markets at the same time they are changing the lives of their 226,000 students.

Find Us at Green California Schools - Dec. 8-10

Billed as the nation's largest green schools summit and exposition, "Green California Schools" blends together K-12 sustainable education, buildings, and operations while creating a "culture of conservation and environmental mindfulness." The Anaheim ConventionCenter in Anaheim, CA is the the location for 50 workshops and over 200 exhibitors. For more info go to: www.green-technology.org/gcschools or call 626-577-5700. I'll be there floating around talking to manufacturers and inviting them to participate on Green Building Pages, The Green Hive and in the building of 50 new LEED Platinum buildings for the LA Community College District. Call me at 714-926-1223 to learn more or go to http://laccdbuildsgreen.blip.tv

LACCD Builds Green - Over $6 billion of green

With the passing of Measure J (for jobs) in the past election, LA Community College District added $3.5 billion to the bonds the school already had from previous years to bring the total budget up to $6.5 billion. The money will go towards 50 new buildings and modernizing hundreds of others up to LEED Platinum standards.

LACCD is the largest community college district in the nation, serving 226,000 students yearly. The creation of these buildings brings purpose and mission together. Students learning about sustainable practices for their green job classes can touch and experience the very products that they may be working with later on after they graduate. 

Green Building Pages has joined this exciting effort. (this blog is part of GBP)  It will provide the evaluation system for the buyers and specifiers of the building materials used in these buildings. It's a unique site in that it's free to the public, comprehensive in its sustainable information and rewards performance vs. advertising dollars. Companies with the most sustainable products, that can prove it through Life Cycle Assessment and third party audits will be listed at the top of selection lists.

This is a very unique approach to a buying guide model where usually ad dollars do the talking. The more money, they higher on the lists products are ranked. In this case, Green Building Pages is encouraging companies to put their money into sustainable design and practices first.

Because the site is free to the public, companies are charged a listing fee of $300 per product placement. If the products featured are to be part of the LACCD Master Bid contract, then the fee goes up to $800 to cover the cost of cross-promotion between LACCD's E-catalog and Green Building Pages and many other promotions including to other school districts.

Green Building Pages has been around since 2000, but it wasn't until this year when it's mission of providing full, transparent information has met the market need. Ironically, this year is also when the USGBC has made "fostering social equity" part of its guidelines. Luckily social equity is something that Green Building Pages has included since its beginning.  

For more information write Mary.Hunt@GreenBuildingPages.com or go to Green Building Pages.