Chicago becomes seventh city in the world to achieve LEED for Cities Platinum certification

Last September, Washington, D.C. became the first LEED Platinum city in the world. Now, almost exactly one year later, the U.S. Green Building Council has just named the world’s seventh LEED Platinum city: Chicago.

In August, Chicago ranked as the country’s greenest city by the Green Building Adoption Index for the second year in a row. Approximately 70% of it’s space is green certified. According to the 2017 Energy Benchmarking report, Chicago’s largest buildings cut emissions by almost 20% over the past two years.

Chicago’s plans for the future include the implementation of the Chicago Energy Rating System, which will be the first of its kind in the U.S. The system will assign a zero- to four-star energy rating to all large properties that are subject to the benchmarking reporting requirements.

“Chicago has not only committed to bold environmental and sustainability goals, but is now delivering on those commitments, leading to real impact across the city,” said Mahesh Ramanujam, President and CEO at USGBC and GBCI. “Mayor Emanuel and the city are proving that improving sustainability and increasing economic growth go hand-in-hand.”

We offer the following recommendations in the hope that they will help step up the pace of high-performance building reconstruction in the U.S. and Canada. We consulted many experts for advice, but these recommendations are solely the responsibility of the editors of Building Design+Construction. We welcome your comments. Please send them to Robert Cassidy, Editorial Director: rcassidy@sgcmail.com.

| May 9, 2012

International green building speaker to keynote Australia’s largest building systems trade show

Green building, sustainability consultant, green building book author Jerry Yudelson will be the keynote speaker at the Air-Conditioning, Refrigeration and Building Systems (ARBS) conference in Melbourne, Australia.

Stoddert is one of 78 schools spanning 29 states to receive the recognition.

| May 9, 2012

Stoddert Elementary School in DC wins first US DOE Green Ribbon School Award

Sustainable materials, operational efficiency, and student engagement create high-performance, healthy environment for life-long learning.

The City Year transformation took place within the short time frame of one week

| May 8, 2012

Gensler & J.C. Anderson team for pro bono high school project in Chicago

City Year representatives came to Gensler for their assistance in the transformation of the organization’s offices within Orr Academy High School, which also serve as an academic and social gathering space for students and corps members.