HY-brid/

HY-brid team member Paul von Paumgartten reflects on what Earth Day means to him. For all of us at HY-brid it is an exciting time to be meeting with and helping businesses understand how to develop and communicate their sustainability platforms to their stakeholders. Happy Earth Day!

For those of us in the green space, Earth Day holds a special place in our minds. For me, it brings back memories of Earth Day 2000. Ten years ago, an exhausted but passionate team of green idealists were about to launch our baby, LEED NC. As everyone in the building industry now knows, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system has become the standard for the design and construction of new buildings across the world. We picked Earth Day 2000, partly because of it’s symbolism, but also because we were tired of debating the merits of various prerequisites and credits. It was time to take this baby for a spin and see if the marketplace would embrace it. Boy, what a ride it has been. Thousands of buildings have been registered and certified, but perhaps the best indicator of market acceptance has been the number of building industry professionals who have studied the rating system and taken a test to become accredited. We now have over 150,000 LEED Accredited Professionals (AP), which is an amazing accomplishment.

Some would say we are in the “Green Century” or the “Age of Energy and the Environment”.
Certainly the green building industry has had a major impact on the whole sustainability movement. Those who launched LEED on Earth Day 2000 are very proud of what has been accomplished as we reflect on Earth Day 2010.

As always, if you would like help understanding your organization’s sustainability efforts and how to talk about them, contact us, it’s why we’re here.

Categories: Paul von Paumgartten, Sustainable Business