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Leadership starts at the ground level

By Nancy Powell

Whether it’s work, school, leisure or precious moments with the family, Americans spend a lot of time trapped in interior spaces. The Environmental Protection Agency pegs the rate at 90 percent. Think the

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Leadership starts at the ground level

By Nancy Powell

Whether it’s work, school, leisure or precious moments with the family, Americans spend a lot of time trapped in interior spaces. The Environmental Protection Agency pegs the rate at 90 percent. Think the walls we live within, the air we breathe, all that matters in the context of our god-given talent for living life in couch-potato mode. Which is why we should embrace LEED.

LEED, shorthand for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, makes our couch-potato lifestyle much more conducive to our health. LEED is an internationally-recognized certification managed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) for environmentally-friendly construction that was first introduced in 1998 and refined in 2009. Newly constructed buildings are rated on a 100-point scale, based on whether each complies with a set of predefined energy, sustainability, water efficiency, materials and resources, as well as indoor air-quality standards. A building earning at least 40 points is considered LEED-certified.

In essence, the more efficiently we use our environment, the safer and more productive our lives become. A 2003 study by the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative found that LEED-implementation led to a 20 to 25 percent spike in energy efficiency, increasing productivity as a result of improved ventilation, temperature control, improvements in lighting and a reduction in indoor pollution. Neat stuff considering many of us spend our waking hours slaving under the glare of electronic displays.

All this came at the prodding of then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose administration pushed CALGreen into law. CALGreen applies to new construction projects on or after January 1, 2011. As an example, Long Beach is leaps and bounds ahead of the curve, having enacted stringent policies last year that require newly constructed buildings to meet minimal LEED certification.

The Mark Twain Neighborhood (a.k.a. the MacArthur Park branch) Library was the first building to achieve LEED certification. The Watershed Exhibit and Classroom at the Aquarium of the Pacific has earned the highest LEED-rating—at the platinum-level—while the highly anticipated Administration building at the Port of Long Beach will have earned LEED silver certification by its December completion date. Need fresh air to boost the morale? A trip to the aquarium should do nicely.

Creating “greener” pastures takes considerable time, money and dedication. But the bottom line is that the time and money that are saved (not to mention the air we breathe) make LEED certification a worthy endeavor.

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