Apparently the new owners of treehugger.com were feeling some internal rumblings to turn the mammoth building into something a little more treehugger-ish. According to another article by our friend Lloyd over at treehugger, the Discovery HQ in Silver Spring, MD just achieved LEED platinum certification. The building “is one of only nine LEED platinum existing buildings in the USA, and got it for new lighting, HVAC controls that minimize off-peak use, a “top to bottom effort to become carbon neutral through the use of carbon offsets and wind power renewable energy certificates, and a robust employee engagement program to challenge and motivate employees to become involved in recycling and reduction programs.” Discovery now saves over 24,000 gallons of water annually and reduces carbon emissions by more than 260 tons each year.

Enrico Borgarello is head of Research and Development at Italcementi, has developed a cement that can ‘eat’ pollution. The way it works is a substance called TX Active is added to the cement so that “When light sines on TX, the material becomes active and neutralizes surrounding pollutants.” After 10 years and $10 million dollars spent developing the product, Italcementi test results indicate that TX can reduce local air pollutants from 20% to 70%, depending on sunlight levels and wind. Borgarello estimates that if you could cover 15% of a concrete jungle like Milan and you would cut pollution in half. The company is eyeing developing countries like India and China where annual cement demand in China is expected to rise above 1 billion tons this year. The first building to use the cement was the 2003 Dives in Misericordia church in Rome by architect Richard Meier.

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Well, it’s here. The sixth annual U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) Greenbuild Expo. The Expo is the nation’s, and possibly the world’s, largest gathering of individuals centered exclusively on green building. Since the Expo events started in 2002 they have grown dramatically in popularity and this week some 20,000 building professionals will merge on the new West Building in Chicago’s McCormick Place to delve into the greening of our built environment. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton will be the keynote speaker this Wednesday morning, most likely discussing his foundation’s plan to spend $5 billion renovating buildings to improve their efficiency and resource use. Cities that have adopted major environmental initiatives will also be presenting on the agenda such as Albuquerque’s Martin Chavez and Austin’s Will Wynn. To learn more about the GreenBuild Expo, click here.

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Every year the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency honors Green Power Partners that commit to buying renewable such as a solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, biogas, and low-impact hydro. Last week the EPA honored 17 companies that buy a combined total of almost 4 billion kilowatt hours of green power each year. The Green Power Partners of the year are Whole Foods Market, Wells Fargo and Co., Staples, PepsiCo., Mohawk Fine Paper, Johnson and Johnson, and the City of Bellingham, WA.

Other winners;

Timberland Co., Macy’s West Division, and the City of Chico, CA all won for on-site generation. Kohl’s, PepsiAmericas Inc., Pepsi Bottling Group Inc., Pepsi Bottling Ventures, New York

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LEED in China?

GreenBiz is the source for this very cool article about a green building initiative in China - yes, China.

“Under a program called the Urban Sustainability Initiative, U.C. Berkeley has been working in China, researching technologies and design of sustainable communities to make the EcoBlock a reality, first as a portotype, but soon to spread across China. A hugely collaborative effort involving an interdisciplinary team put together by the College of Environmental Design at Berkeley, the Tianjin Urban Planning and Design Institute and the Gordon Moore Foundation, the team has been working to integrate the best of clean technologies into the decision-making processes of urban areas throughout the developing world. In 2006, U.C. representatives met with officials from central and local governments in China to identify a site suitable for development of an EcoBlock prototype and settled on Qingdao, a 600-unit building that will be replicated eight and a half times across 23 hectare (56 acre) plot of land.”

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