Green Building 2008

A look at our accomplishments in 2008:

Conferences, Workshops & Site Visits

Over 1,200 industry professionals attended one of 24 educational events including a Spring Green Building Conference and Fall Sustainable Communities and Land Use Conference with 175 attendees each.  An additional 300 local government staff, including planners, public works professionals, and elected officials attended events.

Program Evaluation

Workshop and tour evaluations indicate 2008 green building events provide some of the best education in the region. 

Demonstration Projects

Pickford Dream Space, Art & Children’s Museum, Whatcom County Courthouse, Community Co-op Second Store plus dozens of other LEED and low impact development projects were established.

Tools & Resources

Created educational displays at permit centers and distributed high quality educational print and resources through these displays and at related events. Electronic materials made available online and distributed through regular e-mails to our 500+  program subscribers plus 4,500 website visits/month.  Creation of a Construction Waste Recycling Toolkit.

Policy changes to remove barriers and create incentives

• Development of the FIVE/12 Agenda, working towards creating incentives and removing barriers for LEED and BuiltGreen projects in Whatcom County.
• Support for urban village innovative density bonus options for affordable housing, green building, and Lake Whatcom watershed protection.
• Evaluation of green building as a percentage of overall permits filed from 2005-2008.

Imagine this! Eco-friendly home & landscape tour

In its 6th year, this tour attracted over 350 community members and has become the largest tour (green or not) North of Seattle.

Other public educational activities

30+ news articles, permit center display development, traveling lecture series, community presentations, outreach to neighborhood associations and thousands

of visits to our website looking for information and referrals related to green building, high performance LEED buildings and smart growth.