By Michael Clark, NNN Correspondent

Green buildings save energy, reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, and are good for our local economy -- but they don't just grow on their own. If we want more green buildings in R.I., we need trained technicians, informed advocates, and on-board public officials. And Connie McGreavy, founder of Conserve by Design, aims to make sure all of that will happen -- and you can help.

McGreavy is working to build a Rhode Island Chapter of the United States Green Building Council, better known as the USGBC. The USGBC is a nonprofit organization dedicated to sustainable building design and construction, and it is responsible for creating the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification system for buildings. McGreavy has been hosting monthly meetings of interested folks -- lots of them -- at the New England Institute of Technology, in Warwick. So far, over 400 people have expressed interest in joining the RI chapter, she said recently. 

To read more about McGreavy's efforts, and to find out more about how you can help, click on "More...". The next meeting of the RI-GBC group is coming up next Thursday, Sept 18, details after the "More...".

At last month's gathering of the nascent group, keynote speaker Peter Arpin, president of Arpin International Group, an international moving company headquartered in East Greenwich, said his company has embraced a Corporate Environmental Policy. That policy is not only good for the environment -- it's also good for his bottom line. Reducing greenhouse-gas emissions and reducing waste saves money. He also announced that his company is moving to a new corporate headquarters in Warwick, and in keeping with their green policy, they will occupy an existing building rather than building new. They also plan to build a solar power installation on the building's roof that would be the largest solar power project in Rhode Island and provide 100 percent of the building's energy needs.

The response from the 100 or so people in attendance, including a banker sitting next to me, showed that McGreavy's efforts have not been for naught. 

The Rhode Island GBC chapter will be the fifth local chapter in New England. Though it may seem astounding that so many have expressed an interest in the project, in fact it is not surprising. In our small state, there are already 124 LEED Accredited Professionals  who have passed the LEED AP exam and are prepared to manage LEED building certification projects. Though there are currently only three LEED certified buildings in the state, there are  32 buildings in the process of becoming certified. Plus, Governor Carcieri signed an executive order in 2005 that requires that any new or renovated public building must be LEED certified.

TAKE ACTION!

To learn more about the burgeoning field of green building, visit the USGBC Web site. To learn how you can get involved in the Rhode Island USGBC Chapter, contact Connie McGreavy at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . To learn more about becoming a LEED Accredited Professional, visit the Green Building Certification Institute Web site. To learn more about a local LEED certified building that you can visit right here in Providence, check out 17 Gordon Avenue. And to attend the next meeting of the GBC in RI, show up at the student lounge at New England Insitute of Technology in Warwick at about 4 pm on Thursday, Sept 18. Contact Connie for more info.

Michael Clark is a graduate student in environmental studies at Brown University. He graduated from UMass Amherst with a BS in Environmental Design.