Leading the Green Building Revolution from an Unexpected Corner!

Guest post by Judy Knight, Director of PR and Marketing at our partners in greening, Southface

Southface proudly partners with Better World Books, a social enterprise with a focus on sustainability.  The partnership includes Southface hosting a Better World Books Drop Box.  The program helps Southface provide a much needed outlet for pre-loved books in their community. Better World Books is also supporting the Southface Greenprints Conference – you can learn more in the post below.

Back when the U.S. Green Building Council and the now universally recognized LEED green building program were still in their infancy, a nonprofit called Southface was quietly changing city- and neighborhood-scapes through its annual Greenprints Conference, a gathering in the most unlikely of regions: the Southeast.

But let’s back up . . . what do buildings have to do with sustainability?

As it turns out, buildings have a major impact on the environment. According to the U.S. Green Building Council, our nation’s building sector consumes 72 percent of our electricity, generates 39 percent of our CO2 emissions and uses almost 14 percent of our potable water resources.

Hence, the need for Greenprints and other regional green building conferences to bring focus to the importance of energy and water efficiency, urban planning and green building.

Now in its 15th year, Greenprints is hosted by Atlanta’s Southface Energy Institute and the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority. It plays a major role in advancing sustainability in the Southeast, which uses more energy per capita than any other U.S. region while lagging behind for positive environmental indicators.

While Greenprints depends on a much larger community of support to advance sustainability in the Southeast, there’s no doubt that it’s been an impetus for change, and for convening some of the country’s most notable sustainability thought leaders, including Ed Mazria of Architecture2030; Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute, David Orr of the University of Vermont; and Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute.

Greenprints is one spark that’s helped catalyze the development of visionary projects that enhance our cities, conserve energy and water, and create an overall improved quality of life. In Atlanta alone, the past decade has seen the development of multiple standout initiatives, including the Southface Eco Office, one of the world’s most sustainable buildings; Atlanta Beltline, a network of public parks, trails and transit that connects 45 neighborhoods; the Zero Waste Zone, a downtown community of businesses committed to diverting recyclables and organic matter from landfills; and Atlantic Station (pictured), a mixed-use development built on the site of a former steel mill.

This year, for the first time, Southface and its Greenprints Conference are proud to partner with Better World Books – an organization that shares our conviction that innovation can overcome our world’s most pervasive problems… Needless to say, we can’t wait for our donation box to arrive!

Greenprints Recommended Reads

The following books are available for sale at a special discount price, and represent Greenprints’ speaker/authors’ own books, as well as other excellent books you may hear about during the conference. We hope you enjoy these selections!

The Smart Growth Manual by Mike Lydon

Reinventing Fire  by Amory Lovins

Green Building Principles and Practices by Carl Seville and Abe Kruger

Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds

Confessions of a Radical Industrialist by Ray Anderson

Cradle to Cradle by William McDonough

Code: GREENPRINTS. It’s 10% off any used books that ship from BWB. Can be used once on betterworldbooks.com. Valid 3/7 through 3/14.

*Note* The above guest post is from one of our wonderful Better World Books partners in greening, Judy Knight at Southface. To learn more about Greenprints, please visit www.greenprints.org. This content does not necessarily reflect the views of Better World Books (as our lawyers make sure we say). We love having guest bloggers and invite you to email [email protected] if you are interested in covering a book or topic on the BWB Blog. Thank you, Judy, we are honored to be part of Greenprints!

Do you have tips or book suggestions on building in a more sustainable fashion? Please share your ideas below.