28 ways to make a LEED platinum building – Construction Week Online

The ASHRAE headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia in the US has been awarded a LEED Platinum rating, the highest certification available. MEP Middle East takes a closer look at the project as a landmark case study in green building.

As an innovator in energy-efficient technology, ASHRAE felt its headquarters should serve as a showcase of sustainability. “The resulting design truly reflects that sentiment, as well as how ASHRAE standards and guidelines can be put into practice to result in a high-performance building,” said ASHRAE president Gordon Holness…[more]

Environmental outlook in 2010 session partly sunny – Saporta Report

At the monthly Sustainable Atlanta Roundtable this morning, four state legislators were relatively upbeat on how the 2010 General Assembly will address environmental issues.

The biggest cause for optimism was the water conservation bill that was introduced by Gov. Sonny Perdue and his leadership team earlier this week.

Jill Johnson, program director of Georgia Conservation Voters, said such a water bill had been one of the top priorities of the different environmental groups in the state.

State Sen. Ross Tolleson (R-Perry), who chairs the Senate’s Natural Resources and Environment Committee, said the state had laid the groundwork when it supported having a statewide water plan that addressed the needs of metro Atlanta as well as the rest of the state…[more]

Perdue’s conservation bill tests the water – Rome-News Tribune

Lawmakers this week are getting their first detail look at Gov. Sonny Perdue’s recommendations for statewide water conservation.

House and Senate committees held hearings, with a parade of witnesses offering recommendations on how to lessen the impact on one industry or another.

The ideas for the bill came from some of the suggestions produced by a task force of business and environmental groups Perdue appointed last summer after a federal judge ruled cities around Atlanta had no right to withdraw water from Lake Lanier, giving them until 2012 to find alternative sources…[more]

North DeKalb biomass plant faces opposition – MyGreenAtlanta

North DeKalb residents may succeed in keeping a proposed biomass plan out of a densely developed district near their homes, the AJC reports.

The article describes the he-said/he-said debate between not-in-by-backyard activists and Southeast Renewable Energy, which has proposed a facility that would generate electricity through the gasification of waste wood products. The plant would be in a light industrial area on Briarwood Road between I-85 and Buford Highway — near the REI store.

The company most likely will have to try another site for its proposed plant because the community council and county planning commission already have opposed rezoning for the North DeKalb site…[more]