For this Halloween edition of Green Building Law Update, I thought I would try to scare your socks off by describing circumstances that may lead to the green building legal apocalypse. Be warned, this blog post is going to give you nightmares! Last week, Doug Reiser and I presented at the Green Legal Matters conference … Continue Reading
Two years ago, I attended my first Greenbuild, the annual conference and exhibition hosted by the US Green Building Council, in Boston, Massachusetts. Frankly, it was a bit uncomfortable and I felt like an outsider. By my count, only four attorneys were present among the thousands of attendees. But the discussion of green building legal … Continue Reading
The likelihood that some American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) green building projects would fail should not come as a surprise to Green Building Law Update readers. Back in February 2009, I wrote about the the difficulties of administering the stimulus funds at state, county and municipal levels. In January 2010, I highlighted initial problems … Continue Reading
I knew there was a reason I saved my law school text books. When I first heard of the class action lawsuit filed by Henry Gifford against the USGBC, my initial thought was "how in the world will he get a class certified?" The initial hurdle for any class action lawsuit is to get … Continue Reading
Last Wednesday, I woke up bleary eyed to catch a flight to New Orleans for the Green Legal Matters conference. Despite the fact that I was running late, I opened up my RSS feed and was suddenly startled wide awake when I read the following headline: "Breaking: Henry Gifford Leads Class Action Lawsuit Against USGBC … Continue Reading
I am excited about the Green Legal Matters conference in New Orleans this week. If you can’t join us in person, I will be providing live tweets from the event (and hopefully getting a few others to join me). If you would like to follow tweets from the event, please follow the tag #GLMN for … Continue Reading
The law moves at glacial speeds. The USGBC does not. On June 21, 2010, I wrote a blog post titled "Green Building Challenge Policy Requires Fixes." My post detailed problems with the LEED certification challenge policy, as published in the LEED Certification Policy Manual. You may recall that I wrote on, and on, and on … Continue Reading
"LEED is about people." Bob Kobet made this insightful comment on October 1, 2010 at an AIA of Virginia panel. The comment immediately stuck in my brain, and I soon found myself jotting down the following: "LEEDigation is about people." LEEDigation is not about a building. LEEDigation is about the people that built … Continue Reading
As part of the evolution of Green Building Law Update, I have started an interview series with leaders in the green building industry. My first interview is with John Kennedy, Autodesk’s Senior Manager of Sustainable Analysis Products. My interest in interviewing John was piqued when Autodesk’s Vice President called for reform to the federal government’s … Continue Reading
