What is the Green Building Law Update?
This Green Building Law Update blog is published by attorney Stuart Kaplow providing strategic intelligence on sustainability law, including critical insights into environmental matters and Environmental Social Governance (ESG), for the business community, .. not just for lawyers.
Originally launched in 2008 by Chris Cheatham, the blog served as a forum to discuss green building laws. Today, published by Stuart Kaplow, the blog has expanded to provide news and insights into the broader ESG industrial complex. The blog remains popular because posts are positive, often fun, but always forward thinking briefs on the cutting edge, and at times bleeding edge, key ESG issues of the day.
The blog has at its foundation an ethos bent on disrupting existing environmental public policy including by pursuing market based success.
Blog posts track Stuart Kaplow’s business philosophy of “environmental risk as an opportunity.”
Who is Stuart Kaplow?

Kaplow at Everest Base Camp
Stuart Kaplow is an environmental attorney and the principal at the law firm that bears his name, Stuart D. Kaplow, P.A.
He represents a broad breadth of business interests in a varied law practice concentrating on real estate and environmental law with focused experience in sustainability, including green building, with much of his work today being under the larger umbrella of ESG.
Stuart Kaplow served as legal counsel and is a past chair of the U.S. Green Building Council Maryland.
Kaplow for more than two decades served as an adjunct Professor of Law, at the University of Baltimore School of Law, teaching sustainable real estate. He is a frequent motivational speaker and lecturer on innovative solutions to the environmental issues of the day, including speaking to a wide variety of audiences on green building, and he has authored more than 800 articles centered on his philosophy of “environmental risk as an opportunity.”
Stuart Kaplow was voted the “Best Personal Lawyer” by the readers of The Daily Record, Maryland’s daily business and legal newspaper. Kaplow was also voted to The ‘A’ List of 20 “Favorite Business Lawyers” in a poll of The Daily Record readers. He was selected by his peers as the real estate attorney among “Maryland’s Legal Elite” in Baltimore Smart CEO magazine in 2005 and again in 2006. And Kaplow was named as a Maryland “Super Lawyer” in 2007 and each year thereafter, as published in Baltimore magazine. Superlawyers Business Edition has also named him, as a solo practitioner, the top law firm for construction and real estate in Maryland.
Stuart Kaplow is AV® Peer Review Rated, the highest rating for ethical standards and legal ability, as administered by Martindale-Hubbell.
Kaplow was selected by the American Bar Association as one of ten Legal Rebels for his work in creating and advancing the emergent body of law that is green building and sustainability law. He has successfully briefed and argued a number of precedent-setting cases before appellate courts.
A native of Florida, practicing law in Maryland since 1985, Kaplow is a graduate of the University of Baltimore School of Law, having earned a Juris Doctor degree in two years. He graduated with honors from the University of Maryland, Division of Behavioral & Social Sciences, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in land use planning.
Kaplow is active in the philanthropic and charitable community and among his commitments he serves on the board of Building STEPS, a not for profit that exposes bright, underserved high school students to science and technology based careers.
If there is any question about his fortitude and strength of will, Kaplow has trekked and climbed on some of the wildest real estate on the planet from Kilimanjaro to Everest and K2, with many summits and mountaineering adventures in between.