It seems the Olympics have won themselves a Gold.
The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) awarded LEED Gold certification to the Beijing Olympic Village under the pilot LEED for Neighborhood Development certification program.
It’s the first Olympic Village to receive LEED certification. During the games, the Olympic Village houses around 17,000 athletes from around the world.
USGBC has also been supporting the formation of a new China Green Building Council and hopes to work with the China GBC as it promotes healthy building practices. This is especially important as China builds nearly half the world’s new buildings every year.
Click here to learn about …read more

IslandWood is a very different kind of camp. Located inside a 255-acre nature preserve in Bainbridge Island, Washington, this environmental learning center was Washington state’s first LEED Gold project.
What’s so special about it? Visitors can explore a bog, marsh, pond, stream, large ravine with suspension bridge, and a harbor — all among a beautiful second-growth forest with lots of plant and animal life.
The buildings at the six-acre, 18-building campus are designed to be extremely earth-friendly and to blend with the environment as much as possible. Features include composting toilets (they don’t stink!) and photovoltaic roof panels (a solar technology).
IslandWood provides …read more