eFIG | The European Federation of Interior Landscape Groups Chairman Thomas Palfreyman presents a webinar on the importance of plants in green building and urban design using case studies to highlight the benefits of plant life.
GPGB Included as Source to Government Provided Website
sftool.org is the website operated by the Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings, the General Services Administration's green building center of excellence. The Office strategically facilitates the adoption of integrated sustainable practices, technologies and behaviors to accelerate the achievement of a zero environmental footprint.
Green Plants for Green Buildings, working tirelessly to promote the importance of plants in the interior environment, is gaining recognition for its members as an essential green resource.
The General Services Administration has included GPGB on its "Learn" page: Find it here and scroll down to Plants!
The Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings works with all real property-managing Federal agencies, and with GSA’s Public Buildings Service, Federal Acquisition Service, and other GSA programs to identify and expand opportunities and remove barriers to sustainable facilities and to lead the marketplace by piloting and adopting transformative sustainable practices. The Office is also a key player in the Federal government’s implementation of Executive Order 13514, Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy and Economic Performance, along with Federal partners including the Office of the Federal Environmental Executive, US Department of Energy and US Environmental Protection Agency.
Interior Plants Receive Preliminary Approval by the IgCC
The International Green Construction Code (IgCC) has given preliminary approval for the inclusion of live plants as part of their proposed 2012 code revisions. A new subsection of Section 810 will be headed ‘Interior Plants and Pollutant Control’ and will outline where and how many plants should be used to comply with this optional green building guideline – which is administered by the International Code Council (ICC). A mandatory plant maintenance program will also be required for compliance.
In public comment hearings on Public Version 1.0 held in Chicago on August 17, 2010, Michael Lewis, President of Green Plants for Green Buildings, along with Charlie Acevedo and Mike Rimland from Costa Farms, presented solid evidence that indoor plants are a good, low energy way to help clean the air of pollutants as well as provide fresh oxygen - which helps improve worker moral and productivity, reduce building related illnesses as well as employee sick days. It was also pointed out that Australiaalready has something similar in place called Green Star that includes indoor plants as part of their measurement standards.
Lewis was also representing the Interiorscape Industry Coalition (IIC), a collaboration of non-profit organizations that include Professional Landcare Network (PLANET), BrighamYoung University, Green Plants for Green Buildings (GPGB), Plantscape Industry Alliance (PIA), National Foliage Foundation (NFF), Tropical Plant Industry Exposition (TPIE), Florida Nursery, Growers and Landscape Association (FNGLA), Landscape Ontario, and OFA – an Association of Floriculture Professionals. All together these partners represented approximately 9,000 companies and 177,000 stakeholders, bringing considerable clout to the proceedings.
After waiting 10 hours for the opportunity to present their case to the committee, the interior plant position statements were made. According to Lewis: ‘I knew we had some friendly faces up there based on the constructive comments we received immediately following our presentation. However, it wasn’t until the final vote that we realized an overwhelming majority (10 yes, 4 no, and 1 abstain) voted in favor of the new guidelines!”
The next step is to prepare a revised Interior Plants & Pollution Control code outline for Public Version 2.0 this fall, which will incorporate the many constructive suggestions made by the review committee.
Says Lewis: ‘This effort is not just a USeffort but one that includes representatives from the entire North American continent, and has implications around the world!”
