Brooke Morales Brooke started her career with interior design and business development experience in the NJ and NY A&D community and specifically focused on sustainable building and design practices. She has experience sourcing and selecting sustainable interior and exterior building materials for commercial and residential specifications. As an interior designer and consultant, she presents space […]
On a recent trip, I had the pleasure of staying in a LEED gold certified hotel. This property was not only a fine hotel, but it actually practices the concepts of sustainability as a part of its business model. The hotel, an Element (part of the Westin chain) is not only a green hotel, it […]
What is Sustainability? Simply put, Sustainability means that a resource can be maintained indefinitely. It is naturally replenished as fast, or faster, than it is used. The Earth provides valuable natural resources (like oil, water, forestry) that humanity uses for its fuel, food, shelter – all aspects of its existence. For a resource to be […]
Recently, during the ongoing discussion with regard to LEED and the GSA, the American Chemical Council (ACC) issued a document that made arguments against the LEED rating system by making claims that LEED redlined certain chemicals, would hurt energy efficiency and that using the LEED system would cost jobs in the chemical industry. Well, it […]
The General Services Administration (GSA) is evaluating the continued use of LEED as its mandated green building construction evaluation system. Since its adoption, and since the USGBC has been working on a more stringent version of LEED for 2012 other interests have been complaining about the GSA’s preferential use of LEED versus other “green” building […]