The Neighborhood Electric Lawn Mower Sharing Program, part of the Central Texas Electric Lawn Mower Program was selected “Best Reason to Scrap Your Old Lawn Mower” in the 2010 Austin Chronicle: Best of Austin poll (available September 2). CMPBS is proud to serve as the fiscal agent for the Central Texas Electric Lawn Mower Program. We also congratulation our associate, Scott Johnson, for all his hard work to improve air quality and fight climate change by encouraging the use of electric lawn mowers.

For more information about the Central Texas Electric Lawnmower Program or to purchase an electric lawn mower visit the website: www.cmpbs.org/electriclawnmower.

CMPBS Co-director will present at “Going Green - An Emerging Mission in Health Care” on October 12, 2010 from 12:40 - 1PM as part of the “Green Building in Health Care: A Global Perspective” session.Going Green was organized by the New York -Presbyterian Hospital to give leaders of health care institutions across the country the opportunity to hear from experts and share with one another the best thinking and practices around sustainability in health care.

The even will take place at the Vivian & Seymour Milstein Family Heart Center at the New York Presbyterian Hospital from 7:30 Am - 5:30 PM. Visit the event’s website for more information about the event or to register.

 CMPBS Co-director will make a presentation along with her fellow Loeb Fellowship alumni at the organization’s 40th anniversary reunion on October 6-10, 2010. The Loeb Fellowship offers ten annual postprofessional awards for independent study at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Gail completed her Loeb Fellowship in 1998-1999.

The 40th Anniversary Celebration will feature Loeb fellows from the past and present. The group will discuss their envisioned future and outlook for 2050. Gail will present along with her fellow alumni on Friday October 8.

Please visit the Loeb Fellowship website for more information about the event.

CMPBS co-director Gail Vittori will deliver a keynote address to the 2010 Sustainable Healthcare and Hospital Development Conference on September 22, 2010. Gail will discuss LEED for Healthcare, its development, current status and case studies of sustainable healthcare facilities. Gail is the immediate past chair of the US Green Building Council’s Board of Directors and is the founding chair of the LEED for Healthcare Core Committee.

The Sustainable Healthcare and Hospital Development Conference takes place September 22-24, 2010 at the Los Angeles Hyatt Regency in Los Angeles, Ca. The conference brings together healthcare, construction, and sustainability professionals. For more information about the conference or to register visit the conference’s website.

Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio will air on Austin’s PBS station, KLRU-TV on Monday, August 23, 2010 at 9PM. The film documents the life, work, legacy of late architect Samuel Mockbee. The film was directed by Austin’s Samuel Wainwright Douglas and produced by Jay Sanders.

CMPBS served as the fiscal sponsor for the film and hosted a screening of the film in May 2010.

For more information about the film please visit the Citizen Architect website or the KLRU website.

Photo by Blake Gordon

CMPBS is honored that our Advanced Green Builder Demonstration (AGBD) was ranked number 5 on “The G-List” a ranking of Top Green Buildings Since 1980. Lance Hosey, freelance architect, designer, writer, and speaker explores the relative dearth of high performance or sustainable buildings on traditional lists. Hosey surveyed architects, designers and other professionals working in green building and produced his own ranking.  Other buildings on the list include The California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, BedZed in London, and Oberlin College’s Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies. Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas, for which the Center served as LEED Consultant, was also mentioned on Hosey’s list.

To learn more about the Advanced Green Builder Demonstration visit our publications page, our photo gallery, or download the paper here. You can also join us for our monthly open house on the first Friday of every month for a guided tour of the AGBD.

CMPBS Associate Principal Dylan Siegler contributed to the article “Pioneering the Platinum Path for Healthcare” in the July 2010 issue of Facility Care Magazine. Other contributors include Joe Kuspan of Karlsberger and Alan Bell and Phil Risner of Seton Network facilities. The article discusses Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas, the nation’s first hospital to receive LEED Platinum certification through careful site selection, energy efficiency, a design that maximizes daylighting and freash air, and low-impact materials. CMPBS provided LEED and sustainability consulting for the 176-bed, 509,000 square foot hospital.

The July 2010 issue of Facility Care is available as a digital publication on the publisher’s website.

CMPBS Co-Director Gail Vittori contributed commentary about the potential cost savings of sustainable design of health care  facilities in Tracy Granzyk Wetzel’s article “Can Going Green Get You Into the Black?” The article is in the July 2010 issue of Hospitals and Health Networks Magazine. Wetzel further highlights the benefits of green hospitals with a discussion of Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas. CMPBS served as the LEED consultant for the LEED Platinum certified hospital in Austin, Texas.

“Can Going Green Get You in the Black?” is available in the July 2010 issue of HHN Magazine or online.

The Austin-based lifestyle and culture magazine, Tribeza, features CMPBS as part of their first-ever Green Issue, realeased July 2010. The article includes information about CMPBS’s current projects including single family housing for hurricane prone regions of the Gulf Coast and disaster relief housing for small island nations. CMPBS is featured alongside other Austinites working toward a more sustainable future.

The July issue of Tribeza is available at retail locations around Austin and online.

CMPBS co-director Gail Vittori was quoted in July’s issue of Health Facilities Management. She contributed commentary about sustainable hospital operations to the article “Green + Greener” written by Dave Carpenter. The July issue of Health Facilities Management is available on newsstands now. The article is also available electronically on the Health Facilities Management website.