Locally, green buildings on the rise

MetroTimes profiles several local green buildings, including the Student Services Center at Lawrence Technological University, Affirmations in Ferndale and the Kresge Foundation's Troy headquarters.

Excerpt:

Green planners like [Jim] Newman are hoping to convince municipalities to change their codes to require or at least reward environmentally conscious building projects. He's working with Birmingham, Rochester Hills and Auburn Hills for starters.

"That's something we're looking at as a city," says Vincent Nathan, director of the Detroit Department of Environmental Affairs.

The Kresge Foundation, for its part in the private sector, launched its Green Buildings Initiative in 2003 and has since awarded 101 planning grants totaling $6.2 million to nonprofits to design sustainable buildings. Funds totaling about $7.2 million are committed to 42 nonprofit organizations that will be awarded when they become LEED certified, says Kresge spokeswoman Cynthia Shaw. Affirmations received such money for design and construction of the Ferndale site.

Read the entire article here.


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