News-Record.com

About 250 people attended a kick-off event at the Proximity Hotel for the new 12-county Piedmont Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council. In the mix were city officials, such as City Manager Mitch Johnson, business owners, home builders, academics and curious residents. They toured the Proximity, wined and dined on white platter hors d'oeuvres and met this area's green revolution movers and shakers.

Donna Newton, advisor of the Greensboro Neighborhood Congress, said she came to connect with people who could advise her on how to incorporate renewable energy into her home. She said she and her husband currently recycle and use rain barrels and are now researching solar panels.

"We're willing to pay a premium for the earth but we're not willing to go broke," she said.

Newton said "green" is the buzzword in neighborhoods now and she would like to hold an educational symposium for neighborhoods.

Joel Landau, general manager of Deep Roots Market and co-chair of the Greensboro community sustainability council, said the group is planning a fall public meeting to discuss green topics. He said the report of recommendations the committee is charged with creating for City Council could be similar to the draft Green Guilford plan developed by the county.

Below: Landau (right) with Sarah Levenson and Betsi Blake of Eco Everyday retail store in Greensboro.

Proximity developer Dennis Quaintance told the crowd that Proximity has enough points to be certified platinum LEED, the highest rating possible. No other hotel in the country yet has that distinction, he said. Proximity is holding out for the final point before it becomes official.

"We didn't set out to be LEED platinum," Quaintance said. "We didn't really care about LEED. Our idea was we wanted to build a hotel that was durable."

Now won over, Quaintance said he hopes that the green building efforts in the Piedmont will be successful because he fears companies will lower standards to remain competitive.

Keynote speaker Kevin Hydes, chairman of the World Green Building Council, clicked through a flurry of slides showing the global impact of green building, from the wind turbines on a skyscraper in Dubai to roof trellises and sky gardens on a building in Singapore. He said he hopes to see replicated in the United States a European Union system that shows people energy ratings at each commercial building. Hydes, echoing writer Thomas Friedman, also said the LEED standard is an example of an environmental standard that came from society up, not government down.

Still, the industry is still fragmented when it comes to green building standards. The council is trying to change buiding professionals who are unengaged, uninformed enthusiasts or skeptical participants into green building campaigners, Hyde said.

So what do you consider yourself: unengaged, uninformed enthusiast, skeptical participant or campaigner?