February/March 2008

Executive Director's Corner

USGBC Colorado Puts Down Roots and Spreads Branches

By Deb Kleinman, Executive Director, USGBC Colorado Chapter

Burt Barnes was well into his seventies by the time I studied forest ecology with him at the University of Michigan. His hair was a wild shock of white which flew around his face while he sprinted through the woods, a crowd of twenty-something graduate students trying their best to keep up and failing miserably.

Burt is a legend, at least among his students past and present, a forest ecologist who can identify the rarest tree in the middle of winter with only a fragment of a twig. He was a challenging teacher of the best kind – passionate about his work and a wonderful mentor to his students.

His favorite plant, bar none, is a tree we know and love here in Colorado – Populus tremuloides, the trembling aspen. He even wrote a song about it, which we would all sing around a campfire during the annual fall forestry social while undergraduates competed in the crosscut saw contest. Burt was the one who proved once and for all that the largest organism on the planet is none other than the aspen tree – which relies on an extensive root system to support acres of genetically identical aspen stems.

USGBC Colorado Puts down Roots & Sprouts Branches

Like the aspen, the US Green Building Council Colorado Chapter is growing rapidly, and working to implement a new organizational model. In 2008 we will evolve into a statewide organization with multiple local branches.

The USGBC Colorado Chapter is an independent non profit organization, related to the US Green Building Council (often referred to as USGBC national) through a charter agreement. The Chapter collects and distributes funds to programs and local branches, provides guidance and mentoring to branches, and focuses on green building education and advocacy issues at the state level.

Branches are essential for ensuring that the green building community continues to grow at the grassroots level across Colorado, and greatly increase the ability of the Chapter to support local green building opportunities and resources statewide. The branches provide and facilitate education programs and events, and provide forums for networking and information sharing. Branches foster relationships with local public and private agencies, organizations, and the general public. Most importantly, branches provide numerous and more localized opportunities for active membership participation in the green building community across the state.

USGBC Colorado – Northern Colorado Branch. The Colorado Chapter’s first branch was formally launched in the summer of 2007 and reflects the commitment and expertise of that green building community. The Northern Colorado Branch, under the guidance of the Branch Steering Committee, has the task of working with communities in northeast Colorado from Longmont to the Wyoming border and northeast to the Nebraska/Kansas border.

USGBC Colorado – Southern Colorado Branch. Southern Colorado is not too far behind their brothers and sisters to the north. In January of this year, over 200 ‘southerners’ gathered at a pub in Colorado Springs to launch the Chapter’s second branch. A number of these green building enthusiasts signed up to help get the branch off the ground, and we are excited to help it take off in the coming months.

Next Up…The Mountains & The Metro Area. There has been a great deal of interest expressed in the western parts of the state, in particular in the Roaring Fork and central mountains.  We will also be establishing a metro Denver Branch. We look forward to working with our local partners to host kickoff events and to establish one or more branches in the Colorado Rockies.

USGBC Colorado is not going to become the largest organism on the planet, or the biggest organization in the state. But we are spreading our roots widely and deeply, sending up shoots from Pueblo to the western slope, and nourishing our vibrant green building community.

Get Involved!

Are you interested in green building and sustainable development? Would you like to get more involved in USGBC Colorado in 2008? Even as we grow, we remain fundamentally a member- and volunteer- driven organization, and will always depend on the brilliance and passion of our community.

 

 

Back to Top

CBG /Feb.Mar 2008/ Page 5

________________________________________________________________________