Warwick, RI – January 22, 2013 — The U.S. Green Building Council – Rhode Island Chapter (Chapter) will celebrate the success of its fourth year in operation at its Annual Members’ Meeting February 6, 2013 at the CVS Caremark Finance Center in Cumberland, RI. Meeting participants will tour CVS’s newest building designed to the LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold standard. The event will also feature a catered networking reception and gallery of LEED projects.
Attorney and entrepreneur Jan Schlictmann of Oceanic Innovations will give the keynote address titled, From Environmental Litigation to Ecologic Innovation – One man’s vision to create transformative, sustainable development in economic dead zones. Mr. Schlictmann is best known for litigating a groundwater contamination case against W.R. Grace and Beatrice Foods in Woburn, MA. His work was chronicled in the bestseller, “A Civil Action,” that became a hit film starring John Travolta.
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“I spent the first three decades of my career fighting; I want to spend the last one catalyzing innovative, ecologically-engineered, clean tech projects,” said Schlictmann. His current plans are to develop an Ocean Research and Innovation Center on abandoned industrial property using salt water as an input for producing various goods. The center would be a nexus for R&D with commercialization of promising biomarine technologies capitalizing on water as a resource. Mr. Schlichtmann recently toured several potential ‘high vis’ urban sites along The Ocean State’s waterfront and may entertain locating the center here. “We need to take our cues from nature and revitalize, not destruct. We have abused our resources; how we treat the land determines our future,” says Schlictmann.
According to Christina Sprows, Chapter board member and Director of Architecture and Engineering for CVS, the Finance Center is the third in the Highland Corporate Office Park to seek LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. In 2011, the CVS Marketing Support Center was designated as Certified and the CVS Retail Pharmacy Customer Support Center Gold. All three received high marks for innovation; local companies including Gilbane, Dimeo and EW Burman constructed the facilities.
The RI Green Building Council promotes greening existing, historic or new buildings that give the state its power of place. There are some 60 LEED certified buildings in Rhode Island with another 70 in various stages of design and development. In 2012, Rhode Island ranked 22nd nationally in LEED project activity per capita.
“The Providence’s Knowledge District, Route 195 lands and our bounty of existing building stock are all prime for sustainable development,” stated Steven Hughes, Chapter board member and Chair of the Chapter’s Advocacy Committee. Hughes helped pass the RI Green Buildings Act in 2009 which requires that public projects follow a high performance, green building standard. “Green should not be just about doing the right thing every day,” according to Mark Hanchar, Director of Preconstruction Services at Gilbane Company. “It’s really a major change in our collective business mindset and an approach that we must adopt now in order to avoid thoughtlessly wasting precious resources that should be thoughtfully managed for future generations.”
For more information about the Chapter’s annual meeting, visit the Chapter’s website at www.usgbcri.org. Registration closes January 31, 2013; public welcome.
ABOUT The Rhode Island Green Building Council
The primary mission of the Rhode Island Green Building Council, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit is to educate professionals and the public about sustainable design and building practices. The Chapter also promotes policies that will create sustainable communities in our region.
