USGBC-IL Chapter and Greenbuild Chicago 2010 Give to Local Chicago Projects and Offer Conference Scholarships

CHICAGO, Aug. 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --  The USGBC-Illinois Chapter Greenbuild Host Committee, helping to organize the world's largest conference and expo dedicated to green building, awarded six grants to local community "Legacy Projects" that are advancing green building for the next generation. Furthering its goal to foster green building at a grassroots level, Greenbuild is also seeking to distribute ten full conference scholarships for the 2010 Greenbuild International Conference and Expo in Chicago to those who are making a difference in their local communities in order to encourage diversity within the green building community.  Applicants can either submit a 30 second video or 200-word essay demonstrating how their attendance at Greenbuild can move their green building efforts forward. The deadline is 5:00 p.m. CST on September 1, 2010. For more information about this opportunity, visit www.usgbc-illinois.org.

The Legacy Project grants total $20,000, thanks to matching funds from ComEd. The Legacy Project grants are meant to complement the U.S. Green Building Council's mission and serve as a means of service, education and thanks to the local community that hosts the Greenbuild conference. Greenbuild and the six grant recipient projects are especially grateful to ComEd for its support of their efforts.

Awarded with a $5,000 grant, YouthBuild Lake County is a community-based organization that provides education and job training services to disadvantaged youth in Lake County. In 2009, YouthBuild launched its first green building project to educate students on energy efficiency and weatherization in a Chicago home. The organization will use the funds to train students in thermal imaging and blower door testing.

Goodcity's Food Desert Action received $3,000 to reconstruct a city bus into a biodiesel-powered mobile food market stocked with fruits and vegetables that will travel to the City's neighborhoods and community centers that currently lack easy access to fresh produce.

The Sunlight of the Spirit Rooftop Recovery Garden received $3,000 to support a new food-producing garden space atop Jack Clark's Family Recover Communities, an existing 36-unit residential and community services building.  Located in Chicago's Garfield Park neighborhood, the roof garden will not only serve the building clients—who are in recovery from alcohol or drug addition, ex-offenders under electronic detention and youth offenders—but through Urban Habitat Chicago, will also be used to train the clients in organic roof gardening techniques.

Receiving a $2,500 grant, the Fuller Park Community Development Corporation will use the funds to construct a walk and accessible observation point for the native prairie preserve in the only nature center on the south side of Chicago. Fuller Park's Eden Place Nature Center provides neighboring residents, many of whom are low-income, with important access to ecological recreation, environmental education and the opportunity to participate in authentic conservation activities.

Family Shelter Service received $3,000 to help perform energy audits of family shelter facilities in order to enable energy efficient retrofits. Family Shelter Services serves those affected by domestic violence by providing a network of interconnected programs and empowering individuals and families to realize their potential. The energy retrofits will illustrate that energy efficiency improvements can be made for little or no cost, reducing operation and maintenance costs for non-profits and for-profit organizations alike.

To help construct a Solar Energy Learning Lab, the Academy for Global Citizenship Elementary School received $3,000. This Chicago Public Contract Elementary School, located on the southwest side of Chicago, hopes to show how renewable energy and sustainable living is a financial investment that over time is economically beneficial to the community.

About the U.S. Green Building Council - Illinois Chapter

The U.S. Green Building Council – Illinois Chapter's nearly 1,500 members represent the entire spectrum of Illinois' green building community, from real estate professionals, architects, engineers, designers and trade associations to contractors, product manufacturers, state and local government officials, homebuilders and homeowners. The U.S. Green Building Council – Illinois Chapter is the local affiliate of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a national non-profit composed of leaders from every sector of the building industry working to promote buildings that are environmentally responsible, profitable and healthy places to live and work. USGBC's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings. LEED provides a roadmap for measuring and documenting success for every building type and phase of a building lifecycle. In Illinois, the Illinois Chapter furthers the work of USGBC through over 150 annual programs, events, education and research initiatives, advocacy campaigns, and resources for the local green building community.

Since June 2008, ComEd's Smart Ideas for Your Business Program has provided approximately $23 million in incentives to encourage business customers to implement energy saving technologies that use electricity more efficiently, reduce electricity consumption and save money.  The effort has helped more than 2,000 northern Illinois businesses save over $30 million in electric costs.  For more information on Smart Ideas visit ComEd.com/BizIncentives.

SOURCE U.S. Green Building Council - Illinois Chapter