The pillars of green building - sustainability, efficiency, community stewardship and health/safety - have long been familiar themes with developers, builders and consumers. Since the 1970s, as part of the initial, modern environmental movement in the United States, there developed a fringe of green builders pursuing new concepts and ways of thinking that manifested in everything from household water re-use systems to smallscale solar power generation to geodesic domes. During the 1980s and 1990s, green building products and concepts moved inward from the fringe to become amenities and options that, everything else being equal, might help to close the deal on a new home or commercial structure. What is different now is that for a growing percentage

Why Waste A Ribbon When You Can Plant A Tree...

San Diego, CA- Walgreens celebrated the opening of the nations first green drugstore yesterday not with a traditional ribbon-cutting ceremony but with the planting of a native tree.

"We felt that planting a tree was much more appropriate then cutting a ribbon and then throwing it away" said Jamie J. Meyers, The LEED AP Project architect who was there for the celebrations.

Walgreens, the nations largest drug store chain is once again changing the landscape for the American consumer, this time for the greener. The store in question was designed from the ground up around the dual mission of efficiency and sustainability. Not only is it the first drug store in the U.S. to meet the USGBCs stringent LEED design standards but the 24-hour store also sells a host of environmentally friendly products.

By exceeding LEED requirements and integrating eco-friendly product lines into their inventory they have taken steps that cannot simply be attributed to the common corporate "greenwashing"