Earth Day is Today

I don't know who decides these things, but today is Earth Day 2012.

Our Port Authority had three activities of note that really fit well with Earth Day and a pragmatic approach to green, eco-friendly efforts for an industrial park.  Let me share.

LEED Certification Gotten.  We were proud to get word after spending much green with the U.S. Green Building Council, that the LEED Certification for our newest building on the campus was approved.  Our news release is true.  It's only the second building in Ohio to acheive the hard-to-get LEED for Core and Shell 2009 status.

Segways Touted.  We tweeted about our use of Segways on our campus a few weeks back.  That social media splash translated to a above-the-fold, front page story on Friday's Newark Advocate.  The eco-friendly value from putting 420+ miles on a Segway is calculated in less pounds of carbon.  That's Earth Day worthy too.

An Ohio-native Meadow Re-Planted.  We set aside one acre on our campus late last year for a demonstration project to convert the property back to a meadow using only Ohio-native plantings.  The experiment didn't grow when the rest of growth came so our staff, including me, got our hands dirty planting the second round of seedlings to try to restore this location which is not likely suitable for building.

The next time we mention these things is as part of the EcoSummit 2012 event Columbus is hosting this coming Fall.  Participants can pay witness to these and other pragmatic, eco-friendly actions in a suburban industrial park.  The organizers call it their Green Engineering/Manufacturing at a Regional Port Authority excursion.