Rick Fedrizzi, co-founder of the United States Green Building Council and father of the LEED standard for evaluating buildings’ environmental impact, spoke at Cornell Thursday about how sustainability initiatives could spur economic growth while creating a healthier global environment.

The new Physical Sciences Building earned Leadership in Energy Environmental Design certification at the Gold level — a level above the sustainability standards Cornell required of it.  

The Cornell Plantations Welcome Center, which was dedicated last weekend, has a chance to earn the highest sustainability ranking from the LEED.

Faculty in the Architecture and Horticulture departments joined forces to inform their students about sustainability and to involve them in The Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES), a program aimed at creating sustainable landscapes in any surrounding. 

In the midst of a booming “green” culture with hybrid cars, reusable bags, countless recycle bins and the ever-present friendly reminders to adopt eco-friendly habits, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification has found its place. As part of a growing effort to bring ecological awareness and sustainable features to design, the United States Green Building Council developed the LEED rating system in 1998. This green building rating system, all too familiar to architecture students here at Cornell, has transformed the way architecture and design is taught.

Perhaps it’s America’s humble, rural origins that produced this backcountry entertainment, such as livestock competitions and baking exhibitions. Or maybe it’s just the personal desire to win that has driven generations of Americans to town, county, and state fairs.

By tradition, State Fairs are a recreational gathering of competitors and patrons alike, seeking their amusement from musicians and farming oddities, but there’s a reason they award ribbons of eight colors. Competitors have traditionally been driven by the desire to display the fruits of delicate labor and achieve the respect of their friends and neighbors.