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Contact: Mike Gehrig
(312) 988-2065
mgehrig@thegbi.org

Chamblee, GA. to recognize Green Building Initiative's™ Green Globes™ System
-- Atlanta Suburb Becomes First Municipality in U.S. to Formally Include Green Globes in Legislation --

Portland, Ore. (March 27, 2008) Chamblee, GA. recently became the first municipality in the United States to formally recognize the Green Building Initiative's (GBI) Green Globes environmental assessment and rating system in legislation.

As the result of a unanimous vote by the Chamblee City Council, beginning April 1, 2009, all new construction projects of more than 20,000 square feet and all new municipal buildings, regardless of size, must be recognized by either the GBI's Green Globes system or the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED system.

This legislation makes the Atlanta suburb the first in the state of Georgia, as well as the first in the entire Southeast region of the U.S., to require private development projects to meet green building standards.

"We congratulate the progressive leadership of Chamblee, particularly the mayor and members of its city council, for taking a leadership role in the improvement of our built environment," said Ward Hubbell, president of the GBI. "Policies like Chamblee’s demonstrate that multiple options geared to mainstream design and building professionals can be used to encourage the accelerated adoption of green building practices."

"We're very proud to be the first city in the state of Georgia to require private development projects to meet green building standards," said Chamblee City Councilman Mark Wedge. "We've seen first-hand the effects of climate change this year in the South, so we’re extremely motivated to achieve results quickly. We believe that giving people choice in terms of how they approach green building, through systems such as Green Globes, will help local builders and architects contribute more substantially to the energy efficiency and general sustainability of our built environment."

Chamblee joins states across the country such as Virginia, South Dakota, Arkansas, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Kentucky, Illinois, New Jersey and Wisconsin, all of which have formally recognized Green Globes in green building legislation or regulation.

For more information about the Green Globes environmental assessment and rating system, or the GBI, visit www.thegbi.org.