When our Greater Waco Chamber set out to build a green building, “LEED” wasn’t a common term around Waco. Few were thinking about green roofs, wood from sustainably managed forests, recycling construction waste, low-VOC paints and solvents and harvesting rainwater.

By October 2009, however, at least a dozen high efficiency green buildings have been completed or are under construction in Waco, and the Chamber’s Green Business Network is generating support for more green buildings and more sustainable business practices.

The “first green Chamber building in America” has definitely put Waco on the map. But more important is the fact that our building represents the kind of change in design and construction that with other non-transportation initiatives could reduce the nation’s energy consumption by 23 percent by 2020, save the U.S. economy $1.2 billion and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1.1 gigatons annually, according to a study by McKinsey & Company.

The Chamber appreciates the support of its member-investors for making this building possible and for funding the nationally award-wining Challenge Greater Waco Program for Economic and Community Development.

I chair the Bridgeport Chamber of Commerce – an affiliate of the Bridgeport Regional Business Council (BRBC) and the also co-chair the land use and transportation working group of the Sustainability Plan. Our goals are to reduce VMT and remove the barriers to redeveloping the 15 to 20% of previously developed property in Bridgeport that is currently sitting dormant. All of this potential redevelopment is currently served by transit, and reducing VMT is not just essential for the Mayors goal to be carbon neutral but also because there are no plans to increase road capacity; so the additional trips generated by new development will have to be accommodated by non auto modes. We are crafting a transit first policy which will include a funding mechanism to increase frequency of bus services (despite serving a lot of vacant property, we have a systemwide average of 30 customers per revenue vehicle hour, not high by Manhattan standards but good for a community our size with no major university or heavy high school student use of city buses). We are also looking at establishing a mobility authority for the center city instead of a parking authority (as was recommended in the Downtown Master Plan) that will be as much about reducing the demand for parking as it is managing parking supply.

I also want to take this moment to state how much I enjoy your columns. I looked forward to reading your columns back in the 80″s when I lived in the Bay Area and the San Francisco Examiner carried you column. When it stopped I complained to the op-ed editor who blamed your syndicator for the drop. When I moved to Connecticut in 2004 I was happy to see the New Haven Register carried your column about half the time. Then when I discovered I could receive all of them by e-mail a couple of years ago – nirvana. Then you added the guest columns and nirvana X 2. Keep up the good work – I only wish you had a larger audience. I do what I can to spread the word.