August 2001
Contents

Message From the Executive Director
  .  Education: A Large Part of What We Do

Conservation Easements:
  .  Fariview Farms Preserved
  .  Four Columns Property Preserved
  .  Paris Mountain Property Preserved
  .  Sloan Family Grants Conservation
Easement on 200 Acres of Land In
Southern Greenville County

Conservation Bank Act
  .  Conservation Bank Act Stalls in Legislature

Green Development
  .  New Directions in Land Use and Design
  .  Upstate Forever's Green Schools Initiative

Staff, Board, Members and Volunteers
  .  Kris Yon, Leon Patterson, Keith Marrero Join Upstate Forever Board of Directors
  .  Staff News and UF Field Trips

GREEN DEVELOPMENT

UPSTATE FOREVER'S
GREEN SCHOOLS INITIATIVE

The Greenville County School District has approved one of the largest school construction projects in the United States_the building and renovation of over 60 schools at a cost of almost $800 million. These facilities will be the places where millions of students in Greenville County will learn for decades to come. It is truly an historic opportunity to do this project in a way that will not only provide long-lasting benefits to Greenville County students but also serve as a model for school construction projects throughout the country.

     On March 26 of this year, Upstate Forever presented its "Green Schools for Greenville" proposal to Institutional Resources (the firm retained to supervise the project) and the School Board, urging the Board to require that the green development principles discussed in this article be applied to the project and that LEED certification be mandatory for each building.

     The School Board has not made a decision on our recommendation for LEED certification, but it has approved spending an additional $2 million to "include green thinking" in the project. We are not exactly sure how these funds will be used, but it is certainly a positive step in the right direction. We will continue to urge the School Board to require LEED certification for all work on the project or at least to use some of the increased funding to prepare and adopt their own, but equally stringent, set of
green standards. Stay tuned to Upstate Update and we will keep you posted on developments.

WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT GREEN DEVELOPMENT? Several Good Books Arendt, Rural By Design (American Planning Association, 1994). Johnston, Building Green in a Black and White World (Home Builders Press, 2000). A. Lovins, H. Lovins and Hawken, Natural Capitalism (Little, Brown & Company, 1999). McGregor, Trulsson and Moore, Living Homes: Sustainable Architecture and Design (Chronicle Books, 2001). Marinelli and Bierman-Lytle, Your Natural Home (Brown, Little and Company, 1995). Natural Resources Defense Council, Storm Water Strategies: Community Responses to Runoff Pollution (1999). Porter et al, The Practice of Sustainable Development (Urban Land Institute, 2000). Wilson et al, Green Development: Integrating Ecology and Real Estate (John Wiley & Sons, 1998). Several Good Web Sites Building America, U.S. Department of Energy, www.eren.doe.gov Congress for the New Urbanism, www.cnu.org Environmental Building News, www.buildinggreen.com Green Building News, www.oikos.com National Homebuilders Association, www.nahb.com Natural Capitalism, www.natcap.org Rocky Mountain Institute, www.rmi.org United States Green Building Council, www.usgbc.org.

 

ROY LANE: UPSTATE LOSES A VISIONARY It just doesn't seem possible that Spartanburg City Administrator Roy Lane is no longer with us. Roy was one of the speakers at our Green Development conference on May 8. He was excited about participating in the conference and as expected, his remarks were insightful and thought-provoking. We were looking forward to working with Roy for years to come. But on June 27, Roy passed away at age 47, after a sudden illness. The Upstate has lost one of its great leaders. We extend our deepest sympathy to Roy's family.