The World is changing, but it’s fairly hard to notice “life-impacting” changes in our lives and communities every day. If you read the national and international news large, obvious changes occur every day. Our society often moves along without noticing the small changes which in effect can become the big changes we really need to be paying attention to. Many of us have now been introduced to the concept of sustainability which comes down to our current generations actions on the planet not forfeiting future generations’ ability to have a “quality of life”. In other words, we should be trying to live off the interest and not the principle. Sustainability is not about doing without; it’s about doing more with less with the ability to maintain or further improve our quality of life.

In the last few decades our region has been seeing noticeable changes that have gone from small to large in the environment and the economy which now require our attention and action toward sustainability. Now that we are becoming acutely aware of these issues and their impacts we are moving forward to plan and implement strategies that help us become more sustainable in all aspects of our lives. One notable example of sustainability occurring in our region is green building which involves designing and constructing the built environment to be environmentally friendly and economically beneficial to building owners, users and the society as a whole. Green buildings are especially important to this region because of the region’s beauty, environmental sensitivity and amount of construction and supporting infrastructure and the associated impacts.          

The Eastern Sierra area of Truckee and Lake Tahoe along with Northern Nevada is a very desirable area to visit and enjoy its amenities. What attracts visitors to Truckee, Lake Tahoe and the surrounding area is its beauty with tall magnificent trees, jagged snow peaked mountains and ranges and beautiful lakes and rivers. No. Nevada is located on the edge of the Sierras and is a wonderful area to visit and live with lots of amenities and easy access to the beauty and recreation found in the desert and mountains. Once people discover the beauty of this region they want to live and stay here for more than just a brief vacation. The construction industry thrives in this region because visitors can find or build their dream home and locate their business in the desert or mountains. So if it’s the natural environment that draws them here and many stay to live and work then you might say that “the environment is the economy”. Protecting and enhancing our environment is essential to the economy. There are many examples of green buildings and sustainable design in this region.

In Truckee East-West Partners was the first developer in town to commit to making their development projects go green. Their Old Greenwood and Grey’s Crossing projects are LEED Certified. Their Highlands development received a LEED Certified rating. LEED represents the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) guidelines and green building rating program that certifies buildings as to their level of environmental friendliness and resource efficiency. The levels go from Certified as the LEED minimum to Silver, Gold, then Platinum.

The Tahoe-Truckee Unified School District built Alder Creek Middle School which is believed to have the equivalent of a LEED Silver green building rating. There are now several Truckee projects in the design and building stages planning to go green. The US Forest Service is building an office structure that plans to go LEED Silver. The new Truckee Sierra College campus was shooting for a LEED Silver. The Park Service is currently designing a green office building to be located at Donner Lake. The Recreation & Park’s District is currently building a new Community/Cultural Center and is incorporating several green building measures. There is also a 32 unit Frischman Hollow affordable housing project that is expected to go green following LEED guidelines. The Northstar Village has all six main buildings in the project planned to go LEED Certified. Shaffer’s Camp and Restaurant are registered for LEED Certification along with the Northstar’s Employee Housing 96 apartment unit project. There is also an East-West Partner 16 unit town home project called Trailside that is in the LEED for Homes pilot program going green. The new Northstar Highlands Fire Station is also planned to go for LEED Certification.

Lake Tahoe is going green with several projects popping up all around the lake. Probably the first was the Wild Goose restaurant in Tahoe Vista designed and built for East/West Partners. The University of Nevada, Reno committed to green building renovated a 4-H Camp in Stateline, NV by the lake that is expected to receive a LEED Gold rating. Another project around the lake is the new Tahoe Center for Environmental Science building in Incline, NV. This project qualified for the prestigious LEED Platinum rating.  

No. Nevada away from the lake also is also becoming a major green building player. The Nevada Legislature passed green building legislation which is increasing the amount of green building activity in Nevada through tax incentives and other programs. Patagonia’s headquarters in Reno features many green measures and received a LEED EB Platinum rating. The Regional Transportation Center in the Reno/Sparks area received the LEED certified rating. The City of Sparks new City Hall is being planned to be modeled after LEED. UNR has greened the new Student Union building receiving a LEED Silver rating. UNR also plans to green their new Center for Molecular Medicine to comply with the LABS21 green rating for labs. There are plans for the new Reno Discovery Museum to take over the old Reno City Hall. The New Discovery Museum is not only planning to go green, but is also planning to integrate green education throughout their entire project.

There are also many homes in the region that “qualify” as green. One of the more notable green homes is Suzanne Johnson’s which is a 2005 AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE) Top Ten National Award winner. Mike Kerton of Kerton Construction won the Alternative Building Award from the Contractor’s Association of Tahoe-Truckee (CATT) for his green home in Northstar.

Sometime soon these so-called alternative buildings will be the only buildings that make sense for the future. The Northern NV, Truckee, Lake Tahoe Sustainability Region is truly destined to become one of the Greenest Regions in America over the next few decades with the amount of commercial and residential green building square footage per capita being planned and built. And as green buildings are being built so will the lifestyles of the Region’s citizens change as they experience the changing natural resource picture and the economic and other benefits of sustainability.