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SC Chapter wins USGBC Award of Excellence in Education at Greenbuild 2009

Submitted by: Dan Gerst on Dec 16, 2009 at 8:31 pm Tagged with: award, Education, green building, LEED, Sustain SC Source: USGBC-SC Chapter

The South Carolina Chapter recently won the U.S. Green Building Council Award of Excellence in the small chapter education category. The South Carolina Chapter offers a wide variety of quality education offerings but what made the South Carolina Chapter stand out was their state wide conference – Sustain SC. This was the first year that the South Carolina Chapter held Sustain SC, and even during these difficult economic times, the chapter was able to make the conference a large success. Sustain SC had over 300 attendees, 2 keynote speakers, 14 educational sessions, 2 LEED building tours, 1 half day workshop, and a sold-out exhibit hall. The conference ran for two days with education programs taking place both days. In order to reach out to new communities and encourage a more diverse turnout the South Carolina Chapter gave conference discounts to all public sector employees, students, and volunteers. A variety of ticket types were offered to encourage attendance. The conference facility (Carolina First Center) has a strong sustainability policy and worked with the SC Chapter to achieve USGBC’s green meeting standards.

The 2009 Sustain SC organizing committee was proud to have set a precedent for strong educational offerings in the first year of this new Chapter program. Among all of the conference elements, respondents to the post-conference survey were most satisfied with the “Quality of Keynote Speakers,” followed closely by the “Overall quality of educational session presentations.”

Only seven Chapters (out of 80) received the Award of Excellence this year. The South Carolina Chapter has won an Award of Excellence for four consecutive years in the categories of Education, Organizational Excellence and Advocacy.