Blog written by Mark Grant.

Last week, Congressman Dan Burton held a congressional hearing on green initiatives at the Keep Indianapolis Beautiful offices.  This hearing brought together various constituents to discuss primarily green building.  There were two panels presenting information.  The first panel was primarily composed of LEED-certified individuals from the architectural and construction industries.  The second panel, on which I spoke, included David Pittman from the Governor's Office, Kären Haley from the City of Indianapolis, Alexia Donahue-Wold from the City of Carmel, and Dave Sommer from Trane.  Kären was recently appointed by Mayor Ballard as the Director of the new Office of Sustainability for the City of Indianapolis.

This congressional hearing was a great way for the various constituents to discuss green initiatives not only with and among each other, but also to present issues and concerns to the Congressman.  Various members of the Congressman's staff were on hand, accumulating information.  These constituents now have a baseline for conversations with the Congressman's office on these various green initiative issues.

It was exciting to see how this green initiative discussion has moved into the forefront of these various governmental offices - the State, major cities and the Congressman's office.  The Congressman was very interested in discussing ideas and finding ways to incentivize developers and owners to undertake green building strategies in development.  One of the major topics discussed with green building was energy conservation and timeliness of energy conservation with the current world markets.  I look forward to the continuing dialogue among the various constituents.