Click on the links below to access other organizations with green initiatives and other environmentally-friendly missions.
Associations and Non-Profit Organizations
Alliance to Save Energy
The Alliance to Save Energy promotes energy efficiency worldwide to achieve a healthier economy, a cleaner environment, and greater energy security.
American Indoor Air Quality Council
The American Indoor Air Quality Council promotes awareness, education and certification in the field of indoor air quality.
American Institute of Architecture's Committee on the Environment
AIA's Committee on the Environment (COTE) works to advance, disseminate, and advocate design practices that integrate built and natural systems and enhance both the design quality and environmental performance of the built environment.
American Planning Association
The American Planning Association is dedicated to advancing the art, science and profession of good planning to create communities that offer better choices for where and how people work and live.
American Solar Energy Society
American Solar Energy Society (ASES) is a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing the use of solar energy, energy efficiency, and other sustainable technologies in the U.S.
Better Bricks
The goal of BetterBricks is to help business professionals understand the power of energy efficiency to make a real difference in their buildings and in their business.
Climate Action Network
The Climate Action Network (CAN) is a worldwide network of over 430 Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) working to promote government and individual action to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels.
Community Greenhouse Foundation
The Community Greenhouse Foundation is a not-for-profit organization that promotes and facilitates greener communities.
Congress for the New Urbanism
The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) promotes walkable, neighborhood-based development as an alternative to sprawl.
Construction Materials Recycling Association
The Construction Materials Recycling Association promotes the recycling of construction and demolition materials.
Development Center for Appropriate Technology
DCAT is a non-profit organization that draws on extensive experience in traditional and alternative building and development, providing strategic support for the shift to sustainable building practices.
Ecological Design Institute
The Ecological Design Institute (EDI) is a non-profit organization dedicated to research and education that applies ecological principles and practices to the redesign of our environment.
The Energy Foundation
The Energy Foundation's mission is to advance energy efficiency and renewable energy — new technologies that are essential components of a clean energy future.
Environmental Defense Fund
The Environmental Defense Fund is a national non-profit organization linking science, economics and law to create innovative, equitable and cost-effective solutions to society's most urgent environmental problems.
Global Environmental Options
Global Environmental Options (GEO) is a non-profit organization created to encourage and implement integrated Green Design on the Building and Community scale.
Global Green USA
Global Green is the American Arm of Green Cross International (GCI), which was created by President Mikhail S. Gorbachev to foster a global value shift toward a sustainable and secure future by reconnecting humanity with the environment.
Green Building Finance Consortium
The Green Building Finance Consortium (GBFC) is a group of corporations, real estate companies, and trade groups who have joined together to address the need for independent research and analysis of investment in Green or energy efficient buildings.
Healthy House Institute
The Healthy House Institute® (HHI) provides consumers information to make their homes healthier.
National Association of State Energy Officials
The National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO) is a non-profit organization created to improve the effectiveness and quality of state energy programs and policies, provide policy input and analysis, share successes among the states, and be a repository of information on energy issues of concern to the states and their citizens.
Natural Resources Defense Council
The Natural Resources Defense Council works to protect wildlife and wild places and to ensure a healthy environment for all life on earth.
Natural Step
The Natural Step is a non-profit organization committed to researching the science of sustainability and linking it to real world applications.
New Urban Guild
The New Urban Guild is dedicated to promoting the creation of better places through the traditional patterns and languages of architecture and urbanism.
Northeast Sustainable Energy Association
The Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA) is an organization of professionals working in sustainable energy, whole-systems thinking and green technologies.
Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance
The Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA) is a partnership among the Northwest region's leaders in energy efficiency with the mission to drive the development and adoption of energy-efficient products and services.
Second Nature
Second Nature's mission is to accelerate movement toward a sustainable future by serving and supporting senior college and university leaders in making healthy, just, and sustainable living the foundation of all learning and practice in higher education.
Society of Building Science Educators
The Society of Building Science Educators (SBSE) is an association of university educators and practitioners in architecture and related disciplines who support excellence in the teaching of environmental science and building technologies.
Soil and Water Conservation Society
Soil and Water Conservation Society (SWCS) is a nonprofit scientific and educational organization that serves as an advocate for conservation professionals and for science-based conservation practice, programs, and policy.
Solar Living Institute
The Solar Living Institute is a non-profit educational organization whose mission is to promote sustainable living through inspirational environmental education.
Sustainable Buildings Industry Council
The Sustainable Buildings Industry Council (SBIC) is an independent, non-profit trade association that seeks to dramatically improve the long-term performance and value of buildings through our outreach, advocacy and education programs.
Sustainable Energy Coalition
The Sustainable Energy Coalition (SEC) brings together more than 60 national and state-level business, environmental, consumer, and energy policy organizations to promote increased federal support for energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies and reduced federal support for unsafe or polluting energy resources.
U.S. Green Building Council
The U.S. Green Building Council is a non-profit community of leaders working to make green buildings available to everyone within a generation.
Union of Concerned Scientists
The Union of Concerned Scientists, a science-based non-profit, combines independent scientific research and citizen action to develop innovative, practical solutions and to secure responsible changes in government policy, corporate practices, and consumer choices.
Urban Ecology
Urban Ecology uses urban planning, ecology, and public participation to help design and build healthier cities.
Whole Building Design Guide
The WBDG is a web-based portal providing government and industry practitioners with one-stop access to up-to-date information on a wide range of building-related guidance, criteria and technology from a 'whole buildings' perspective.
back to top
Research Centers & Institutes
Buildings Technology Center
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
The Buildings Technology Center (BTC) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is a U.S. research facility devoted to the development of technologies that improve the energy efficiency and environmental compatibility of residential and commercial buildings.
Building Technology Program
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Building Technology Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is an interdisciplinary program jointly sponsored by the Department of Architecture, the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Department of Mechanical Engineering.
Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics
Carnegie Mellon University
The Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics (CBPD) at Carnegie Mellon University conducts research, demonstration, and teaching in building performance and diagnostics.
Center for the Built Environment
University of California, Berkeley's College of Environmental Design
The CBE's mission is to improve the design, operation, and environmental quality of buildings by providing timely, unbiased information on building technologies and design techniques.
Center for Energy Efficiency & Renewable Technologies
The Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies (CEERT) is a non-profit public-benefit organization comprised of scientists, environmentalists, public interest advocates and innovative energy technology companies working to promote sustainable resources and nonpolluting technologies to meet the world's integral appetite for energy.
Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems
CMPBS is a non-profit education, research, and demonstration organization specializing in life cycle planning and design.
Center for Sustainable Building Research
University of Minnesota's College of Design
The Center for Sustainable Building Research's mission is to lead and support—through research, outreach, and education—the transformation of the regional built environment to provide for the ecological, economic, and social needs of the present without compromising those of the future.
Centre for Sustainable Design
The Surrey Institute of Art & Design, University College, UK
The Centre for Sustainable Design facilitates discussion and research on eco-design and broader sustainability considerations in product and service development.
Environmental Energy Technologies Division
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California
Through research, development and analysis, the Environmental Energy Technologies Division is committed to contribute to increases in energy efficiency and associated improvements in the environment.
Green Design Institute
Carnegie Mellon University
The Green Design Institute is an interdisciplinary education and research effort to make an impact on environmental quality through green design, by forming partnerships with companies, government agencies and foundations to develop pioneering management, manufacturing, and regulatory processes that can improve environmental quality and product quality while enhancing economic development.
Pacific Energy Center
The Pacific Energy Center offers educational programs, design tools, advice, and support to create energy efficient buildings and comfortable indoor environments.
Renewable Energy Technologies
Sandia National Laboratories
The purpose of the Renewable Energy Technologies Division at Sandia National Laboratories is to develop commercially viable energy technologies based on solar, wind, and geothermal resources that become significant domestic and international energy supplies, with a primary focus on the utility sector.
Renewable Resource Data Center
National Renewable Energy Library
The Renewable Resource Data Center (RReDC) provides access to an extensive collection of renewable energy resource data, maps, and tools.
Rocky Mountain Institute
Rocky Mountain Institute® (RMI) is an independent, entrepreneurial, non-profit organization that fosters the efficient and restorative use of resources to make the world secure, just, prosperous, and life-sustaining.
Rutgers Center for Green Building
E.J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
The Rutgers Center for Green Building promotes green building through research, education and training, and partnerships with industry, government and not-for-profit agencies.
Simulation Research Group
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
The Simulation Research Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) specializes in creating building energy simulation software.
The Vital Signs Curriculum Materials Project
University of California, Berkeley's College of Environmental Design
The Vital Signs Project aims to incorporate matters of building physical performance into the education of architects by instilling in architecture students a fundamental awareness about the numerous ways in which their design decisions affect a building's physical performance--from energy use, to indoor environmental quality, to occupant well-being.
back to top
National/Federal Government Agencies
ENERGY STAR
ENERGY STAR is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy helping us all save money and protect the environment through energy efficient products and practices.
U.S. Department of Energy
The Department of Energy's (DOE) overarching mission is to advance the national, economic, and energy security of the United States; to promote scientific and technological innovation in support of that mission; and to ensure the environmental cleanup of the national nuclear weapons complex.
U.S. DOE Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
The EERE mission is to strengthen America's energy security, environmental quality, and economic vitality in public-private partnerships that enhance energy efficiency and productivity and bring clean, reliable and affordable energy technologies to the marketplace.
- EERE's Federal Energy Management Program
By promoting energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy resources at federal sites, the Federal Energy Management Program helps agencies save energy, save taxpayer dollars, and demonstrate leadership with responsible, cleaner energy choices.
- EERE's Building Technologies Program
The Building Technologies Program partners with states, industry, and manufacturers to improve the energy efficiency of new and existing buildings.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
The EPA leads the nation's environmental science, research, education and assessment efforts. The mission of the Environmental Protection Agency is to protect human health and the environment.
- EPA's Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP)
Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) helps the federal government "buy green," and in doing so, uses the federal government's enormous buying power to stimulate market demand for green products and services. Geared first to help federal purchasers, this site can help green vendors, businesses large and small -- and consumers.
U.S. National Energy Policy
This White House Web site outlines the current administration's energy policies.
U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Get information about the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, including general information about the lab, how to locate NREL Employees, how they operate and do business, and how you can do business with them.
back to top
State/Local Organizations
Arizona
Coconino County, AZ - Sustainable Economic Development Initiative
Scottsdale, AZ - Green Building Program
California
Building Concerns - Northern California
Build It Green - California
California Integrated Waste Management Board - Green Building Program
Alameda County, CA - Green Building in Alameda County
Oakland, CA - Green Building Resource Center
San Francisco, CA - Green Building Program
San Jose, CA - Green Building Program
Santa Barbara, CA - Innovative Building Design Review Committee
Santa Monica, CA - Green Building Program
Colorado
Boulder, CO - Green Points Program
District of Columbia
Washington, DC - Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments Green Building
Florida
Florida Green Building Coalition
Maryland
Maryland Environmental Design Program
Massachusetts
Boston Area Solar Energy Association
Boston Building Materials Resource Center (BMRC)
Minnesota
Minnesota Sustainable Design Guide
New Jersey
New Jersey Clean Energy Program
New York
New York State Energy Research & Development Authority
New York State Green Building Tax Incentive Initiative
New York City High Performance Building Guidelines
Oregon
Oregon Department of Energy
Portland, OR - City of Portland's Office of Sustainable Development
Portland, OR - City of Portland's Green Building Program
Pennsylvania
Green Building Alliance Pittsburgh
Texas
Austin, TX - Austin Energy Green Building™
San Antonio, TX - Metropolitan Partnership for Energy
Virginia
Arlington County, VA - Green Building Incentive
Washington
Seattle City Light Conservation - BUILT SMART Program
Seattle, WA - Department of Planning & Development's Green Building Program
Wisconsin
Wisconsin Green Building Alliance
Energy Center of Wisconsin
back to top