Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Breaking Ground Presents at Greenbuild!

Mary Tappouni of Breaking Ground Contracting, Corie Baker of C Squared Design and Lisa Sheppard with the City of Jacksonville Planning and Development Department presented a fantastic session on historic green at the recent USGBC Greenbuild Conference in Chicago. The session proved to be extremely informative and was well-received by the attendees. The topic matter is really relevant in today's market not only because the housing market is driving more renovations, but because renovation with an emphasis on green and LEED is becoming more and more mainstream.

Mary, Corie and Lisa take renovating green one step further with the idea of renovating green on historic buildings. Lisa stated, "The greenest building is the one already built," a quote from Carl Elefante, which kicked off the presentation's focus on why to renovate, and more importantly, why renovate green. Corie presented information from the architectural standpoint on what makes historic buildings green, and Mary brought it home with the practical application and construction processes for the actual green and LEED renovation of an historic building.

Breaking Ground is so proud of Mary for being accepted as part of this panel for this coveted speaking engagement and for her seemingly effortless presentation of the material! Kudos to Corie for putting together the submission package! Great going ladies....you make us all proud!!

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Are We a Contractor or Educator?

The answer is....both! As Director of Education for Breaking Ground Education Services, a division of Breaking Ground Contracting, people often remark about how unconventional it is that a construction company also promotes education. Each time I hear these remarks, it becomes even MORE clear to me just how much sense it makes that a successful construction company like Breaking Ground Contracting blaze the trail of education in green, sustainable and LEED* building and workplace safety. After all, buildings use the greatest amount of energy...WAY more than our vehicles. So, it stands to reason that we do our part to enlighten the industry to environmentally sound ways of doing business. We don't just believe it, we live it! The foresight of President, Mary Tappouni, began many years ago with her passion for building, nature and the environment. Her vision drives her company, and those of us who have the privilege of working for Breaking Ground Contracting have been infected by her passion for green building and the desire to couple sound building practices with environmental responsibility. It is our mission to educate other contractors, architects, engineers, subcontractors, developers and anyone else who wants to listen and learn, about the ways we can all do our part in building green for the future...the future of our industry, our children and our world.