The Leonardo Academy continues to advance its sustainability efforts. Progress includes:

Emissions Team
Leonardo Academy is working to green more events with its Cleaner and Greener Sustainable Event Program through our connections at event venues and event managing organizations. As part of the program we inventory the emissions caused by events, help event organizers to identify emissions offsets, assess the level of sustainability achieved, and certify the events. We help events increase the sustainability of exhibiting using the Cleaner and Greener Sustainable Exhibitor Scorecard to increase awareness of the sustainability issues of exhibiting and provide exhibitors ideas for improving the sustainability of their exhibiting process in the future.
Leonardo Academy continues to carry out emissions inventories for organizations such as Apogee and the International Monetary Fund.

Sustainable Building Services (LEED Services)
The Sustainable Building Services Team is enthused to announce two recent LEED-EB Gold certifications for buildings located in Wisconsin (LaCrosse and Madison), and is anticipating another one in Washington, DC within the next couple of weeks. The team is continuing to work with several clients’ on-going recertification efforts. An exciting project for the team will begin in 2012, consulting with a hospital to assess the sustainability of their building and operations.

In October Michael Arny attended the LEED Plaque Awards Ceremony in Washington, DC for two World Bank buildings that achieved LEED-EB O&M Gold Certification last July.

Leonardo Academy’s Land Management Program And Valley Ridge Preserve
It was a beautiful fall at Valley Ridge Preserve. Activities included removal of brambles, sumac and autumn olive from oak savannah restoration areas, brush from the edges and middle of open fields, and wind-fallen dead trees from trails. Ongoing projects include clearing small trees and brush from the shooting star and marsh marigolds sites to provide more light to these wildflowers and encourage their growth.

Sustainable Transportation Program
Leonardo Academy is proud to announce that we were recommended for three EPA Diesel Emission Reduction Act (DERA) grants in September of 2011. Overall these grants allowed for Leonardo Academy to reduce emissions from diesel engines in Wisconsin, Illinois, Louisiana, Missouri and Texas. This project focused on 107 diesel engines in marine vessels, stationary irrigation pumps, construction equipment, long- haul trucks and school buses. Reducing emissions from diesel engines is currently one of the most important air quality challenges facing the country.

Sustainability Standards Development
Leonardo Academy hosted the fall quarterly meeting of the multi-stakeholder Sustainable Agriculture Standards Committee by webinar in October, completing the second of the three phases in the standard development process. The goal of the 2012 April Standards Committee Meeting, to be held in Washington, DC, is to review the draft standard. Visit the new website dedicated to the standard development process: www.sustainableagstandard.org, which is part of a new communications platform, including social media tools Facebook and Twitter.

Two new Leonardo Academy standards became American National Standards with their approval from the American National Standards Institute: Emissions Inventories, Reduction Credits and Offsets (LEO-5000); and Sustainable Gaming (LEO-8000).