Sweetwater celebrates ‘green’ certificate

Sweetwater Sound Inc. will hold a ceremony at 10:30 a.m. today at its campus at 5501 U.S. 30 W. to celebrate a “green building” designation.

The music instrument and pro audio retailer said it received a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Sweetwater said in a statement the certification is the highest rating for designing and constructing the “world’s greenest, most energy-efficient and high-performance buildings.”

Sweetwater’s $35 million, 150,000-square-foot corporate headquarters was completed in January 2008, designed by local architectural firm MSKTD.

Waynedale Green Alliance, LTD President, Christopher Langschied, recently interviewed   Christopher Guerin, Director of Program Development at Sweetwater Sound.  The interview will be published at Fort Wayne GreenWATCH and American Chronicle in the near future

Would love to hear from those who attended.  Are you green?

Zero-Landfill

In 2004, Subaru of Indiana Automotive, Inc. became the first automotive assembly plant to be “Zero-Landfill”. SIA achieved this outstanding accomplishment in May of 2004 and has remained zero landfill. SIA sends nothing from its manufacturing process to the landfill. In other words, a typical household puts more trash in the ground than SIA’s entire manufacturing facility.”

On Friday, Chris Langschied and April Langschied of Waynedale Green Alliance, LTD will be touring the Subaru plant to see up close and personal what can be accomplished when a responsible organization takes on an important and necessary objective.

We will let you know what happened upon our return.

Here’s a snapshot of the event sponsored by True Sport.com.

“The Parkview Cycling Festival is a one-of-a-kind event. Competitive cyclists from around the country will compete on a six-corner course surrounding Fort Wayne’s new 30 million dollar Parkview Field. It’s
a venue that is both racer and fan friendly. Cheer for the riders along
the course or hang out in the stadium and catch the action live on the second largest jumbo screen in all of Minor League Baseball. It’s a festival of fun for the entire family, complete with concerts and a
Kids Zone featuring a climbing wall and inflatables.”

Fort Wayne Outfitters and Bike Depot at GreenFEST '09

This announcement was issued on June 3 and is great news for our city.  Regina Leffers is a major contributor to green building, renewable energy and environmental education in Fort Wayne.  Quietly, she has made great inroads in bringing Fort Wayne into a sustainable way of life.

The Sustainable Construction and Renewable Energy Lab will be an exciting asset to Fort Wayne and surrounding areas.

Fort Wayne GreenWATCH has just completed an interview with Sweetwater Sound and will be visiting Subaru of Indiana next week.  We are seeking out those people, projects, and sustainable passions that are making our city, and our state -great.

Jeremy Quirk of Solar Energy Power

That is a difficult question. 

My business partner, Chris Langschied and I are in the process of planning a book of the Green Leaders of Indiana.  These people need to be highlighted in order to empower our community.

However, it is the citizens of our city who will do the heavy lifting and so it is time to bring them all into the green.  

We are determined to find out, though, in the next few months as we begin to send out a survey to over 1000 Fort Wayne citizens to find out where their interests lie in regards to ‘greening ‘ Fort Wayne. 

There is a partial feeling to the activists we have met while forming our mission to help educate Fort Wayne.  Most are passionate about a certain area of sustainability.  Many are excited about biking to work, finding alternative transportation, and driving hybrids.   There are those who love the earth, and support Fort Wayne’s Rain Garden program.    And, there are those who realize the pollution that has ravaged our rivers for far too long and are working to clean up the mess and educate the public.

Builders in our area are significant and are (no pun intended) laying the foundation for the green movement here.  

Our survey will be done by phone, letter, email, social media, and by foot.   We might even YouTube some of our responses.  So, get ready to find out where you stand in the growing green community in Fort Wayne.

I have completed this exercise on occasion and have found that Fort Wayne green brings up old, and outdated green happenings.

For example, the Green Ribbon Commission?  That hasn’t existed for several years!  And the Green Technology Center.  Not even a gleam in anyone’s eye anymore. 

You know,  Fort Wayne has always been a just a step behind the rest of America- but that has to change

Many of them long for the good ole days!  Well, the good ole days are not coming back.  We need to do more than clean the trash once a year.  We need to come together to find good green solutions. 

Now, the city of Fort Wayne is making some fantastic starts.  The Bike to Work Day, The Rain Garden Program, the fully Biodiesel schoolbus fleet.  All of these things are fantastic. 

Tell us about more!

Obviously, because of the aforementioned, our newspapers will not do so.  Politicians, by definition, can never provide oversight or objective criticism – — So we are left with a third eye- the vision that the old media used to hold but does no longer. 

Fort Wayne GreenWATCH reporting for duty!