Want to be a part of something big, and green, and gold?

No, this has nothing to do with the Oakland A’s. It’s about UC’s Franklin headquarters and its all-out effort to go for gold, LEED Gold, to demonstrate its commitment to sustainability and reducing its environmental impact.

Whether you work at Franklin or elsewhere, whether you take BART in or drive, UCOP wants you to join the effort on Friday, May 17, to renew and upgrade the Franklin building’s LEED certification from silver to gold.

Here’s all you need to do:

• On the morning of Friday, May 17, you’ll receive an email from EVP Nathan Brostrom with a link to the anonymous SurveyMonkey survey.
• Complete the five-minute survey no later than 7 p.m. by answering questions about your work commute.
• Be sure to opt in at the end of the survey to the drawing for thank-you prizes, including one iPad mini, one month of weekly organic produce deliveries from Full Belly Farm, and a gift certificate to downtown Oakland’s Bittersweet. (Local prizes will be substituted if winners are from non–Bay Area locations.)

There will be other fanfare, all to thank you for being part of UC’s national leadership in environmental responsibility. The survey will be available on one day only — Friday, May 17, between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. — and all responses must be submitted on that day.

So take the survey! Look for the email on May 17 with the link to SurveyMonkey; alternatively you can take the survey on laptops in the Franklin lobby or on paper, but please take it only once.

What is LEED?

If you aren’t familiar with LEED, it stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a voluntary program that rates buildings on their operational costs, energy and water use and the environment they create and maintain for their occupants.

The Franklin building was a frontrunner in becoming the second existing UC building to become LEED certified for operations and maintenance practices in 2007. The goal was not only to improve its own environmental performance, but also, as UC headquarters, to set an example of environmental responsibility for other UC locations to follow.

Since LEED certification expires every five years, Franklin is now up for recertification to prove that it continues to meet LEED criteria for environmentally responsible buildings. One important measure is how many Franklin occupants use alternative transportation methods (other than driving alone) to get to and from work, which is the subject of the May 17 survey.

So save the date, Friday, May 17, and be sure to take the survey!

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