In honor of Earth Month, The City of Los Angeles honored 15 environmental leaders and organizations for their efforts to promote environmental conservation in the city over the last year.  Greg Reitz of REthink Development was the only developer and green builder to be among the honorees.  “As a developer, it is an especially great honor to be recognized among dedicated environmentalists,” said Reitz. “I am more used to being greeted in public meetings with boos than applause,” he joked.  Greg was honored for his work supporting the creation of the City of Los Angeles’ green building program (up for vote before Council April 22^nd) and for REthink’s efforts on their LEED Gold (or better) mixed use project, Cherokee Lofts, now under construction on Fairfax Ave. 

In the Cherokee Lofts project, REthink worked with Councilmember Jack Weiss’ office to win approval for a plan to build a bioswale in the sidewalk for collecting and infiltrating the project’s stormwater runoff.  The project will capture 100% of the water from normal storm events preventing it from carrying pollutants to Santa Monica Bay.  The project met Councilmember Weiss’ goals for cleaning up Santa Monica Bay while REthink was able to meet its goals for environmental stewardship, LEED certification, and SUSMP requirements.  REthink hopes the project will not only be a demonstration for how we treat our stormwater in the future but also as an example of how public agencies and private enterprises can cooperate to meet environmental goals.