"Sputnik Moment"

The Better Buildings Initiative is the next step. For the first time, we will look at the carbon footprints of the buildings. The schools where our kids learn. The stores where we shop. The offices where most of us spend at least a third of our days.

With the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED green building certification system already deployed against more than 7.4 billion square feet of commercial space, we have a running start. Green buildings save energy, water, natural resources and money. But they also create jobs, jobs that Americans can do in the United States, and that can't be outsourced. We have long stressed that green building could -- and should -- be the centerpiece of a green jobs creation program -- adapting the more than five million commercial buildings, and 120 million homes already in existence in the United States to be more energy