U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC) Greenbuild International Conference & Expo, the world's largest conference dedicated to green building kicked off today at San Francisco's LEED Gold Moscone Center with 7,000 attendees. This morning's opening plenary, headlined by MSNBC's "Morning Joe" co-hosts Mika Brzezinksi and Joe Scarborough marked the official launch of the 2012 show.
Now in its 11th year, Greenbuild convenes 35,000 members of the green building industry for three days of education sessions, renowned speakers, networking events, and a vast exhibition floor with thousands of booths. This year's location in San Francisco is ideal: With more than 700 LEED-certified projects and nearly 1,300 LEED-registered projects in the Bay Area, the location encapsulates the 2012 conference theme of bringing technology and sustainability together in the global green movement.
San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee took the stage first, celebrating recent San Francisco accomplishments in the sphere of green building and sustainability. "There are eight existing, historic San Francisco buildings in the civic center district that are LEED-registered, including city hall, the symphony and the library." He added, "I want to thank Greenbuild for contributing to our success."
USGBC's President, CEO and Founding Chair, Rick Fedrizzi, took the stage to ring in Greenbuild, speaking to the power of the green building movement, the importance of the forthcoming LEED v4 rating system, and the reality of climate change, brought to light recently by Hurricane Sandy.
"In LEED v4 we're turning on the light, because as leaders, we will always fight for more information, more transparency, and more accountability," said Fedrizzi. "If you claim to be the best, if you claim to be healthier, prove it. Do you have a great product? Prove it. Just like leadership, green building is about transparency and accountability."
A recent analysis performed by USGBC found that LEED buildings are in the top 11th percentile for energy performance in the nation.
"Our world has put real data on building performance at our fingertips so we can understand and compare green building projects," Fedrizzi continued. "It's given us new tools to help us tweak that performance on the micro level so we can deliver on the energy savings and water savings that are the currency of our future."
Plenary programming featured Brzezinski and Scarborough as co-hosts with panelists Cory Booker, Mayor of Newark, New Jersey; George Pataki, Former Governor of New York and Founder and Chairman of Pataki-Cahill Group; Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter; Gavin Newsom, Lieutenant Governor of California; David Kohler, President and Chief Operating Officer of Kohler Co.; Paul Hawken, environmentalist, entrepreneur and author; and urban revitalization strategist Majora Carter.
Brzenzinksi and Scarborough first hosted a panel discussion with Mayor Booker and Pataki, discussing election outcomes and the future of sustainability politics.
"The American dream must be a green dream now," said Mayor Booker. "We need to stop putting sustainability into left-right terms, which is the broken record of our politics."
Pataki spoke on the state of the Republican Party as well as green economics and climate change. "Through green buildings, we can dramatically reduce energy and have an economic benefit with new jobs," said Pataki.
In the second panel, Brzezinski and Scarborough engaged Stone and Newsom in a discussion on technology and innovation.
Newsom pointed out that the there is significant room to grow our use of technology in governance, stating, "We use technology to get elected, but we don't use technology effectively to govern."
"The future of marketing is philanthropy," said Stone. "Consumers are attracted to meaning. Employees are attracted to meaning."
The plenary closed out with a final panel consisting of Kohler, Hawken and Carter.
"We may be preaching to the choir, but that choir is getting a lot bigger," said Hawken. "This is a new age of enlightenment. These voices want to rise up. Falsehoods always fall away."
"The environmental movement has been talking to itself a lot," said Carter. "It's time to move outward."
"One myth is that we have to sacrifice for sustainability," said Kohler. "It doesn't have to be about compromise."
The opening plenary featured video segments highlighting a number of USGBC initiatives, including the Students@Greenbuild bus tour, during which 25 college students from across the United States joined USGBC's Center for Green Schools on a cross-country bus tour to Greenbuild; the launch of the Green Building Information Gateway (GBIG), a new global innovation platform designed to explore and compare the green dimensions of the built environment; and USGBC's Project Haiti , an initiative to build a LEED Platinum orphanage and children's center in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Additionally, Rachel Gutter, Director of the Center for Green Schools at USGBC, highlighted green schools efforts, stating, "We need your help to convince every parent, every policymaker, and every voter that where we learn matters." Scot Horst, Senior Vice President of LEED, USGBC, also announced that Google has awarded USGBC a $3 million grant to transform building materials and materials-related health. +
Related Stories
| May 29, 2014
Five finalists, including SOM and Zaha Hadid, chosen in competition for Sweden's tallest skyscraper
In Sernecke's competition to design Sweden's tallest skyscraper, five finalists have been selected: Manuelle Gautrand Architects, Ian Simpson Architects, SOM, Wingårdhs Arkitektkontor, and Zaha Hadid Architects.
| May 29, 2014
Retail renovation trends: Omni-channel shopping, personalized experiences among top goals of new store designs
In pursuit of enhanced customer experiences, retailers are using Big Data, interactive technology, and omni-channel shopping to transform their bricks and mortar locations.
| May 28, 2014
Video Blog: How today’s construction firms are bridging the BIM gap
Turner Construction and Parsons Brinckerhoff talk about how BIM has revolutionized the way that they conduct projects, and how technology has allowed them to leverage collaboration in such a way that they can work with decentralized teams.
| May 28, 2014
KPF's dual towers in Turkey will incorporate motifs, symbols of Ottoman Empire
The two-building headquarters for Turkey’s largest and oldest financial institution, Ziraat Bank, is inspired by the country’s cultural heritage.
| May 28, 2014
B.R. Fries completes medical center focused on male health
Occupying the building’s entire second floor, the male-centric center is honeycombed with examination and consultation rooms, as well as areas for noninvasive testing.
| May 28, 2014
Moshe Safdie's twin residential towers in Singapore will be connected by 'sky pool' 38 stories in the air [slideshow]
Moshe Safdie's latest project, a pair of 38-story luxury residential towers in Singapore, will be linked by three "sky garden" bridges, including a rooftop-level bridge with a lap pool running the length between the two structures.
| May 27, 2014
Supergreen Venter lab displayed in new walk-through video
ZGF Architects' La Jolla building for genomics pioneer J. Craig Venter and his nonprofit research organization aims to be the first net-zero energy, carbon-neutral biological lab.
| May 27, 2014
America's oldest federal public housing development gets a facelift
First opened in 1940, South Boston's Old Colony housing project had become a symbol of poor housing conditions. Now the revamped neighborhood serves as a national model for sustainable, affordable multifamily design.
| May 27, 2014
One World Trade Center cuts rents due to sluggish activity
Sluggish economy and lackluster leasing force developer The Durst Organization and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to reduce asking rents by nearly 10% to $69/sf.
| May 27, 2014
Fire Rated Glass contributes to open lab environment at JSNN
Openness and transparency were high priorities in the design of the Joint School of Nanoscience & Nanoengineering within the Gateway University Research Park in Greensboro, N.C. Because the facility’s nanobioelectronics clean room houses potentially explosive materials, it needed to be able to contain flames, heat, and smoke in the event of a fire. SPONSORED CONTENT