The Green Future Has Arrived
Tucson Green Times – November 2009
Phoenix, Ariz. – The 2009 Greenbuild Conference and Expo, produced by the U.S. Green Building Council, found fertile ground in Phoenix this month. More than 800 exhibitors, over 100 seminars and nearly 30,000 building professionals from around the world gathered to learn, present their latest innovations and – perhaps most importantly – to make clear that we are all living in a very different world from just a few years ago.
Many recognized names were represented at the event: Sanyo, Georgia-Pacific, McGraw-Hill, Weyerhaeuser and most all of the other building industry giants, each lending salient validity to the unending slogans and bullet points visible every step of the way through the over 300,000 square-foot exhibit and conference halls. Greener by design, natural, healthier, multi purpose, energy saving, water conserving, recycled, socially responsible – and on and on.
At first glance, the event appeared to be a mega-builders show with a shiny green smile, but after conversations with the many marketing representatives present, a larger and more pragmatic understanding emerged.
Commercial paper suppliers offering 100 percent recycled content stated that only 10 years ago these product lines didn’t exist. They couldn’t have sold the stuff back then if even if they’d had had. Today? “It’s the only thing people ask for,” they told me.
HVAC manufacturers are building dozens of innovations into every component of hardware, software, design and systems. Why? “If we don’t deliver sustainability principles in every last part of our business and offerings, we’re dead. It doesn’t matter how long our customers have been with us, they’ll just walk right past us to the company that does. It’s our end customers who are setting new rules.”
The confirmations were vociverous throughout the event. End buyers are leading a revolution that industry must conform too. The green future has arrived.
How long will it last? That’s a rhetorical question to this industry. Down to the last person, everyone I spoke with stated that “green” is the future.
LEED certification education was clearly a high priority at the event. Dozens of kiosks were set up to take applications for training at every level of the industry with LEED related seminars available throughout the four-day event.
The building industry is making every effort to train, educate, and quickly produce a ready work force to deliver on the anticipated $500 billion expected to be spent on Green building over the next four years.
Several organizations used the conference to announce new programs, standards, services and product launches. Among them, Building Design+Construction offered its annual white paper, “Green Buildings + Water Performance.” Key findings of the study indicate that almost every region of the U.S. and parts of most states will experience water shortages over the next 10 years, and about 15 to 20 percent of the nation’s water never makes it from the filtration plant to the property line due to decaying infrastructure.
In a push to promote healthier buildings, Perkins+Will has released its free Precautionary List of 25 chemicals that are listed by government agencies as potential health risks. The list provides data on where the chemicals may be used in building materials as well as available alternative building products.
Several organizations also released their new building and sustainability standards at the show. The International Living Building Institute (ILBI) released Version 2.0 of the Living Building Challenge that addresses local food production, unrestricted access to nature and social and economic issues.
Product offerings of note included manufacturers using fly ash as a raw material for construction product manufacture. Fly ash, the rarely discussed waste product of coal burning power plants, sits exposed in thousands of dumps in the U.S. and around the world. Largely unregulated, its open storage has fouled water and air for decades. Here is a case where innovation and investment are beginning to apply real marketable solutions to a hazardous problem even before any government regulation is applied. Dozens of products were showcased by many exhibitors which use fly ash as a major component of their manufacturing. With decades worth of supply available, the future looks bright for cleaning up a large pollution problem with economically viable market solutions.
Only a few years ago, green roofs would have been a novelty at a builders show. However, green roofs and walls are now recognized as proven energy reduction systems as well as an aesthetic architectural treatment and carbon sink. Only one of the many suppliers present stated they had the bravado to take on large commercial installations in the harsh Phoenix climate. The results? The expected energy savings plus a productive way to use air conditioning waste water.
The impact of the event will linger for a long time, as well as two primary messages: Simple systems meet massive change and Green is here to stay.
