Headed to the airport in about twenty minutes, suitcase packed full of press kits! Products, products, products to come. Hope you all had a great week, and can’t wait to dish the goods on kitchen and bath goodies coming down the pipe.
Did you go to the show? What did you think?
Last night’s opening plenary, held at Chase Field (FKA, for baseball fans, the BOB), featured Rick Fedrizzi, the CEO, president and founder of the United States Green Building Council, who urged a course of “investment spending, not consumption spending.”
Dubbed Main Street Green, this year’s Greenbuild, the eighth edition of the event, focused on the efforts of green building councils around the world. Fedrizzi introduced GBC leaders during the plenary; each gave remarks noting each region’s challenges and triumphs in sustainable building. Representatives came from the U.K., South Africa, Canada, New Zealand, Germany, Italy, India, Spain, Taiwan and Brazil.
The keynote speech was delivered by this man:
You may remember him from his gigs as Nobel laureate, presidential candidate, vice president of the United States, or from that little PowerPoint presentation-turned-Oscar winner, “An Inconvenient Truth.”
Gore gave a pep rally, celebrating the attendees and their efforts toward green building. The event closed with a performance by recording artist Sheryl Crow.
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Today’s a big day: lots of appointments to see manufacturers, and hopefully I’ll get to catch a bit of the green film festival! What are you seeing? What’s hot? Leave it in the comments!
Some notes from the floor:
It’s that time of year again! I’m leaving for Greenbuild tomorrow. Are you headed to Phoenix? What are you excited to see?
And if you aren’t, what do you want to hear about the most?
I’ll be liveblogging the show, and its various events, so stay tuned!
It’s never too early, in my humble opinion, to start thinking about Greenbuild, so here we are: THINK ABOUT GREENBUILD! Last year, it was impossible to find a hotel room if you didn’t book in advance, so I recommend getting on that ASAP if you plan to attend this year’s festivities in Phoenix. It’s going to be quite a scene: Al Gore and Sheryl Crow the night before the show starts? I’ll take it.
But a little bit more from the USGBC, with links:
“The 2009 show will be held on Nov. 11-13, 2009, in Phoenix, Ariz. This past year’s conference in Boston, Mass. drew more than 28,000 attendees and featured more than 800 exhibit booths. Visit www.greenbuildexpo.org for more information. To view last year’s Greenbuild show, go to www.greenbuild365.org and to watch a video recap, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghqw9WqZ_i4“
Greenbuild is kind of already the Woodstock for green design professionals, a place where people with a common interest and commune and expand their minds (dude), so it makes sense that the USGBC would move that analogy one step further and include some rockin’ music.
OK, perhaps I’m getting too heavy for you, let’s back it up. The USGBC announced this week that at the opening keynote to the annual conference and show, Sheryl Crow is going to be performing. Neat!
This is shaping up to be an even better event than last year: the opening plenary complete with tunes, more tours of green buildings planned, a separate track for children and families so that attendees can bring the whole family with them and, lastly and possibly most vitally: a green job fair. In these changing times, is there anything so important as feeling like an association to which you belong is on the pulse of what’s happening in society? Greenbuild’s first-ever job fair will most likely be a work-in-progress, but a giant step forward, as well.
As the year comes to a close, and K&B Sustainable celebrates six months of life, it seems appropriate to take a look back as we prioritize for ‘09. What did we learn in 2008 that will shape 2009? What goals did we set that we did not accomplish and why did we fail to achieve them? What kind of green presence will we see at IBS and K/BIS in the new year? What am I going to do with this Richlite ball I got at the Greenbuild?
These questions and more have defined my work for 2008, and the search for answers (especially about this great ball of Richlite) will be the driving force for 2009.
K&B Sustainable’s Green Wish List, 2009
Welcome to Greenbuild, Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, Boston, Massachusetts, November 18-20, 2008.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu tells the crowd: “You Americans are wonderful–and crazy! You are the craziest nation I have ever seen! But you are extraordinary and do things that other nations would not dare to dream of. Like what you are doing here.”
The LEED certified project gallery flashed shots of projects with LEED certification status and details about what earned each that status.
One of dozens of recycling stations scattered around the BCEC. Each one was manned with a volunteer (see pleasant-looking fellow in green tee shirt) who was there to sort what-was-formerly-known-as-garbage among the three containers seen here. Above, a plasma screen flashes information about conference and educational sessions.
The Upstate New York chapter had a fun map where members could pin where in the state they were working on LEED candidate projects.
A shot of part of the show floor with a couple of names familiar to us kitchen & bath folks, but with a much different format. As one rep from a competitor fixtures company said, “Looks a lot different than K/BIS–look at Kohler! I mean, their booth is still the biggest, but what a difference.”
I replied, “Seriously! Where are the fire-breathers? The acrobats and belly dancers?”
Ah well, only 159 days until K/BIS. That’s right. I said it. (58 until IBS, but who’s counting?)
See? I’m not the only one looking ahead. Next year, Greenbuild will be in Phoenix, which will be great, because the likelihood of 15 degree windchill is significantly less in Phoenix than it is in Boston. (No complaints though; while I was away it lightly snowed at home in New York)
Want to get caught up on the changes in LEED for 2009? You can watch the update streaming live here. Broadcast begins at 1 pm today, Thursday, November 20.
Enjoy! If you miss it, or can’t make it, I’ll have the full rundown in the changes for next year available right here next week!