Did you go to the show?  What did you think?

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!

• So much bigger than last year!  Over 1,800 exhibitors and 24,000 preregistered.  The floors are abuzz already!
• The Phoenix Convention Center, a LEED silver facility is beautiful and doesn’t make my nose run, like most traditional convention centers have in the past.  That’s a good sign.
• Ever been to a trade show?  There’s lots of new carpet all over the place, offgassing VOCs all over the place!  This place smells neutral, like virtually nothing at all.  And all carpeting will be recycled by Shaw flooring, so bonus points for that.
• Products, products everywhere!  More to come.

Officials cut the ribbon to officially open Greenbuild at the Phoenix Convention Center.

In a less ideal world, the building would still exist.  It would have CFLs, a green air conditioning system, no-formaldehyde wood components, working windows.  Some of the materials would be recycled, but some would not.  The developer might have purchased some carbon offset credits to adjust for this, but probably not.  Still, there would be recycling/composting facilities and solar panels on the roof to offset the impact on the fossil fuel-run energy grid.

In our world, there are still forests which aren’t sustainably run, pH-destroying nitrogenous fertilizers, formaldehyde in our processes, high-VOC stains and paints being used, and buildings which, although there might be a wealth of CFLs and LEDS, aren’t using any solar or wind power, let alone a green garden on the roof.

But that’s why we’ve got green building programs, I hear you say.  Or, do we?  The New York Times is reporting this week that some buildings certified by the USGBC aren’t meeting the program’s standards once certified and in use.  The USGBC doesn’t deny it, either.

The council’s own research suggests that a quarter of the new buildings that have been certified do not save as much energy as their designs predicted and that most do not track energy consumption once in use. And the program has been under attack from architects, engineers and energy experts who argue that because building performance is not tracked, the certification may be falling short in reducing emissions tied to global warming.

Yikes. 

The tack most of us in the green journalism community have taken on the subject is to say that if there weren’t organizations like the USGBC making their certifications desirable for tax credits and energy savings audits, the building community at large might have had less pressure from the green movement as a whole.  Basically, any movement toward sustainability is better than none at all.  Still, it makes this reporter wonder why a developer would bother going through the paperwork, the energy audits, and the bureaucracy of the process to attain LEED certification in the first place if the building’s overall performance wasn’t going to be tracked, monitored and, in some way, monetized.  Theoretically, it’s just as much as savings for them in the long run as it potentially is for the environment.

Let me know what you think! Leave your comments.

 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“

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.

• So this is a little off the beaten path for us, but I received a product release about some pretty little alternatives to paper towels.  File under: Implementing Green Style!  Who doesn’t like a chance for everything in the kitchen to coordinate?
•  The USGBC gives a big thumbs-up to the House of Reps for passing green incentives legislation.
• Natural Home magazine gives yet another peek into the massive design/build project that is the rebuilding of Greensburg, KS. 

All this, after the jump! (more…)

 Remember Greensburg, KS?  Remember how an F5 tornado 1.7 miles wide flattened 90% of the structures in town on Friday, May 5, 2007?  With virtually nothing left standing in Greensburg but the grain elevator, the New York Times reported on May 7, 2007 that the town of approximately 1,500 would have to be completely rebuilt. 

 Seven days later, there was already talk of rebuilding, and the town leaders were beginning to envision emerging from the tragedy.

 July brought the exciting news that Greensburg was literally going to become a Green burg, and the sustainable building folks rejoiced.  The goal: LEED Platinum, the first-ever city to aim for the rating. Zero-energy commercial buildings, houses and schools. Wind power, solar power, energy efficient everything. mong some donors to the reemerging town are names familiar to us in the k&b world like Caroma, Evolve and on the architectural/building side, companies such as Dryvit and PF Waterworks.

 And after one year had passed, the Discovery’s Planet Green channel announced that a new reality program called simply ‘Greensburg’, which had been in planning stages shortly after the LEED announcement, would follow the town’s journey from grisly scene to lean and green.

 Now, it’s the two-year anniversary of the tornado, the bustling town is well into its restructuring and is holding their annual celebration to mark the event.  Not only that, Planet Green renewed the town’s series for a second season; the season premiere is this Monday, May 4… it’s worth a look, for sure.  Check out details and local air times at Planet Green.

 Important themes here for green building and design in general, and a landmark achievement all around for everyone involved; it’s the making of lemonade from organic lemons, to be sure. I’ll be back with more K/BIS coverage later today.

 Stay green, America!

(To see the New York Times’ extensive coverage of the tornado and the rebuilding of Greensburg, click here).

First, a convenient slideshow–TreeHugger shows you what the new Prez is going to help you buy, via tax credits in the new stimulus package.

Nick Grohe of Hansgrohe addresses low-flow, aeration and the various green benefits water products can provide in this handy-dandy Q&A.

The USGBC has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (doesn’t that sound peaceful?) with BREEAM, Green Star, Green Building Council Australia and the UK Green Building Council to get the beginnings of a standard metric of CO2 emissions assessment in new home and building construction started.  Read it here.