Greenbuild, the USGBC’s massive 30,000-person-plus conference, is done for yet another year. But before shouting out a rallying cry of “Greebuild Phoenix 2009!…” here are some last minute thoughts:

• This was my second Greenbuild, and after speaking with different Greenbuild veterans, many were surprised I had returned after the (shall we say) insane conference of the year before. But I did and was pleasantly surprised by the lack of lines, lack of claustrophobia and large press room. Also, there were no green “commercials” or conference sponsors announcements this year before the keynote speaker, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, spoke.
  

  This is only half of the expo room

• Last year, I searched in vain for a place to dispose of uneaten food. This year, the waste collectors were particularly vigilant, snapping to attention to grab my used coffee cup before I accidentally threw it into the wrong container. I had never seen such attention to waste at a conference… or almost anywhere.
• I heard a number of grumblings that the conference attendance wouldn’t hit as high a mark as it had the previous year, due in part to companies making last minute travel freezes. The last time I checked the “official” conference attendance, (Thursday afternoon) it was at 26,000, so even if people did not show up, a large amount turned up to take their place.
• In the sessions I attended, there seemed to be a vast discrepancy between those who believed that leadership in “going green” should come from the top or bottom. Leith Sharp, former director of the Harvard Green Campus Initiative, described how leadership was really only successful after getting out a strong grassroots effort. While a session I attended on CB Richard Ellis’s green commitments said the top down leadership was the only way to go. Most people I spoke with said about the topic said, “duh?! It has to be both!”
• And man, can green people party! I had no idea that there were so many dancers among them. Feel left out? There’s always next year - in Phoenix!

If you want more information on Greenbuild, there were a number of intrepid bloggers there (whose blogging ability was not curtailed by a rogue water leak into their server area). For more, check out Konstrucr, CoStar, or go to the Seattle LEED User’s Group December meeting on Dec. 11. More info on that here.

Tags: CBRE, Greenbuild, Waste

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 25th, 2008 at 5:22 pm and is filed under Greenbuild, Waste. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.