One lowlight: I spotted a section of the show floor that was devoted to cars, and walked there excitedly, thinking I would see the latest and greatest electric vehicles, and possibly even possibly ones that run on hydrogen. The first car I saw? A Dodge RAM pick-up truck that boasts 17 miles to the gallon, along with several other gas-guzzling vehicles. Huh? For anyone who questions the “greenwashing” and corporate sponsorships when small movements get big and have to follow the money, this was a perfect example.

The bright spots? Andersen Windows: as a Silver level sponsor of the Expo, Andersen was one of the founding members of the USGBC and also supplies efficient, high-quality windows to homeowners. Interface is another sponsor standout: the maker of FLOR tile for both commercial and residential buildings has one of the best sustainability stories around. Their former CEO, Ray Anderson, read Paul Hawken’s The Ecology of Commerce back in the 1990s, and it transformed him. According to their website, “Interface’s 1994 mid-course correction steered the company away from the typical take-make-waste business model toward one that’s renewable, cyclical, and benign.”

Educational Sessions

The multitude of educational sessions ranges on topics from resiliency, to smart energy management, to healthy building materials, to the panel I moderated on performance benchmarking for under-represented and under-served organizations like schools and churches. Primarily, this is a show for the commercial, not the residential world. Many exhibitors do not even market to homeowners, except for the big corporate sponsors like Home Depot and Kohler. When you see Home Depot, do you think “green” building? 

I was surprised to learn that one of the five “journey map” tracks focused on the residential market. But this makes sense: as buildings are responsible for about 39% of greenhouse gas emissions, housing accounts for a significant portion of that. 

I attended one session entitled “LEED Residential: The Evolution Towards Higher Performing Homes.” Four different presenters spoke for about fifteen minutes each, touting their company’s LEED-certified homes. It was basically an advertisement. There was no “lessons learned,” nothing shared about challenges or surprises, no real story. Maybe I’m biased: I believe we should share the real story (that’s why I wrote my book, Building a Sustainable Home); that’s how we learn and improve. I walked away thinking, did anyone learn anything in that session?

Engagement

Overall, while many people attend these conferences to pick up continuing education credits for their architecture license or LEED accreditation, it seems the true learning and primary benefit is the engagement with people who work in this field. In just talking to people, I learned about:

• Braindate, an innovative engagement tool (used at many conferences) that allows attendees to pick any topic they are interested in, sign up for a time slot, and wait for other attendees to book a time with you. What are people talking about? The front desk shared with me the major themes: sustainability, female leadership, healthy materials, LEED, and deconstruction.
• The Living Food Challenge, which will be introduced in December by the International Living Futures Institute (ILFI). “The Living Food Challenge will address a food’s cradle-to-plate impacts, including food waste, loss of topsoil, hunger and malnutrition, food miles, overconsumption of meat, advertising to children, monocultures, farmworker rights, factory farming, GMOs, and more. ILFI hopes to learn from and embrace other programs that are also tackling these same challenges to move toward a better future.” Very exciting stuff!
• The Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center located in northern Minnesota, which is working with the ILFI to certify its new lodge under the Living Building Challenge. This learning center is teaching the next generation all about sustainability, year-round!

Perhaps the best part for me was the exercise we went through during a session I attended called “Sustainability Roadmap: Leading Organizational Change,” led by Barbra Batshalom of the Sustainable Performance Institute and Nadav Malin of Building Green. The 100+ attendees were told to make two lists in separate columns: what is happening around sustainability currently (in our own organization, client’s organization, etc.), and what we want the future to look like. (I did it for my own home. Current: We recycle, compost, have small solar panel array, ground source heat pump, the large electric bill, small gas bill, no commute to work, LED lights in most places. Future: no fossil fuels, no waste.)

The session also reminded us every action does makes a difference, every voice matters, and that this movement is not going away. In order to achieve success, we need to start with bite-size goals and recognize early wins. We need to ask ourselves: what are our values, how do they align with our actions, and how do we spend our money?

While this session was focused on corporations and organizations, there are powerful takeaways for us as individuals and homeowners. We can recognize where we are on our path towards sustainability—and then dream of aspirational goals of where we want to be. That’s a wonderful first step.

How do we get there? For me, if our gas stove needs replacement, we’ll go electric. If our boiler fails (again), we’ll explore electric heat pumps. When our gas dryer fails, we’ll swap it out to electric. Our next car will be an electric vehicle.

I’m well aware that GreenBuild Expo does not bill itself as the go-to source for sustainable home building and that it will always be more geared toward the commercial side. After all, large commercial buildings and operating businesses can and do have a huge impact on the five primary categories of performance benchmarking: energy, water, transportation, waste, and the human experience.

But these five categories relate to every one of us on an individual level. I believe change begins at home, and GreenBuild Expo is one ripe gathering place for an in-person engagement at the residential level—just as Rise is the place to be for sustainable home improvement online. I’d love to see a more robust residential track next year!