I recently attended the largest conference and expo in the world dedicated to green building: GreenBuild Expo in Chicago, Illinois. Initially launched 25 years ago by the U.S. Green Building Council (the organization that brought us the LEED certification rating systems), GreenBuild Expo has grown exponentially, hosting over 700 exhibitors and attracting about 24,000 attendees (according to 2017 demographics)—a nice mix of architects, engineers, contractors, manufacturers, consultants, facility managers, corporate sustainability directors, students and non-profit professionals—who partake in the green building industry in some way.

For this month’s column, I’m sharing my perception of this mostly inspirational event: highlights and lowlights, and takeaways for homeowners. It should be noted that at any given hour during the November 14-16 conference, there were between 15 and 16 educational sessions happening all at the same time, and the exhibit floor was gigantic—so it’s almost impossible for anyone to give a true synopsis. Here’s mine.

The Opening Plenary

The Opening Plenary featured a rev-up talk from the CEO of the USGBC, Mahesh Ramanujam, and a keynote speech from Amal Clooney, the human rights attorney, and professor who is married to actor George Clooney. Of course, she was fabulous, but what does her work have to do with green building? Not a lot, but she did tie it to the fact that she helps refugees, and indeed our world is producing climate refugees, and those people need our help too. But I was hoping for more; specifically, two things:

• First, from Amal Clooney, who is a true change maker in helping those who have suffered human rights violations. I wanted to hear a recognition—or maybe even an admission—that a human rights attorney may seem like an unlikely choice for a keynote speaker at a green building conference. But there is a connection: her clients’ suffering has stemmed from the abuse of power. And getting more to the root of that connection, what is happening to our planet stems from that very same abuse of power—and people’s health and livelihoods are affected.
• From Mahesh Ramanujam, who spoke excitedly about how all the green building rating systems are growing and transitioning to more to performance-based management of buildings. But I wanted to hear a greater call to action. This is the building community of architects, developers, builders, and engineers—and we were all there because we care about sustainability. We all care about climate change. It is time that this community step up and ensure that every 21st-century building is a fossil fuel-free building. Period. Many educational sessions did address this through a track on “smart energy: creating zero energy buildings, communities, and cities.” In fact, there was one session called “Climate Solutions Now: Zero Energy Industry Leadership.” But the time to call for this was at the Opening Plenary, the largest gathering, and most attentive audience. The aspirational goal I saw in an educational session? “Green buildings for everyone in this generation.” That hardly means anything to most people, as “green” can simply mean that something is made from recycled materials. That is not enough.

The Exhibit Floor

The Exhibit Floor is super fun for someone like me, as it’s got every kind of product and service for buildings, both inside and out, that might make our world just a little more sustainable.

Highlights included the introduction of the “Tiny Home Village”—a tiny little home on a trailer that seemed to have everything one could need, proudly made mostly from a wide variety of plastics. I saw many green roofs and solar companies, every kind of insulation manufacturer, cool water filtration systems for both commercial and residential, and I even picked up a high-quality slinky from a steel manufacturer—the most highly recycled and recyclable metal that contributes greatly to the circular economy.