events

Well, Green Build flew right by -- it's like it ended before it even started. There was so much going on and so many things to see, I feel like I barely scratched the surface of all that was happening. Enough has been written about the crowds and disorganization -- mostly true-- there were so many people that even McCormick Place, the largest building in the world apparently with 4.2M square feet, couldn't handle it. Official numbers were over 20K (vs 14K last year), and at times it seemed that everyone was trying to do the same thing at the same time. I wish I had taken more photos (and that I'd had a real camera with me), but here are just a few highlights:

Bill Clinton kicked things off with a call for a carbon standard- a true way of measuring our progress, as well as a successor to the Kyoto Protocol that would hold countries accountable -- "It would be a terrible thing if we got three years down the road and they said ‘you didn’t keep score.’” He also argued that a green economy would create enough jobs and growth to offset any losses from fossil fuel industries such as coal mining and oil refining. In Paul Hawken style, he spoke of "the biggest economic opportunity that our country has had to mobilize and democratize economic opportunity since World War II." He also announced that the William J Clinton Foundation has entered into a partnership with GE Real Estate to "green" all of the company's properties and operations which includes $72B of assets globally. Thanks BDC for taking good notes (they have more good coverage, including a joint finding announced at the show from Autodesk and the AIA that it's consumers / clients who are driving green building, not architects or builders.)

Speaking of Paul Hawken, here's a shot of the monitor at Thursday's (packed) plenary which actually wasn't such a highlight. Kevin and I sat through an hour of "speeches" from Green Build sponsors waiting to hear Paul Hawken, and it turned out that it was a talk we'd both already heard, based on his new book "Blessed Unrest." It's actually a great talk about the millions of people who are having great/positive and similar conversations around the world in various fragmented groups (and the possibility of coming together), and Hawken is a great speaker. But since we had already heard it and time was precious, we left to check out more of the trade show floor (which was huge-- I only covered a fraction of it).

Here's one of the entrance to the trade show, and another of American Clay's booth -- their products, and Carol (the owner), are always lots of fun.

Here's May Chiu and one of her work pals from Global Green (great smiles aren't they?). She's holding a card that I gave her from green products comparison shopping engine Green2Green which just launched and which we wrote about earlier in the week. It was great meeting Whit (who runs green2green) as well as lots of others whom I've previously only met by phone. One of the crazier moments was talking on the phone with friend and advisor Shyam Kannan from RCLCO and trying to find a meeting place. We discovered, I kid you not, that he was sitting down literally 3 feet behind me in the Networking Garden, with another friend of ours Maura McCarthy from Ironwood Equity.

Here are our lunch companions on Wednesday-- Paul Mcrandle from The Green Guide, and Paul Mankiewicz from The Gaia Institute - more great smiles. We had a good time with both of them and were particularly intrigued by some stats and hypotheticals (?) that Paul Mankiewicz had. Get this: if 10% of the 26 square miles of roof tops in NYC used green/living roofs, it could lower temperatures in the city by 2-3 degrees. Here's another: If we used 50% of the waste water in NYC as grey water and evaporated it, it would turn NYC into a tropical rainforest.

Though I don't have any photos of it, Thursday night was a rager at Chicago's Merchandise Mart-- the building itself is quite incredible (the largest LEED building in the world), and there were parties on numerous floors. We went to a nice party that Metropolis Magazine was hosting to kick off this year's NextGen awards and visited our friend and advisor Susan Szenasy and her crew there. Then we met a woman named Geraldina who owns Casa Concept in Houston. What a ball of energy she was-- she must have walked a couple of miles in that building to get stamps from all of the showrooms where there were parties, for a chance to win a free hotel room at next year's Green Build. For her, I think it was just for the challenge and accomplishment.

Next week I'll be in Boston, the site of next year's Green Build, which I can only imagine will be even bigger. I'm not sure where they'll put everyone, but this trend isn't going away any time soon.

October is going out with a bang!

It's only Thursday, but it's time to start preparing for the big green weekend ahead of us. We wanted to take just a moment to alert you to all the green building and green home events happening across the continent this weekend.

First up: The Western Interiors Design + Home Show is taking place in San Francisco at the Herbst Pavilion. The event starts tomorrow morning and runs through Sunday, October 28. This year, West Coast Green has signed on as a sponsor and there will be a whole section of the show ("The Green Home") dedicated to "the latest in green design and green products." Check out greenthumb22's post about the event here.

Next: Two big green events are taking place in Pittsburgh over the next few days. The Green Building Alliance is hosting a Green Building Products Summit on Monday, October 29th at the Regional Learning Alliance in Cranberry. On October 26 and 27th, you can catch the Global Problems, Global Solutions Conference held each year by LaRoche College. Erin Brokovich is the featured speaker.

Last, but not least: The 3rd Annual Green Building Festival in Toronto ends today. If you're already in Toronto, and you hustle, you might just make it before everyone packs up!

On the horizon: Don't forget, the Green Build Expo is just around the corner -- November 7-9 in Chicago. Bill Clinton will be the keynote speaker.

Early fall looks to be the preferred time of year for great green building events. Here in the Bay Area, we're gearing up for West Coast Green (San Francisco, Sept. 20-22) and Dwell on Design (San Francisco, Sept. 13-15).

However, there is quite a bit of green building activity taking place across the country in the next couple months.

With speakers ranging from Bill Clinton to Michelle Kaufmann and forums covering everything from feng shui and sustainability to indoor air quality to green roofs, all of these events sound like they're worth the price of admission and then some.

Here's a taste of a few events (not in the Bay Area):

• International Conscious Design Conference & Expo (New Jersey, Sept 27-30)
• Green Build (Chicago, Nov. 7-9)
• Greening Affordable Housing Workshop (Denver, Nov. 13-14)

Know of more upcoming green building events? Please let us know about them by leaving a comment!

Image via westcoastgreen.com

This week our host, Kevin Contreras, will be checking out the Burning Man festival, where this year's theme is "The Green Man." As World Changing points out, however, Burning Man has always been green. Imagine 35,000 people coming together in the middle of the desert, building a city, and leaving no trace when they depart a week later.

Burners have put a lot of thought into just how to do this, and have added three new "R's" over the years: Respect, Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Restore. There are lessons there for all of us to take back to our permanent dwelling spaces on how to live artfully, cleanly and well while treading ever-so-lightly on the planet.

Want to find out more about the Festival? Check out the festival's homepage, and their new environment page. And if you can't make it out to the Playa yourself, read Molly Freedenberg's excellent first-person account from three years ago here.

Poster art by Dominic Tinio.

If you're in North Texas in late Sept thru early Oct, feel free to come by the Green Built Parade of Homes - it will consist of 7 resource-efficient, GREEN homes - the event will consist of resource-efficient, GREEN homes, showcasing the construction guidelines set forth by the HBA's Green Built North Texas program.  These guidelines address strategies for improving energy efficiency, water efficiency, indoor air quality, material usage, site management, waste recycling and homeowner education.

For more information about this event, visit www.dallasbuilders.com.

“BUILD WITH US” Natural Building Workshop Come learn to build your own truly natural, sustainable, affordable, beautiful home at this 4-day workshop.

Acclaimed Thai organic farmer/earthen builder Jon Jandai and Coloradoan Peggy Reents will teach various natural building techniques using local, readily available materials. They have been leaders in the natural building movement in Thailand for years and are now starting a sustainable living learning center and home in Jefferson, Colorado. Learn through building yourself and creating a simple structure including all aspects of the building process from basic sustainable design principles, selecting clay, making adobe bricks, building walls from various earthen techniques, earthen plasters for earthen and strawbale walls, to natural homemade paints and finishes....

If you live in the Bay Area, EcoTuesday, featured below, is a social event that takes place in San Francisco. Green Drinks is an international organization with local monthly gatherings everywhere from Fargo to Finland. Why not start one where you live? A great resource for starting special intrest groups is MeetUp.com, where you can organize and publicize your own group, or find groups that already exist. A quick search for "green building" turns up Green Home Mondays in Forest Park, IL, Green Lifestyle in SW Florida, and the Chicago Natural Building Group, among others.