PCBC or PCBS
My wonderful experience at the largest building conference on the west coast.
I have been waiting for this day to come for about 5 years now, ever since I was introduced to green building, the day when it has hit main stream. This was solidified by the slogan that was hung so nicely in the front of the Moscone Center in San Francisco 2 weeks ago. The banner read “PCBC Power. Forward. Sustain,” this was complemented by an unusual amount of use of the color green, that seemed to be strategically placed through out the venue as a reminder that “hey remember we’re green.” Although I didn’t think for a second that all of the sudden the folks over at PCBC saw the light and truly embraced sustainability, I did think that they were smart enough to at least cover the basic bases.
Once I passed the gigantic (and most likely not very green) sign I waited in line patiently to receive my registration badge. Once it was my turn to complete the self registration process, I walked up to the computer, everything seemed to check out just fine and until I went to hit print. Out came my registration badge with the wonderful slogan written so inspiringly on the top of the page, “Power. Forward. Sustain” and underneath this, my badge printed on 1 of the 6 perforated cards available on the sheet. Talk about starting off on the wrong foot, the PCBC folks took a big swing and some how ended up giving themselves a big ole black eye. Then to add insult to injury there was no paper recycling available anywhere, yes there was plastic and metal recycling and a trash can, but that was it. Now you would think that if you were going to use such a slogan, you would at least cover the most basic of bases, I mean just think how much money they would have saved if they utilized the entire sheet of paper, they could have cut their use by 1/6th.
Anyways back to the construction side of things. As I wandered the floor with my critical eye, I saw many companies talking about and advertising their great green products, or at least using that label. I had the opportunity to grill a few of these companies, but they will remain nameless for their sake. At just about dead center of the venue you could visit the booth that had a great exposed wooden structured that had a sign that talked about how “green” and “natural” the use of wood for construction is. This drew me in to investigate. The first thing I looked for was the FSC logo somewhere, anywhere throughout the display, but to no avail I couldn’t locate it, so I decided to play dumb and ask the representative some questions. I gave him the opportunity to use his prescripted pitch and throughout the whole thing not once did he refer to FSC, until I brought it up. We talked about increased cost to them and ultimately the customer if they were to certify all of their products and yes I agreed that this would increase the cost, but then how the hell can you talk about your products being green. The last time I checked cutting down old growth forests and running tree plantations was not a very green or sustainable thing to do, you’re still destroying the local biodiversity either way.
As I made my way through the rest of the exhibition, I came across a very large lumber and engineered wood supplier, I’m sure it’s a name we in the construction industry can surely can recognize, but once again their identity will be kept secret. Here I followed the same steps, let the rep incriminate himself first and then let them know what’s up, but I was impressed at how much the rep was actually interested in what I was saying, so instead of me grilling him, he was taking this opportunity to learn something from me. He did agree with me that all of the mantra he has been supplied with by corporate very well could be just a little tainted or the truth stretched a bit. I took this as a sign of true interest and gave him some of the “real” information about his company and their practices. We parted ways very nicely as he shook my hand and thanked me for the education.
I repeated my interrogation throughout the day, some were good and some were not so good. Most of the companies that were there have been attending this show year in and year out and slowly but ever so slowly they are starting to shift the conversation. Years ago I would throw out terms like sustainable, VOC and biodegradable and all I get in return is a blank stare. Now I at least get a reaction and there is an attempt to respond to my questions like they are supposed to know what they are talking about. So all in all, PROGRESS is the word. There has been noticeable progress, but yet we are still a ways off where the building industry has changed its ways for good and there is proper education that takes place for everyone within the industry.
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