Follow-Up Thoughts on GreenBuild 2008 By Malcolm Lewis

There was a special celebration this past week in Boston as 30,000 people came together from around the world to attend GreenBuild 2008. The celebration was the 15th anniversary of the founding of the US Green Building Council, but it was so much more. It recognized that the “market transformation” envisioned by the USGBC through its LEED Green Building Rating System is well on its way. It expressed the global spirit of relief and excitement that the politics of fear and negativity and nihilism that have governed our environmental policies for many years are starting to give way to hope and optimism and renewal. It marked the transition from creating the first steps of a more sustainable future to gathering momentum towards broader implementation. It was a clear sign of the transition of sustainability and green building from an avant garde fringe movement to the center of the action in the real estate industry.

Some of the impressions and experiences of the week:

• The context of the economic meltdown especially gave us the chance to see this as a time of opportunity to do things differently.
• Sustainability was shown in numerous case studies and examples as an effective antidote for the failed policies of the old economy.
• There were practical examples of the “triple bottom line” that combines economics, environment, and the human spirit in successful sustainable projects.
• Archbishop Desmond Tutu talking about “you Americans are a crazy (in the positive sense) and wonderful people [for taking the bold step of electing Obama]” and about the necessity of man’s stewardship of God’s creation.
• Major building product manufacturers declaring GreenBuild as the show they plan to exhibit at in hard times.
• Systems thinking making clear that transportation and buildings are inextricably linked and must be thought about together rather than separately.
• Green chemistry and biomimicry demonstrated as the basis for whole new classes of materials that are environmentally preferable and economically preferable.
• That LEED is just one step forward in the huge challenge we need to meet for reducing our carbon footprint and bringing our settlements into harmony with nature.
• At the very moment that the auto industry is on its knees, people gathered to re-vision human settlements that are walkable and appropriately located and powered renewably.
• Major real estate portfolio managers describing new approaches to “greening” their entire portfolios.
• Examples of using the carbon offset needs of a global manufacturer to improve the energy and economic performance of low-income housing in New Orleans and elsewhere.
• Discussions of how to share case studies of entire “carbon positive communities”, as the way forward globally for meeting the demand for human development that is also sustainable.
• Examples of regenerative development that restores habitats to natural conditions last seen hundreds of years ago, while also supporting human settlements and economic industry.

You could almost hear the sounds and feel the seismic shocks of change, as the old ways of the real estate industry are being discarded and replaced with new paradigms – still meeting all the conventional metrics of economic cost and value, yet doing so in ways that improve the environment and uplift the human spirit. [No, this transformation isn’t done, in fact it is only just beginning and there will be many hard fights ahead…but it is clearly and indisputably happening in very tangible ways and in measurable scales.]

So that’s the short version of GreenBuild 2008. It was a profound experience, because of the times we are in (of economic turmoil and political change) and because of the huge cumulative transformation that is taking place in the real estate and building world. It portends great things for the future, and I came away being very inspired, excited, and confident that CTG is doing the right things at the right time.

-Malcolm

Malcolm Lewis is the President of CTG Energetics