Progressive Products, Policies Championed as Greenbuild 2008 Opens By John Irvine

Greenbuild 2008 opened Tuesday evening in pointed contrast to the financial doom and gloom clogging the media. Close to 30,000 attendees are expected, up from last year’s 22,800. An additional 15,000 participants worldwide will watch via web hook-up. This largest-ever Expo of firms showing green building related wares and skills sends a clear message: tough financial times haven’t deterred the producers of green products and services. Design firms, contractors and consultants are here en masse, alongside exhibitors offering everything from waterless urinals and high efficiency HVAC systems to LED lighting and pervious paving. More than 1,600 firms are exhibiting—a 33% increase over the 2007 conference.

The keynote speech Wednesday morning by South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu was an inspiration. Archbishop Tutu thanked the green building movement for helping save the planet, noting that “caring for our earth home is becoming part of the texture of our morality. Not caring is like not caring about egregious human rights violations.” The 1984 Nobel Laureate lavished praise on the green building movement: “You are the cat’s whiskers ... wonderful, fantastic people.” He lauded the US more broadly for electing Barack Obama to the presidency -“He’s an incredible guy” and adding (with feigned jealousy), “He’s not only young but handsome!” In his closing remarks, Archbishop Tutu left the audience with a simple yet profound request: “Please help make this a more caring world.”

Earlier in the morning, Founding Chair and CEO Rick Fedrizzi marked USGBC’s 15th anniversary proceedings with a call for the green building industry to create 2.5 million jobs in five years. These workers would form “the backbone of the new economy” by performing energy audits, weatherizing homes and optimizing the performance of building systems. Rick said this endeavor to bring about cleaner air, lower carbon emissions and a higher quality of life was our “moonshot challenge.” He predicted schools, homes and office buildings would become “mini-utilities” by generating more energy than they consumed. The result would be large, green livable cities - which is where half the Earth’s population resides. Rick’s conclusion: “We are revolutionary green.”

-John

John Irvine is CTG’s Director of Client Services.