Greenbuild 2007 - My experience

The Greenbuild conference is organized by the USGBC and was first launched in 2002. Amazingly in its 5th year, the conference has attracted over 20,000 attendees. This is an incredible testament to the extreme growth of interest in green building. This was my first Greenbuild, but I can confidently say that I will be back. I found that it was a wonderful educational and networking opportunity. I was amazed how many people I bumped into from the Bay Area. There were so many wonderful discussions and presentations going on which I have tried to summarize below. I strongly recommend others go next year and check out the Greenbuild356.org to check out the archived video from the event.

Day 1: Member Day

USGBC has a lot of exciting news coming down the pike. It seems that they are really listening to the criticism and trying to respond. The future of LEED is moving to be more specific to the region and building type. They plan to add weight to points that are more critical for regional issues and eventually they plan to do away with the various LEED programs (i.e. New Construction & Renovation, Corporate Interiors, Existing Building, Homes, Neighborhood Development, etc.) and simply design a library of points where you select points like ordering off a menu – therefore, ordering only those that are most appropriate and attainable for that region and building type. In addition they are looking into incorporating more Life Cycle Impact Assessments (LCIA or LCA) to better evaluate environmental impacts of decision both from a material selection and whole building approach. This is a very exciting development for me as I studied LCIA when I was in college and it has taken almost 15 years for LCA to finally be incorporated into mainstream thinking. This is a step in the right direction to start defining our true costs through placing a value on our environmental resources as well as placing a value on the degradation to the environment as a result of our activities. I remember when I was in school how frustrating it was to study environmental economics and environmental law because the impacts were always so subjective. However, now that I am older and more experienced I realize that if we wait for the proof and don’t start enacting The Precautionary Principles when it comes to our resources it will be too late to be effective.

A few other exciting notes are that the USGBC is focused on lobbying for more federal research money for the green building industry and they are committing $1 Million of their own money to the effort. A USGBC study is proving that LEED certified are performing better than conventional buildings with Certified at 25% improvement, Silver at a 35% improvement and Gold/Platinum performing over 45% better then traditional buildings.

I also attended a discussion regarding the request to expand the Wood Credit in LEED to include additional certification systems. A few of the larger certification organizations presented: SFI (Sustainable Forest Initiative), CSA (Canadian??) and FSC (Forest Stewardship Council). FSC currently is the only accepted certification. SFI though a non-profit organization does not make it easily known that they are strongly supported by the forest industry itself. Therefore, it is not a surprise that in general their standards are not as stringent as FSC. The complaint with the CSA was that it was very difficult to compare their standards to FSC as they have do not have a consistent standard across forests. There were some valid concerns made about FSC such as they have 18 different standards in the US and 88 worldwide. At the end of the debate it was clear to me that FSC is heads and shoulders above these other certification systems as they not only focus on the health of the forest and the process to ensure that the logs you are purchasing meet their standards, but they also are concerned with the people and community affected by the economy generated from the forest. FSC is a wonderful example of an organization focused on the triple bottom line – economy, environment and equity. LEED was intended to highlight the top tier buildings focused on sustainability so it is clear to me that we should not settle for anything less then top tier certification which is what FSC provides recognizing that it is not perfect, but the best process out there now.

The other topic that became clear was that we need our other bio-based materials such as bamboo and cork to also be subject to certification where available. We all know that bamboo products are not equal and we need to find a way to reward sustainable growing and harvesting practices.

DAY 2: OPENING DAY

BILL CLINTON:
The conference was opened with a keynote from Bill Clinton. You can view the entire presentation here. He recognized that the Kyoto Protocol needs follow up. Most of the nations are not going to meet the targets so we are going to need to get inventive to figure our way out of this mess we have created for ourselves. The most profound message he delivered was that “the green movement the greatest economic opportunity we have had since WWII.”

We all know that the problems are made exponentially worse as China and India continue to follow our wasteful and toxic ways so, therefore, it is up to us to LEAD us into a new sustainable direction that is attractive to the rest of the world.

Greening our schools was another important part of his speech.

THOM MAYNE:
Next I was pleasantly surprised with Thom Mayne’s presentation. Thom Mayne recently completed the SF Federal Building in SOMA which has been widely criticized for its design while also being commended for its sustainability. I have not been able to take a tour of the building yet, but I feel that the architecture is a unique element in the architectural fabric of the SF. I can’t say that I really liked it, but I appreciated the stark differences from the unexciting SF architecture that is so prevalent throughout our city. However, after hearing Thom talk about the building and design process, I can say that I like the building even more. He emphasized that the focus of the project was not on aesthetics, but on the culture of workspace (note that it has 800,000sf of office space), the nature of SF which is very Euro-centric, and management of the betterment of life.

I now understand why it is a thick narrow building as he was limiting the depth of the floor plate in order to maximize day-lighting. In addition, this form allows for a “piazza” for public gathering on the site. The rectangular protrusions are common open spaces for the building which occur where the skip-stop elevator stops. The unique characteristic of this elevator is that it stops on every third floor with a stairway to the floor above and below to encourage more walking – what a healthy idea.

He showed a number of other projects, but most noteworthy was a new project in development in Paris. The form is feminine responding to wind and solar patterns. It is a very sexy project while incorporating the sustainable principles and lessons learned from the GSA building in SF.

SOURCING LOCAL FSC WOOD PRODUCTS:
US based, small, family tree-farmers can get group certifications with other land owners in their area to help manage the costs for certification. Also, foresters are looking into opportunities to responsibly manage harvesting in our National Forestlands. Currently this is not allowed and with the intense fires that currently are burning in S Cal we can immediately understand the risks and hazards of not properly thinning our forests to be healthy with complex species to ensure future generations of healthy forests. To compare wood to other building materials according to its LCA, look for a report called CORRIM STUDY.

www.FSCUS.org has a downloadable guide under Green Building titled, “design and Building with FSC Certified Wood.”

www.FSCHouse.org is a site specifically for building and remodeling homes.

www.certifiedwoodsearch.org

www.smartwood.org

www.sustainablewoods.net

www.hfhcp.org

www.scscertified.com/forestry

www.dovetailinc.org (has comparisons of certification systems)

www.MNCertifiedWood.com


DAY 3:

PAUL HAWKEN
I saw Paul speak about a year ago when he was still brewing on his current new book, “Blessed Unrest”. He points out that the green movement is like no other movement in history. It has no leader, no singular unifying message. It is made up of compassionate environmental and socially conscious organizations with a shared vision of a better world. Paul echoed Clinton’s comment that we have the opportunity to redesign, recreate and redevelop our future – The time is now!

DEMYSTIFYING LIFE-CYCLE COST ANALYSIS
I found this title to be quite ironic, as the seminar really proved that we have a long way to go to be able to use LCA as an effective design making tool. The examples that they showed emphasized that the data is not developed enough to compare products effectively and it would be quite costly to have an LCA completed by a third party certifier like SCS. Not to mention, even if you do complete an LCA the results are still somewhat subjective because even an LCA has to start with some assumptions. BEEs software for determining specific products LCA has been around for a few years now, but most of the info if not all comes from the manufacturers themselves. In addition, the specified parameters are only 12 indicators that allow the user to self-define the environmental and social issues to be concerned with rather then some standard that prioritizes the issues.

There is an international standard according to ISO 14025 Type III LCIA Declaration which takes 22 indicators into account. The SCS representative showed a couple of examples of reviewing LEED Platinum buildings through a LCA lense and showed that LEED’s simplified approach is not always in line with meeting its mission of minimizing its environmental footprint. We have a long way to go and the LEED process will continue to evolve to include more life-cycle costing analysis to ensure we meet our goals.

An interesting, yet depressing, example that was shown compared alternative energy sources with the traditional petroleum based power station model. He showed graphs that emphasized that bio-mass and wind had some negative impacts that needed to be improved. While ethanol was dramatically worse due to its high embodied energy and high levels of pesticides traditionally used. He peaked my interest to learn more about an area in Mexico referred to as The Dead Zone where corn for Ethanol was being harvested and due to the intense amounts of pesticides they have literally killed the land and made the area uninhabitable. Supposedly even the water nearby is affected and they are speculating that there are more shark attacks in the waters near Texas as these animals are fleeing the Mexican gulf area.

I think that the big takeaway from this seminar was that we can overwhelm ourselves with data that can paralyze us from making decisions. However, we also need to recognize that all impacts are not equal and we have to do our best to minimize our collective impact. In addition, we need to start demanding more information from our manufacturers and product organizations about the environmental and social impact.

Day 4:

THE PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE
This Precauionary Principle (PP) is based on the idea of managing risk and hazard. If we wait for science to prove that something is detrimental, it may be too late. We have the responsibility to protect ourselves and our planet and this principle gives us the power to make that decision.

Debbie Raphael, the Toxic Reduction & Green Building Manager, helped to craft San Francisco’s Precautionary Principle Ordinance.

“It is not sufficient to ask: Is it Legal? Is it Safe? We must also ask, IS IT NECESSARY?”

“Traditionally we have asked, How much harm is allowed? But a more effective alternative way to look at that questions is, How little harm is possible?”

Recommended book, “Making Better Environmental Decisions” by Mary O’Brien.

Sandy Wiggins, President USGBC, emphasized their approach to the PP. He made a number of good points and quotable comments. He referred to the Wingspread Definition of PP and emphasized that adopting this principle means that the following values are included: respect, humility, democracy and obligation.

Here is an excerpt of the Wingspread Conference’s definition of Precautionary
Principle:

Where an activity raises threats of harm to the environment or human health, precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically.

He emphasized that adoption of Green Building practices is a process. It starts with Marketing, then looking at Green Stuff, then using Green Tools, then researching a Green Process and eventually it becomes a Green Mindset.

The Natural Step came up a few times through the discussion which is a framework for decision making. I’d like to research this more. There are a few green building white papers on the Oregon Natural Step website which is the US based branch.

www.ecolabels.org is a site where you can research criteria for labeling and debunk some meaningless labels like natural and green.


OVERALL NEGATIVES:
The negatives of Greenbuild are typical of large conferences – long lines for everything, too much corporate advertising, rude conference staff who were not able to manage the large crowds in a gracious and cordial manner, and not enough time for the exhibitors hall. What I did see of the exhibitors hall was stuff that I have seen before so I didn’t feel like I missed much but would have liked to walk it all.

Finally, as an interior designer I felt that there was not enough seminars that were directed to my group. More discussion on the precautionary principles and how to start making some of these tough decisions and communicating to the stakeholders.