The annual 2017 Greenbuild International Conference & Expo wrapped up last week at the Boston convention center, reports NRMCA's Tien Peng. The conference is still the largest green building gathering each year, with hundreds of booths filling the expo hall where tens of thousands of attendees explored green innovations. Former President Bill Clinton, Cradle to Cradle author William McDonough and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson provided inspirational speeches while NRMCA’s Peng and his colleague James Bogdan were on hand to promote the Build with Strength campaign and other industry sustainability programs at the education sessions.
This year’s Greenbuild continued the importance of material transparency, with many sessions related to Environmental Product Declarations (EPD), including “Streamlining EPD Development with Industry Collaboration” featuring PCA’s David Shepard. At the same time, many developers are choosing to certify under the LEED Homes Multifamily Low-rise and Multifamily Mid-rise rating systems that broadened the market share to multifamily but have not incorporated the move toward material transparency. Also evident at the conference was the construction industry’s pivot toward a focus on healthier building with the WELL Building Standard, also administered by GBCI. The WELL Certified building focuses on improved impact to human health and well being.
Build with Strength supports our members with resources to help members and state affiliates in green building, resilient construction and other key strategies to build market share. For more information on the USGBC and GreenBuild 2017, contact Tien Peng at 206-913-8535 or tpeng@nrmca.org or James Bogdan at 412-420-4138 or jbogdan@nrmca.org.
National Ready Mixed Concrete Association