Perspective

Attendees came from around the world to learn about the latest trends and technologies for buildings. I spoke with architects from Seattle, Miami, Sydney and Paris. Some told me the best parts of the event were the opening keynotes, especially William McDonough's presentation. Most were discovering new materials and services for their projects. A few said the highlight was the nightly parties; a few others were having trouble remembering them.

Exhibitors showed what's new and what's next in solar and lighting

Open Energy's Howard Gomes explains solar building materials to architects at Greenbuild 2006. (EP photo)

For those interested in energy there were plenty of exhibits to visit. The attention paid to lighting controls and solar power products underscored the importance of these technologies to green building.

I was surprised not to see more lighting control vendors exhibiting at Greenbuild. Lighting controls are squarely in the intersection of green building and energy efficiency. Lighting consumes more energy than any other load in a commercial building, even though larger loads such as HVAC draw more power when they're on. When lights are on full brightness all day, they become energy hogs.

Lutron (podcast interview) and others make controls that act like a thermostat, but for lights. The most basic systems dim lights or turn them off to save energy, using sensor data about occupancy and daylight.

The LEED green building standards include points for renewable energy, and will soon require buildings to earn at least two energy points to achieve certification. The combination encourages commercial building designers to at least consider building-integrated photovoltaics.

This is not lost on several solar power companies who are exhibiting solar glass and PV roofing laminates. I spoke with exhibitors Open Energy (podcast interview), Uni-Solar, Kyocera Solar, and Schott Solar. I also had a conversation with an executive from HelioVolt (podcast interview), who was attending the conference.

Experts presented educational sessions on all things green

Panelists discuss high performance systems that make a difference in energy consumption. Systems included advanced lighting and a passive thermal engine concept. From left: Kim Shinn of TLC (speaking), Dane Sanders of Clanton & Associates, Chris Faust of Fat Hause (not visible), and Stan Mumma of PSU. (EP photo.)

No matter what attendees sought at Greenbuild, there was an on-topic session. There were 20 tracks in all, with over 70 sessions, plus another three dozen workshops and updates.

The conference's 13,000 attendees don't need to be convinced about climate change. Some of the educational sessions, though, spent much of their stage time preaching to the choir.

One of the less fulfilling sessions for me was Frances Cairncross, who flew in from Oxford for the conference. She launched into a 45-minute presentation for general audiences, showing the same familiar melting icecaps and atmospheric carbon graphs, in full detail and meticulously documented. The core of her talk was about communications and, although short, it was nonetheless interesting. I suppose I'll have to read the book.

Many panels jumped headlong into their topics. I attended an excellent session on daylighting, where the speakers knew their audience and doled out useful, actionable information and advice. Daylighting is a subject of passionate interest for many architects, and several of the other panels also discussed some aspect of natural lighting.

I also took in a fascinating panel of three scientists from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. They gave the NREL view of an alternative energy future in the broad categories of buildings and transportation, but discussed the two as a single energy system. How are buildings and transportation one system? Plug-in electric hybrid cars will share grid energy bidirectionally with buildings: They'll charge at night and provide power to the building during the day for peak shaving of during outages.

Tours explored local green buildings

REI refurbished a 1901 brick building that was originally the power plant for Denver's streetcar system. Store manager Bob Voltz explains the store's many green features to a group of Greenbuild attendees. The building reused tons of reclaimed material from the site, but is not LEED certified. (EP photo.)

On the last day of the conference, nine groups left the Colorado Convention Center to explore green buildings in the Denver area. Some bused to NREL or Boulder; others strolled emission-free toward downtown Denver's LoDo and Platte River districts.

I joined a half-day sneaker tour that visited an REI store and the EPA Region 8 building in downtown Denver. REI transformed a 100-year-old abandoned power plant into a huge outdoor sporting goods store in 2000. The Environmental Protection Agency's building is near completion, scheduled to open this month. Both were excellent tours, with detailed explanations by insiders and hour-long explorations behind the scenes.

Greenbuild 2007 will be in Los Angeles