Bringing us the scoop on this year's 2012 Greenbuild Expo in San Francisco is Keith Schneringer (LEED® AP O+M), Marketing Manager at WAXIE Sanitary Supply.
1) Describe the show in 143 characters or less (tweet sized).
The Greenbuild Expo is the world’s largest conference and expo dedicated to green buildings – this annual event is organized by the US Green Building Council and this year approximately 30,000 people gathered in San Francisco for the show.
2) Coolest new product you saw?
I think the BigBelly Solar Intelligent Waste & Recycling System remains one of the coolest products out there (perhaps I am a bit biased…). Solar powered, information technology, labor saving, problem solving, and intelligent design – all wrapped up into one!
3) Who had the most interesting booth?
In my opinion, FSC had one of the most interesting booths at Greenbuild Expo this year – they had a bunch of cool eye-catching displays in their space demonstrating some other uses for wood (for example an interwoven wood igloo and a beautiful wood bicycle).
4) Who had the craziest display?
There were several crazy displays, but the first one that comes to mind was a company which focused on lighting and design who did a great job of displaying their offerings with plants in colored modular and stackable pots and planters which lit up and glowed – in addition, the booth had some cool colored speakers made out of the same translucent material which also lit up and glowed while they were playing fun music.
5) Favorite moment of the Greenbuild Expo.
The best part about attending the Greenbuild Expo is having the ability to share ideas and learn from other attendees, and to meet and converse with people who are influencing the direction of the national discussion on sustainability.
6) Attend any seminars or panels? What was your favorite one & why?
There was an interesting panel discussion moderated by hosts from the “Morning Joe” TV show (Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski) – they moderated a series of discussions with panelists including Biz Stone (the co-founder of Twitter who has been named “Nerd of the Year” by GQ), Gavin Newsome (Lt Governor of California and former Mayor of San Francisco), George Pataki (former Governor of New York) and Paul Hawken (environmentalist and author of the book “Natural Capitalism”), among others. I was particularly interested to hear what Biz Stone had to say about the disruptive force of social media platforms, and how these platforms can be used to disseminate, share and broadcast thoughts and ideas faster and farther than we ever thought possible.
7) Why is the Greenbuild Expo is so important in three words?
Making An Impact
8) Any new trends?
While it isn’t necessarily new, the biggest trend continues to be increasing utilization of technology to communicate performance metrics.
9) What was the best part of the Expo?
I was told by two separate people after the fact that the panel presentation given by representatives from the San Diego Green Building Council (including me) was the best educational session they attended. Our presentation was focused on how the local chapter successfully crowdsourced a LEED EBOM project – resulting in a positive experiential learning experience for project volunteers and a LEED Silver certified facility for the building owners.
10) What would you tell someone who wasn’t able to attend?
If you weren’t able to attend, keep your eye on the Greenbuild Expo website for links to videos from this year’s (and past year’s) expos – and if you have an opportunity to attend in the future I would say to go for it – you will have fun and learn a lot.
For more information:
- FSC (Forest Stewardship Council)
- Greenbuild Expo
- US Green Building Council (USGBC)
- US Green Building Council - San Diego Chapter
- GAP: Experiential Learning by Crowdsourcing a LEED Project
- LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)
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