The U.S. Green Building Council's Greenbuild International Conference and Expo is the world's largest conference and expo dedicated to green building. Celebrating its 20th anniversary, the USGBC put on quite a show for attendees in Philadelphia.
This year, 30,000 attendees from 90 countries came to Greenbuild, which featured 1,000 exhibitors and sponsors with green products and service innovations and 100 education sessions led by business, environmental and social leaders. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a gathering of 10,000 advocates for green construction on Nov. 21 during her keynote address that sustainability must be one of the country's top priorities. And Bon Jovi concluded the celebration with a concert.
Year after year, Greenbuild proves to be the place to learn about the changes in the rapidly evolving green building industry, and this year Greenbuild was the first place to learn about LEED v4, the latest in LEED standards. Let's examine some of the emerging trends and products from the three-day conference.
CompositeBuild
Bob Moffit, product manager for Ashland Performance Materials, explains how composite materials work in the building industry.
CompositeBuild.com is a unique website that allows architects, designers, builders and others interested in composite plastic and related building materials to learn about the benefits of composites and to connect with composite material fabricators and distributors. On this site, one will find case studies that show how composites have been used in building products and building designs and understand why they were chosen for the application. Also learn about composites through the following sections:
- What is a composite?
- Why use composites?
- View case studies that demonstrate the sustainability of composites
- View a composite continuing education course
Elsewhere, furniture-maker KI introduced the world's first carbon-negative, contract furniture chair at Greenbuild 2013 made with AirCarbon — a revolutionary, paradigm-shifting thermoplastic polyester developed by California-based Newlight Technologies. Newlight's patented manufacturing technology captures carbon that would otherwise be in the air and converts it into AirCarbon. KI will be the exclusive provider of AirCarbon in the contract furniture industry.
Inspired by carbon-capturing processes found in nature, and as a result of Newlight's breakthroughs in gas conversion yield and polymer performance, AirCarbon-based materials can replicate the performance of oil-based plastics while significantly outcompeting on price, representing a market-driven solution to displacing oil, reducing material cost and stabilizing climate change.
Upon completion of life-cycle analysis and environmental testing in early 2014, KI will begin introducing AirCarbon into some of its most successful product lines, including the Strive and Grazie seating collections.
Here is a look at a few other key Greenbuild plastics-related exhibitors:
- BASF — Sustainable and innovative construction solutions, 600-plus products and tools, BASF's Center for Building Excellence, LEED v4 introduction; water resource management, disaster resiliency, emission-free binding technology, insulation for Passive House projects, indoor environmental quality and sustainability measurement tools, and the new LEED Double Platinum BASF Florham Park headquarters building.
- Bayer MaterialScience — Plastics and polyurethanes, coatings and sealants raw materials, Bayer offers building professionals a hub of energy-efficient material technologies for sustainable construction.
- ASSA ABLOY, CertainTeed Corporation — Teamed up to tackle classroom acoustics.
- U.S. Green Building Council — Momentum is building around building materials transparency. The Greenbuild conference encourages improvement in manufacturing and sourcing of raw materials.
