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Greenbuild Marks 10th Year as Event Makes Canadian Debut Oct. 4

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

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Greenbuild, the U.S. Green Building Council’s massive annual conference and expo, marks its 10th anniversary next Tuesday in Toronto and is expected to draw approximately 25,000 visitors to the event’s Canadian debut.

The first Greenbuild show was held in 2002 in Austin, Texas, and drew 4,189 visitors, USGBC said.

Left: The 2010 Greenbuild conference and expo in Chicago drew more than 28,000 attendees and featured more than 1,800 exhibit booths. Right: Retired Gen. Colin Powell addresses Greenbuild 2010.

Held in conjunction with the Canada Green Building Council, the conference and expo will feature exhibits of more than 1,000 companies, more than 100 educational sessions, and “summits” focused on green jobs, residential and affordable green building and the international green building marketplace, USGBC said.

Featured speakers will include New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell, ABC News political commentator Cokie Roberts, medical anthropologist and physician Dr. Paul Farmer, and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Friedman, Campbell, Roberts, Farmer, and Fedrizzi will convene as a panel for the event’s “Opening Keynote and Celebration” at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 5.

The opening plenary event will also feature the Grammy award-winning band, Maroon 5.

Bloomberg will be featured at the Closing Plenary at 11 a.m. Friday, in a fast-paced “TED-talk” format program on “What’s NEXT?” in design, innovation, business and sustainability in the nation’s cities.

Toronto was selected as the host city for the conference for several reasons, USGBC said, including its growth in the green-building movement. Nearly 300 building projects are registered and seeking LEED certification, and 44 projects are already LEED-certified in the Toronto area, the organization said.

“Toronto and the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) have been a tremendous force in the recent growth of the green building movement in Canada,” said Rick Fedrizzi, USGBC president and CEO. “Toronto’s building market has continued to boom and prosper and it's the perfect backdrop for the 10th anniversary of Greenbuild.”

Thomas Mueller, president and CEO of the Canada Green Building Council, said the event’s Canadian debut “demonstrates the huge impact LEED, and the close partnership between the USGBC and CaGBC, have had on green building in Canada.

“There is no doubt that Greenbuild will be a game changer for Toronto and for Canada by taking green building to the next level in terms of industry and government recognition and international trade,” Mueller said.

More information: Greenbuild Expo.