Download of Greenbuild 2018- Chicago

Chicago Cultural Center's Tiffany Dome

My first trip to the Windy City did not disappoint; I was pleased overall with session content and have some takeaways from each below.

Teslas vs: Duck Curve
This session touched on something that we in the New York City Living Building Challenge Collaborative have been discussing. In California, high energy efficiency and solar PV requirements have lead to high renewables production mid day to the grid, and an exponentially higher demand on the grid towards late afternoon hours when everyone is heading home. At the same time, Electric vehicles could potentially charge mid day while people are at work, and 'sell' some of their battery charge to the grid in the early evening when people are home and won't need their full remaining capacity. The grid here on the east coast isn't well suited to accept power, I am curious to see this theory grow.



Building the First LEED Platinum City
Washington DC announced last year at Greenbuild they were the first city to achieve LEED Platinum for Cities.DC is in a unique position as a City, County, and State entity. They have 60+ departments and over 35,000 employees to serve their 700,000 residents. Anecdotally, they noted you "...only need about 12 people to agree with your idea to make it law." DC has a goal to reduce all GHG emissions by 2050, they have catalogued all city trees, and have a PPA for 30% of all municipal power to be sourced from wind. LEED for cities looks at Operations, Policy, and Performance- though I wasn't clear on what- if anything- DC needed to change or strive towards in order to earn this prestigious certification.

EPDs: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly
This presentation started with every table having a small bag of change in different currencies. We were asked to calculate how much money we had at each table in US Dollars. The point of the exercise was to show that even though we all had money, each didn't provide the same. This was a great frame of reference for EPD discussion.
EPDs are a summary life cycle assessment (LCA). LCAs are an ISO standardized methodology.Each product type has its own set of Product Category rules, which are valid for 5 years, and are voted on by a board. these rules define the scope of the LCA (and thus the EPD). This makes it difficult for consumers, because if you want to determine if a carpet tile or roll of carpeting has a lesser environmental impact, they may be reviewed under different Product Category Rules, and thus are an apples to oranges comparison.

Building Research Results- **Full disclosure, this was my favorite session of the conference**
This session had a presentation from a real estate manager and two researchers. This was an updated synopsis of the age old question, "How much green do I get for going 'Green' ? ". To start off, the panelists noted the cost of NOT planning for climate change- A Cambridge report indicated 45% of global investments stand to be lost due to  climate related market shifts. If that doesn't register for you- there was $308 billion in damage to US building stock in 2017 due to climate disasters. They also found that 'green' buildings (those certified LEED and/or Energystar) had 3% higher rent, 7% higher cash flow, and a 13% higher price when sold on average. On the flip side, during the recession, 'green' buildings did not lose tenants faster than standard buildings.

2030 Commitment
Goal is for all new buildings, development, and renovations to be carbon neutral by 2030. Signing up for the commitment gives you access to the Design Data Exchange (DDX). Team noted that competition (ability to compete for AIA COTE Awards) may be a good incentive to get architectural teams on board.

Re-imagining Building Codes
Codes are created to protect health and life safety. But when you truly think about it, what field strives for this more than sustainability? Part of the challenge are the words 'green', sustainability' , and 'climate chang'e. This panel advised to meet the clients where they are, not where you want them to be. Speak to them in their language. AIA adopted a new part of their ethics code that requires architects to inform clients of their building's environmental impact, because they agree.

New Era of Construction Waste Management

Some strategies recommended to meet the LEED v4 diversion requirements, or to achieve credit under this category include:

• specifying that waste facilities have RCI certification, 
• utilizing haulers that will collect minis and maintain on the minis until they are weighed at the MRF, 
• make trades responsible for recycling their own material (rather than common commingled bins)
• utilize pre-cut or prefab materials.

Keynote Moments of Brilliance:

-"I have news for DC, Climate Change will not wait for you" Rahm Emmanuel- Mayor of Chicago

-The economy has grown faster than the national average every year in Chicago while Greenhouse gas emissions have gone down. Rahm Emmanuel- Mayor of Chicago

Sustainability is the latest frontier where if you don't do your job, people die.
Mayor Cruz, Puerto Rico


I leave you with this stunning and haunting bronze sculpture from Graceland Cemetery in Chicago. An ominous reminder and call to action. Sustainability is not a luxury!