BrickStainable Jurors Speak at Greenbuild 2010

Words: Vivian Loftness, Bill BrowningI never cease to enjoy Greenbuild. Even as it has expanded, the enthusiasm and breadth of expertise and investigation is enthralling. Those who have been in this field for a while may find many of the educational sessions to be too basic but, if one selects carefully, there is plenty of cutting edge work being presented. Two of the jurors from BrickStainable presented at the conference, as did I.

Vivian Loftness was a part of two sessions. One presented perspectives on the greening of college campuses. How is an institution’s commitment to greening itself manifest and how does it affect student life, academics and job opportunities in a green economy? Another panel that Vivian participated on addressed carbon footprint analysis for single family residences. This was part of the Residential Summit that took place at Greenbuild this year. This session focused on establishing the quantitative value of the carbon embodied (versus operational) in the single family house. This allows the design, including materials and systems selection, to better meet sustainability goals and more fully evaluate the life cycle impact of the project.

Bill Browning participated in a panel entitled “Mannahatta & The Mtigwaaki: Learning from Ecological and Indigenous History To Remake Our Cities.” Eric Sanderson’s book, “Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City” is a fascinating look at how the development of a City like New York has been affected by its natural history. Bill discussed a project of his own that was informed by this research and how that project has been able to take advantage of the discovery that is located on top of an historic, but long ago buried stream.

I participated in a panel discussion of two community health clinics that have achieved LEED NC Gold and LEED CI Platinum certifications. Serving Baltimore City’s homeless population and a distressed urban community, these LEED certified buildings contribute to the awareness of environmental health in these frequently marginalized communities.

There were many other fascinating sessions and over 1,000 exhibitors this year! The BrickStainable team has been actively involved and we hope to be able to present the contributions of BrickStainable to the sustainability discussion next year. Keep an eye on us and the great work of our competitors!
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