The AIA 2008 National Convention and Design Exposition — "We the People" — starts next week Thursday, on the East Coast for the first time in almost a decade. As usual, BuildingGreen will be there. If you are, too, come see us at booth 14079.

We also have people involved in a couple sessions. Peter Yost will co-lead an all-day preconvention workshop, "USGBC's Residential Programs," along with Mack Caldwell and Ann Edminster. On Thursday at 4 p.m. until 5:30, Nadav Malin, along with Scot Horst, answer the troubling question, "It's Certified Green, But What Does That Mean?"

Me, I'll be a first-timer at AIA, and will be posting here from there. I've been going over the guide and the website... this thing's a monster.

If I could adopt a conference, it would be the USGBC Cascadia chapter's Living Future 'Unconference'. As someone who generally prefers to stay behind the scenes talking shop, it was a delight to find myself surrounded primarily by the obsessed of the green building world. Even better, as presenters we were encouraged to bring our own big challenges to the table and get attendees to help us address them — which is exactly what we and many other presenters did. (More about that later, I hope.)

First, this is the only conference I've been to where I left with less stuff than I started with! Yes, you could buy a conference T-shirt (lovely, organic, low-impact dyes, made in the USA), and I did get some green building playing cards, but there was no bag full of conference papers and booth swag. Instead, at registration we were each given a paper nametag and a single tri-fold with the conference schedule. For details, you had to wrest control of one of two computers hooked up to a screen set to scroll through sessions. I, of course, lost my tri-fold, and there didn't appear to be any spares.

Paul Hawken's keynote speech set the tone for the conference with kudos, encouragement, and warning for the audience; kudos for the work going on to transform the world for the better, encouragement that we are not alone (visually demonstrated with an endless scrolling list of nonprofits that can, by the way, all be found on WiserEarth) and a warning of radical changes to come that'll put green practitioners on the front-lines. "I just want to caution you. I think your star may rise faster than you'd want it to... I'm not saying this to flatter you. I'm saying this to warn you."

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Last week was great for learning about positive approaches to solving our collective climate change problems. First, I attended the MassImpact: Cities and Climate Change symposium at MIT on Friday (March 28, 2008). Then I got to see Michael Singer present some of his work at the down2earth event in Boston on Saturday.

Pretty jam-packed.

Jaime Lerner lead the MassImpact event through a visual description of his understanding of the ways that urban livability and vitality are directly related to reducing environmental impact and creating regenerative built environments. Jaime's perspective is summed up in his statement, "Every city that has a good quality of life... is sustainable."

Here's Jaime speaking at last year's TED conference.

In Jaime's view, many policymakers and politicians don't have a very "generous" view of their cities. His goal is to bring the place and its inhabitants together into a joyful community. Jaime's commandments for great cities:

1. Use cars less
2. Separate your garbage
3. Live closer to work
4. Multi use all of the city — don't have parts of the city that are used only a small part of the time
5. Sustainability is the relationship between use and waste — don't waste things

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The 96th annual meeting of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) starts today in Houston, TX, and continues for the next three days. Chances are good that you're not there. Neither am I.

However, the conference proceedings — a tome titled Seeking the City: Visionaries on the Margins — is available. Now. To anybody. All 976 pages. Free.

There's a lot here to be interested in... from "Traveling Professions: How Local Contingencies Complicate Globalizing Tendencies in the Standardization of Architectural Practice" (which not a few of us probably think is a good thing), to "Freeze / Thaw: A Menacing Line and Humble Resistance," by way of "Architecture and the Cinematic Window: Hitchcock's Rear Window and the Fantasy Frame."

I haven't read it all. I think I can safely say that I'm not going to. But I've been happily picking and choosing my way through this big collection of unexpectedly diverse five- to ten-page papers, and it seems like there's going to be something rewarding, or at least sort of interesting, for just about everyone.

Like BYOBlue for Earth Day, Earth Hour — which is this Saturday, March 29, beginning at 8 p.m. — has a two-pronged thrust: it's an easy doorway into larger changes we can make in our daily choices, and it sends a larger message. It starts by simply turning out the lights for an hour.

From the Earth Hour website:

On March 31 2007, for one hour, Sydney [Australia] made a powerful statement about the greatest contributor to global warming — coal-fired electricity — by turning off its lights. Over 2.2 million Sydney residents and over 2,100 businesses switched off, leading to a 10.2% energy reduction across the city. What began as one city taking a stand against global warming caught the attention of the world.

In 2008, 24 global cities [it has since risen to over 30] will participate in Earth Hour at 8pm on March 29. Earth Hour is the highlight of a major campaign to encourage businesses, communities and individuals to take the simple steps needed to cut their emissions on an ongoing basis. It is about simple changes that will collectively make a difference — from businesses turning off their lights when their offices are empty, to households turning off appliances rather than leaving them on standby.

The website allows you to sign up to "receive useful tools and tips to help you get even more involved"... and that's where the real juice is.

The following is from the good folks at Architecture 2030. Yes, it's simple. Even simplistic. But the point, I think, is just to start. If you're sympatico, just put on some blue for Earth Day. Easy. And then, as long as you're started, make that phone call.

BYOBlue / Earth Day 2008, April 19-22

Want to stop global warming? Wear BLUE for Earth Day 2008! Join millions of people around the world who will be wearing BLUE to signify their vote for NO COAL.

Earth Day 2008 is going to be historic! Architecture 2030, along with numerous other groups around the nation, is calling on everyone to wear BLUE during Earth Day 2008 to signify their vote for No Coal. Events will be happening around the world from April 19th through April 22nd, so...

If you're attending the Earth Day event on the National Mall in Washington, DC on April 20th, wear BLUE.

If you're attending another Earth Day event, wear BLUE.

No matter what you're doing for Earth Day 2008, wear BLUE.

A BLUE shirt, top, sweater or jacket...whatever. Just wear BLUE.

Then, on April 22, as a culminating action, pick up the phone, call Congress at 202-224-3121 and ask for an immediate 'Moratorium on Coal' — a halt to the construction of any new coal-fired power plants. Through this Call for Climate event, Earth Day hopes to generate over a million phone calls to Congress. Visit Earth Day's website to learn more about this critical event.

Your BLUE vote will count. Fifty-nine coal plants were canceled in 2007. That's over a third of the 151 planned. That happened before millions of people joined together to say No Coal.

BYOBlue for Earth Day 2008. Be the vote that tips the balance.

Architecture 2030
BYOBlue
Earth Day events 2008

I'm in Ithaca, NY, this weekend at the third annual meeting of Natural Builders Northeast (NBNe), an association of professional natural building practitioners. Like the early days of the NESEA conference — another annual gathering of regional experts working to help the built environment move toward something more environmentally sane (and often a fair piece ahead of the curve) — it's a small, enthusiastic, well informed, and forward-looking group of smart, funny, concerned designers, builders, architects, engineers, and doers. It's inspiring to see the pool of knowledge and experience growing and maturing, hearing the softly exhaled expressions of new understandings as people learn from their peers. Punctuated with lots of laughter.

Meetings in previous years were held in northern Massachusetts and central Vermont. The location of next year's meeting is a decision coming up on the agenda. A website is under construction, and should be implemented shortly.

Self-guided tours of four projects by local NBNe members were available Friday afternoon for early arrivers, and the weekend gathering officially started with group visits to two more on Saturday morning. Afterward, a freewheeling technical conversation unfolded unabated from lunch until a break seemed in order not long before supper — careening from topics like the effect on thermal resistance by vapor and temperature gradients in straw bale walls, to the proper implementation of stone windowsills, to foundation details, and on and on.

After supper, a modified "pecha-kucha" slam session began: 15-minute open presentations for each person to talk about projects, tools, inspirations. Being an old fart, I left about 10:00, and based on past meetings, things are likely to carry on until the wee hours.

There's another day tomorrow.

Photos from the field trips follow:

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As a follow-on to the previous post, representatives from BuildingGreen are scheduled to attend the following conferences this year:

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Always a big supporter of the BuildingEnergy conference, BuildingGreen will have an even bigger presence than usual this year — in addition to our booth on the trade show floor, we have people chairing sessions, leading a full-day building science workshop, and even giving the opening plenary. The BuildingEnergy conference and trade show for renewable energy and green building professionals, presented by the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association, runs from March 11 - 13 in Boston.

Our own Alex Wilson will give the opening plenary:

"Alex Wilson will review some of the tremendous challenges facing our environment and our way of life, including climate change, water shortages, and the end of cheap oil, then focus on integrated solutions to these problems. The answers certainly won't be easy, but they are waiting for us, should society choose to act."

He will also chair a session called "Passive Survivability: The Other Reason to Go Green," on Thursday morning (8:30 - 10:00). Christopher R. Schaffner will be speaking in this session.

"The concept of 'passive survivability' is relatively new to the building community, but had its debut in Environmental Building News two years ago. It involves the next generation of green buildings. They are distinguished from other green buildings in that they are not only environmentally excellent, but also more secure structures able to keep their occupants safe and reasonably comfortable under all conditions."

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Press release:

U.S. Green Building Council to Co-Sponsor Nationwide Carbon Webcast Focusing on Global Climate Change

Face It Webcast to be Broadcast Live at 9:00 AM on January 30, 2008

Washington, DC (January 28, 2008) — The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) will co-sponsor a nationwide webcast on climate change, called Face It, hosted by Architecture 2030, a research organization that focuses on the role of buildings in global climate change. The educational webcast will cover Architecture 2030's approach to halt global warming and will unveil two new student competitions worth a total of $20,000 in prize money.

"Buildings account for 39% of all CO2 emissions in the U.S., and building green is an immediate and measurable solution to mitigating climate change," said Michelle Moore, Senior Vice President of Policy & Public Affairs, USGBC. "Educating the construction leaders of tomorrow is a core part of USGBC's mission, and our support of Architecture 2030 in this essential webcast is a critical part of that."

The Face It webcast will be broadcast live at www.architecture2030.org at 9:00 AM EST on January 30, 2008, with video available later for download on the site. This webcast kicks off the Focus the Nation simultaneous educational symposia to be held across the country on January 31, 2008. Focus the Nation is a national effort to engage students, faculty, administrators, citizens and government officials in discussions to address global warming.

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