Resources

Green Build 2009

An Interview with NZGBC Chief Executive Jane Henley

November 2009

Fifteen years ago, a green building was a back-of the-napkin idea. Now, the United States Green Building Council's annual conference and trade show has grown into the world's largest green building event. Green Build is held annually in the United States, and this year more than 28,000 people congregated in Phoenix, Arizona to attend the three-day event, which was opened by the World Green Building Council Congress.

Green Build attendees were welcomed with a keynote speech from former Vice President and Nobel Laureate Al Gore.  Then President, CEO and Founding Chair of USGBC Rick Fedrizzi spoke, describing the opportunities present in the green building sector despite the current economic climate.  Fedrizzi then introduced some of the heads of the World Green Building Council's including our very own Jane Henley.

Here she answers a few questions for us about her experience at Green Build and some of the challenges being faced now in the US.

It must have been mind-boggling attending such a huge green building event. Can you tell us what the energy was like at the event?

The energy in the green building market was incredibly up-beat in the States, especially in an economic market, and a property market, that has been significantly affected by the global financial crisis, and on a scale we don't see from NZ.  The economic situation has been very, very tough on the industry. People and property businesses are really doing it hard. That said, green building has been one of the rays of light for the industry. For instance, Turner Construction is one of the world's largest construction companies; with I believe around $10 billion or so in annual revenue. This year, half of its projects will be built to LEED standards, a 20% growth from 2009 - in a year when the company's overall revenue dropped. To put this another way, green is propping up a fairly dismal building market.

Did you notice any key differences in focus at the conference?

The Hollywood style opening was wild, a line up of Al Gore, 11 GBC leaders from different countries, Rick, and then Sheryl Crow - the bar has been set for our next Green Building Summit! It was interesting to see the surprise and delight of many of the American's we met who had no idea of the extent of the rapidly growing global market driven by the World Green Building Council.

The focus on neighbourhoods and precincts was one of the key topics up for discussion. They're looking beyond the building footprint to how it both impacts and contributes to the quality of life. 

The USGBC are using LEED for Neighbourhoods (LEED -ND), which takes what they have learned about buildings, and delivers it on a larger scale, including what is delivered not so much building by building, but at the neighborhood level. Not every building needs its own power plant, but one for a city block or a group of buildings may be more efficient and more resourceful than a national grid, for instance.

In addition to this, as in NZ, understanding the performance of green buildings is another key focus for the US.  The USGBC recently launched the Building Performance Initiative, designed to develop comprehensive data collection from all buildings that have achieved LEED certification; implement an appropriate analysis methodology of that data; and provide feedback to building owners so they have better information with which to address any performance gaps that stem from predicted building performance versus actual performance. 

And, interestingly, the general level of knowledge and conversation about climate change and what this means for the built environment was much higher than here.

What challenges are the USGBC and their members facing at the moment?

One of the primary issues the USGBC is dealing with is the huge scale of the green building movement there.  They're dealing with mass certification of buildings, and understanding how to deliver the level of service required by industry to cope with this.

LEED Commercial: (25,460 Registered - 3,316 Certified)   
LEED Residential: (18,061 Registered - 2,661 Certified)

One of the steps they have taken to deal with this is to split the certification activities away from the activities of the GBC, entirely to the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI), so that the issue of certification can be focused on independently.  They've learned a lot from this, in particular, how to streamline their systems and processes. In 2010 we will be setting up meetings between the GBCI and Green Star team to knowledge-share. The opportunities we have with our international counterparts to share this type of knowledge really adds value and shortcuts our learning to constantly improve what we do.

Collaboration is another key challenge for the US industry, as it is for all of us. In particular, looking at the development of their LEED for Homes, they've faced significant fragmentation of the market in the residential space. This fragmentation has slowed their pace, there are strong agendas at work, and a lack of common agreement and direction. Their advice to us, as we look at the residential sector was: get all industry partners aligned!

USGBC goals have moved, largely because they are now very established and have a very high level of influence and credibility. One of their former Vice President's, Michelle Moore who spoke at our recent Summit, is now driving the green building programmes of work within the Obama Administration. The Government now understands the GBC model of driving industry activity in this space; it is highly evident that is has been very successful in adding economic value and value to the Government programmes of work through using LEED.

What information did you take from Green Build and the US market that you can bring back for NZGBC members?

I attended Green Star training last week, and while listening to the presentation and the questions from attendees, I realised that although we are making amazing great progress we are still very much at the start of this journey in New Zealand.

It takes time to understand the value of the common language and the verifiable measurement system we have developed with Green Star, and how this adds value to the entire industry value chain.

Green Building is moving from niche to maturity, and from the exception to the rule in many cases. And it was evident, with the 25% growth in exhibitors for instance, and the green activity continuing to drive their building market, that the industry seeing this as leading them out of recession.

Green building can no longer be considered marketing hype - it's become the status quo.