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I spent last week at Greenbuild in chilly Chicago. Greenbuild is the USGBC’s green-building conference that is held annually. I didn’t make it to all the educational seminars that I had hoped because of the craziness. I actually sat on the floor through one of them. Can you say sore butt! There was a vendor floor that has all of the latest green-building technology displayed, and some that was not so green (local eco-urbanist Josh Daniels of Green Sacramento had a fun confrontation with the SFI Sustainable Forests Initiative guy).

But, rather than give a boring play-by-play, I wanted to give a couple links for people to go see what I saw and possibly watch the people I saw speak.

Clinton
I have to say that I was very excited about seeing Bill Clinton speak. He discussed the CCI Clinton Climate Initiative that his foundation announced last year and the progress they are making in “operationalizing the carbon calculus for businesses and countries”. If you follow this link you can see his speech and others that I will mention below.

What I found most impactful about his speech was his analysis of the Kyoto Protocol. In a nutshell, he said that the Bush administration and many others’ policy is this:

if China and India aren’t going to do it then why should we. If Rome is burning then why don’t we just have fun! The UK and Denmark are both exceeding the targets set forth in the protocol, they have the same unemployment as the US, but their real wages are increasing and inequality between people is decreasing! Both have concluded that by changing their focus on energy production to meet these goals of increased efficiency and minimized pollutants they have enhanced their economies. Quote: ”We are faced with the greatest opportunity of broad based economic prosperity since we mobilized for WWII”.

Poet George Watsky
Right before Clinton spoke there was a guy that read us a poem named George Watsky. He was impassioned, articulate, and right on! You can listen to him right before Slick Willie. If you listen to nothing else go check him out! Click on Bill Clinton and then fast forward about 2/3’s of the way through the video. He is a kid wearing a striped shirt.

Paul Hawken
Paul Hawken was really funny. (Click on the 2nd part of the video and he is 1/4 into the video) He made a really cool parallel between the 12 Quakers who in 1787 decided they were going to abolish slavery, and people who are trying to change the world right now through social justice organizations like the USGBC. Those twelve people were called extremists and told that they would destroy the economic system in the UK by pursuing the abolition of slavery. I have been told the same thing by stodgy capitalists about Fair Trade Coffee, Green building, and any other idea that subverts the “cheapest materials and labor” paradigm that rules the capitalist world today.

That’s what I enjoyed most about going to Greenbuild: the feeling of definite positive progress that you can see and hear everywhere. But there is a lot of work to be done. As I was walking out of a standing ovation for Bill Clinton the guy next to me was on his cell phone talking to his buddy, “Yeah, ha ha, I just got out of hearing Slick Willie speak at this green building conference, yeah he is really all gung-ho about this green stuff, ha ha ha.” I guess the bright side is that the guy was there hopefully getting an education.

Micah