by Steve Thomas, Johnson Controls, Inc.
Excellent educational sessions, inspirational speakers, and more exhibitors than ever marked last week’s Greenbuild conference in Phoenix. The Phoenix Convention Center is an outstanding facility, and rooms for the conference sessions were easy to find and accommodating – although there were still plenty of sessions that were standing room only. The number of exhibitors grows every year, which made it necessary to have two levels of exhibitors in Phoenix – the only possible negative to this year’s event. Still, there was good traffic in the exhibits, and the quality of the attendees was outstanding.
The Green Buildings movement continues to grow and to spread around the world, a point made clear by Rick Fedrizzi, the President of the US Green Building Council, during the opening plenary session on Wednesday night. His comments were brought home by the in-person comments from leaders of Green Building Council chapters from around the world. How quickly this movement has taken hold both here and abroad. For our own part, Johnson Controls has been pleased to be involved with the launch of several Green Building Council chapters in South America – and we now have nearly 800 LEED credentialed employees worldwide.
Al Gore’s talk during Wednesday’s plenary session was at times folksy, often inspirational and ultimately motivational. He called on the thousands in attendance at Chase Field to go beyond what they’ve already done – imploring them to get involved with pushing Congress to pass clean energy legislation in time for Copenhagen. He acknowledged that this would be getting involved with politics – but said this involvement should not be about politics. Rather, it was about doing the right thing for our children and our grandchildren and for generations far into the future.
To paraphrase the crux of his talk, Gore asked, “If you were writing a letter that would be read by your children and your grandchildren at some point in the future, would you rather write a letter about all the reasons why you didn’t get involved in this effort to combat global warming — or would you like it to be a letter about why you did get involved and about what you did to play a part in making the world and our environment better for the generations to come?”
So which is it? Which letter are you writing?
(Go here to learn about how Johnson Controls is greening new and existing buildings worldwide, and here to read about Johnson Controls activities at Greenbuild.)
