Party Walls

SWA staffers chat up expo goers at the SWA booth.

Greenbuild 2015 has come and gone, but that doesn’t mean we can’t keep celebrating its “monumental” success. Having a booth in the expo hall allowed us to meet so many engaging and intelligent people.  We want to extend a gigantic thank you to all those that stopped by the SWA booth for making our experience memorable and rewarding.

Bummed you missed Greenbuild 2015? No fear, reader! Here are five takeaways from the massive green building gathering.

Greenbuild 2015 Five Takeaways

Education sessions continue to evolve in the best way. SWArriors jumped on all the excellent opportunities for continuing education and the massive knowledge share that happens each year at Greenbuild. We were thrilled to find the education sessions continue to up their game and provide deeper and meaningful insights into green building best practices  and building science.  Sessions on expanding thermal comfort, the nitty gritty details of the Better Building Challenge water pilot, incorporating human health in building design, and the world’s tallest passive house, all proved to be worthwhile for both conference newbies and green building experts.

Greenbuild goers wait to explore the Unity Home.

People like “proof of the possible.” The Unity Home was a smashing sustainable success, with a never ending line to get in and experience the high-quality, energy and water efficient home.   The excitement around the Unity Home speaks to how people like to see, touch, and establish a deeper understanding of what a green certified home can be. The Unity Home is certifying under a number of green building certifications including: LEED for Homes v4 Platinum, ENERGY STAR^® v3, and EPA’s WaterSense and Indoor AirPlus. SWA was thrilled to be part of this collaboration and help provide an innovative example of “proof of the possible” to all Greenbuild goers. You can read more press coverage about the Unity Home in these publications: Architizer, Treehugger, and Inhabitat.

Greenbuild is a perfect platform for unique collaborations.  Greenbuild  provides a wealth of opportunities to learn anything and everything about green building. It also affords tremendous space for powerful and unique collaborations to happen.  In attending a session, you can sit next to one of your biggest competitors and have enriching solution based conversations. In the expo hall, you can learn about technological advances in all areas of sustainability, and identify how you can work together towards one common goal. From tours to committees, to educational sessions, the collaborations seem to be endless at Greenbuild.

The Greenbuild Local Partners Committee toured the expo hall and chatted about collaborating on projects.

Passive House Standard is where it’s at. SWA’s very own Lois Arena, spoke on “lessons learned” through design and construction of the world’s tallest passive house building.  Greenbuild goers are excited about Passive House Standard, and understanding the required hard and soft criteria required to become Passive House Certified. If you missed the presentation, be sure to check out the slide deck for everything you need to know about Passive House.

More than anything, Greenbuild 2015 was an opportunity for DC to showcase for the world the District’s leadership in the green building and sustainability movements.  In the end, our most meaningful takeaway is the inspiration we get from being surrounded by leaders working to make our world a little healthier, and of course a little greener.

Looking for SWA’s powerpoint presentations from Greenbuild? You can find them here.