Greenbuild 2022, the world’s largest event for green building and sustainability leaders, was held November 1 – 3 in San Francisco, California, at the LEED Platinum Moscone Center. Celebrating its 20th anniversary, the conference brought together thousands of architects, manufacturers, urban planners, government leaders, and many others to network, learn and share ideas about building green.
The event featured nearly 200 interactive and collaborative educational sessions and over 400 industry speakers who addressed topics such as ESG, sustainable finance, federal, state and local policy, decarbonization, equity and more. Brent Trenga, Kingspan’s Director of Sustainability North America, was a presenter in two sessions – Science Based Targets: Lessons Learned from Committed Manufacturers and Heavy Metal: Embodied Carbon in Steel. Kingspan was also an exhibitor of sustainable building innovations on a busy show floor which reflected the 72% increase in attendance at the event.
The conference’s keynote speaker, sustainability advocate, author, philanthropist, and Academy Award-winning actor Jane Fonda shared stories of her own climate change activism and her perspectives on the future of green building.
She urged the audience to continue the work they’re doing to confront the climate crisis and make the built environment resilient saying, “We have a moral obligation to be persistent, resilient and hopeful for the future of the built environment.”
Some of the key takeaways from Greenbuild 2022 include:
Focusing on execution
There is a new dialogue of accountability related to global commitments and sustainability disclosures which is helping drive a focus on execution. The industry must walk the talk and get things done to advance green building. It’s not just about setting targets and goals. The industry must focus on making significant progress toward achieving these metrics.
This is a change from previous conferences. We are hopeful that much like Kingspan, other companies are executing on plans to reduce carbon and improve circularity in building materials. The more plans put into action, the better the results for us all.
Increasing understanding of embodied carbon
Discussions centered around taking a deeper dive into scope 1and scope 3 (value chain emissions), learning more about what embodied carbon is and its impact on climate change. Embodied carbon has been at the forefront of many past conversations, and now, companies are taking steps to reduce the carbon in their building materials. At Kingspan, we are transitioning our manufacturing sites to use 60% direct renewable energy and generate 20% of onsite renewable energy by 2030, and carefully sourcing materials that are made with reduced carbon.
Leveraging data
Using actionable data to set baselines and targets and utilizing Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) more effectively. Kingspan has been at the forefront of EPDs, ensuring that architects and specifiers have transparent information about panels from cradle to grave. Conversations at Greenbuild surrounded deliverables, such as EPDs.
Investing in green buildings
The federal government is taking important steps to address climate change with new policies and programs. As part of this effort, the government is investing in green buildings, an initiative aimed at mitigating climate change and helping reduce the government’s carbon footprint.
We enjoyed participating in the 2022 Greenbuild Conference and appreciated the opportunity to share ideas on building more sustainable, equitable, resilient and healthy buildings. We look forward to collaborating with sustainability leaders at next year’s conference to help advance green building.