Green News Aplenty

This year's recent Green Build Conference in Denver proved a major success with more than 13,500 attendees and over 700 exhibitors. Officials for the U.S. Green Building Council expect almost double the numbers for next year's conference in Los Angeles. “We're expecting next year to be the Green Build conference's biggest year yet and LA is the perfect place for it,” said Peter Temp...

By Staff December 1, 2006

This year’s recent Green Build Conference in Denver proved a major success with more than 13,500 attendees and over 700 exhibitors. Officials for the U.S. Green Building Council expect almost double the numbers for next year’s conference in Los Angeles. “We’re expecting next year to be the Green Build conference’s biggest year yet and LA is the perfect place for it,” said Peter Templeton, USGBC’s Vice President of Education & Research. “Not only is LA renowned for its culture and entertainment, but it’s also gaining significant recognition for its leadership in green building in their community.”

Exhibitor’s on the floor, besides being plentiful, were quite varied from lighting and carpet manufacturers to fire protection piping and fitting vendors.

“This has just become the show to be at,” said Jerry Yudelson, of the show’s steering committee and the unusual assortment of products on display.

Indeed, some vendors, such as Park City, Utah-based Nature’s Lighting, couldn’t even reserve space on the floor and instead had to meet editors in the press room. From an M/E/P perspective, there certainly was plenty of lighting product on display. Osram Sylvania wasn’t so much hawking new product as they were a new recycling program. Working in conjunction with Veolia, for a reasonable fee, the manufacturer with provide shipping-ready packages where users can send their burnt out fluorescents and ballasts. Visit www.sylvania.com/recycle for more. The aforementioned Nature’s Lighting was discussing its take on how to provide day lighting to buildings or areas of buildings not readily accessible to windows. Their product, the SunTracking Daylighting system, is an enclosed roof-top dome that contains a series of solar-tracking mirrors that redirect natural light to select interiors of a building.

The product has been applied to a number of buildings ranging from the Home Depot to eco-friendly retailer Patagonia. Visit www.natures-lighting.com for more information.

Lightolier also had some neat product on display, particularly relating to T5 lighting and an interesting application of DALI for a new building at the University of Illinois. Dane Sanders, a senior lighting designer with Clanton & Assocs, who presented on the project, said one of the most exciting aspects of DALI is that it provides the potential for significant cost savings. For example, in a case where 48 dimmable ballasts might be required with 28 dimming modules, all those modules can be eliminated. Traditional homerun wiring runs can also be eliminated.

On the U of I project, he said they were able to eliminate five miles of copper wiring. “So the DALI system sold itself,” said Sanders. (Stay tuned this Spring for more on the project).