For the 24,000 people who attended the US Green Building Council’s Greenbuild 2011 conference and expo in Toronto last week, there was a simple question: what's NEXT for green building?

The question was everywhere. Don’t forget what Shakespeare wrote in The Tempest, they reminded us: “Whereof what's past is prologue; what to come, in yours and my discharge”(what a learned crowd!). Apparently it means: the past has passed, so what are you going to do about the future?

Whatever the answer, it must have something to do with data, apparently. “Data that’s real-time, transparent, with predictive future modelling and with audience participation" was one notable quote. Rick Federizzi the USGBC’s CEO and founding Chairman said, “The future of LEED is about data - it's about performance and the end of the pipe".

New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg is also in the camp. "If you can't measure it you can't manage it" is his well-worn mantra and something his Buildings Commissioner is turning into action across one million buildings where “It's not just about MPG (miles per gallon) any more, it's also about the way you drive!” So, NYC is now focussing on the way existing buildings are being operated. And that means data (annual benchmarking will be posted on a City-run website).

There were many interesting websites being talked about. A couple worth a visit include UC Berkeley’s social media prototype for occupants and managers which you can access at www.cbe.berkeley.edu/prototype and the Green Building Information Gateway being developed by the US Green Building Council.

We were there presenting a number of lessons learnt from our work with Green Buildings Alive and our experiences with the Investa portfolio. Here's the slide presentation from International Summit where we teamed up with Andy Solberg, an engineer from Reno working on a highly ambitious industrial park to be powered exclusively from renewable energy (his slides not included).


Greenbuild Slides