Photos courtesy USGBC

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu, archbishop emeritus of Capetown, South Africa, was the keynote speaker at the Greenbuild show, held at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center (BCEC).

Considering the U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC's) promise to continue its sustainable design 'revolution,' hosting Greenbuild 2008 not far from the site of the Boston Tea Party was particularly apt. More than 28,224 attendees from 85 countries participated in the event—a marked 25 per cent increase over the 2007 show in Chicago, Ill.

Greenbuild included numerous technical seminars, building tours, renowned speakers, and an exhibition hall comprising more than 800 exhibitors. The show floor housed the Canadian Pavilion—a collection of 21 of the country's companies, associations, and agencies involved in sustainable design and energy efficiency. Beyond the typical networking opportunities, the Canadian delegates hosted technical sessions such as â??Green Building in Canada: An Overview of Sustainable Production and Design,â? and a technical seminar on the nation's first net-zero multi-unit residential building (MURB) at Vancouver's 2010 Olympic Village.

Also in attendance at Greenbuild was Construction Specifications Canada's (CSC's) U.S. counterpart, the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI). The group used the Greenbuild stage to update design professionals on the development of GreenFormat—a Web-based database that provides a standardized framework for identifying the sustainable properties of building products. (For more information, visit www.greenformat.com.)