Newsletter Stories


Saturday, 01 January 2005
Greenbuild 2004

Conference in Portland Draws More Than 8,000 Building Industry Professionals


The U.S. Green Building Council held it’s 3rd annual conference and expo, “Greenbuild,” in Portland, OR from November 9-12, 2004. Greenbuild was attended by more than 8,000 professionals in the green building industry, including architects, builders, engineers, and construction specifiers.

With more than 1,800 projects in the U.S. currently registered with intention to seek a LEED certified rating, Greenbuild is the leading conference of the green building industry. Because the “certified wood credit” in the Materials & Resources category of the LEED program recognizes only FSC as an acceptable certification for new wood products, LEED has been a significant driving force behind demand for FSC-certified building materials in the U.S.

The exhibit hall included a “certified wood pavilion” for the third consecutive year, where 17 FSC certificate holders, as well as FSC-US, were grouped together to inform and educate the attendees about the use of FSC-certified products in their building projects. Several other certificate holders, and FSC-accredited certifier Scientific Certification Systems, also exhibited at the conference.

A number of FSC certificate holders also joined forces to host an evening reception at the Ecotrust building in downtown Portland. Ecotrust, a member of FSC since 1995, is housed in the Jean Vollum Natural Capital Center, a LEED Gold certified building. As part of the LEED certification, 66% of new wood used in the building was FSC-certified. This space provided the perfect backdrop for the invitation-only reception, which allowed these companies to invite more than 250 conference attendees for further networking and conversation about FSC.

Nearly a dozen certificate holders also combined resources for a full-page advertisement in the November/December issue of eco-structure magazine with the tag line, “Choose FSC-certified wood. Get credit for doing the right thing.” The ad invited readers to visit the sponsor companies at the certified wood pavilion at Greenbuild. The companies involved felt extremely positive about the ad, and there are plans to do similar group marketing efforts for upcoming conferences.

Greenbuild 2005 will be held in Atlanta, GA from November 8-11. Information about Greenbuild can be found at www.greenbuildexpo.org. To be included in the certified wood pavilion next year, please contact Katie Miller as soon as possible at kmiller@fscus.org. Although it is still 10 months away, space is filling very quickly.