Green Building Blog

In 2003, I attended my first GreenBuild Convention, held in the new convention center in Pittsburgh, a very Green Building. At that convention there were approximately 4,000 attendees and less than 100 exhibitors. At the 2010 convention, only 7 years later - and in those distressed economic times - there were more than 28,000 attendees and almost a thousand exhibitors.

There is a common misconception that a "Green" or LEED®-certified building has to cost considerably more than a run-of-the-mill design that just meets minimum building and energy codes.  While this was true in the early days of the US Green Building Council (USBGC) LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Guidelines, it is no longer the case 10 years later.