Flooring manufacturers from around the globe exhibited their efforts to promote sustainability in manufacturing and green building at the Greenbuild International Conference + Expo, which took place September 26-29, 2023, in Washington D.C.
“This year’s show has excitement like we’ve never seen before,” said Katie Gillham, event director for Greenbuild. “People are excited to move this industry forward. With sustainability being a topic at the forefront of the flooring industry, we are excited to see the impact this year’s Greenbuild will have.”
Celebrating 30 years, Greenbuild had an impressive number of attendees and exhibitors. Show management said it was higher than last year’s event, and this was one of the largest Greenbuild in recent history.
"This year, what was so important for me was to learn about new materials and the importance of embodied carbon during the design and construction process because up to now, we were focusing on operational carbon a lot," said Duygu Erten, Greenbuild attendee and USGBC member.
"Our new SRP product (SRP Rigid Core TPU Flooring) is designed with circularity in mind, and so reducing waste is still a hot topic for the world of flooring as well as here at Greenbuild," said Rochelle Routman, chief sustainability and impact officer, HMTX Industries.
“We want to showcase the benefits, the beauty and the durability of wood,” said Jonathan Geyer, executive director, Pennsylvania Hardwoods Development Council. “We want folks to be able to connect with this natural material that we've been blessed with. There seems to be more interest [this year] in using natural, sustainable building materials, of which wood is.”
This year’s conference consisted of 13 tracks of sessions concurrently, more than 200 sessions, hundreds of speakers and three keynotes throughout. Over 250 brands in the industry exhibited.
“The entire industry can really come together, network and make those connections that are so special in-person,” said Sherida Sessa, portfolio director for the Greenbuild International Conference + Expo.
Kicking off the conference, the first keynote speaker was Kal Penn, actor, writer, producer and former Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement. The next day, Ali Zaidi, National Climate Advisor, Biden-Harris Administration followed. Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, Marine Biologist, Policy Expert, writer and Co-Founder of the non-profit think tank Urban Ocean Lab concluded the week’s keynote speakers.
The sessions were well attended. There were sessions to mark the debut of LEED v5, the latest iteration of the LEED green building program that advances decarbonization, equity, health, biodiversity, and resilience in the built environment, that will be coming out next year.
Greenbuild is proud that it is true zero-waste certified for the event as well as a certified carbon neutral event.
“The team and the industry work really hard all year long to make sure that we’re making a positive impression on the city and that we’re offsetting all of our wasted and all of our carbon that we produce at the event,” Sessa said.
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