The crowds have arrived at Green build now. Wednesday was a busy day. My first session today was on affordable housing and how to hold a design competition to generated new ideas. The projects were for Habitat for Humanity in Ohio. The program could be replicated in Sarasota. The Sarasota Housing Authority is contemplating buying some new lots. A partnership with the AIA and the USGBC branch, could help the Sarasota Housing Authority come up with new cost effective designs for the new lots with emphasis on energy and water conservation and IEQ. My second session was on Biophilic Design. Too much to go into here, but the idea is to enhance one connection to nature through great building design. At 4 PM, I got an update on the Living Building Challenge. There are now 3 fully certified LBC projects that have completed there performance period and achieved certification. 2 more have several petals. There are about 100 LBC registered projects so far. The evening was a blast! Thomas Freidman gave an awesome and challenging address. More on that later. And Maroon 5 put on a great concert to end the evening. USGBC knows how to throw a party, and make you think at the same time. From Toronto, Michael
