The Greenbuild International Conference and Expo took place Nov. 15–18 in Washington, D.C., home to event host the United States Green Building Council. The event featured a number of high-profile speakers and 600 exhibitors, including about a dozen National Wood Flooring Association members.
The week was full of big-name presenters, including spiritualist Deepak Chopra, MSNBC host Mike Brzezinksi, director James Cameron and NPR President Emeritus Kevin Klose. They tackled green issues, such as climate change, mass urbanization, smart city planning and emerging building technologies.
NWFA member company Goodwin Heart Pine Company (Micanopy, Fla.) exhibited at Greenbuild and said the time and money spent was worthwhile.
The company purchased a sponsorship package that incentivized foot traffic at its booth with the opportunity to win prizes like an electric bike, and it paid off, owner Carol Goodwin said in an email.
“We met hundreds of people who had never heard of Goodwin,” she said. “It was especially good to meet a number of building design professional college students and be able to ‘plant the seed’ about reclaimed wood.”
However, a majority of the Greenbuild attendees were product operators—people who certify buildings using LEED points—versus design professionals who would be interested in green products, Goodwin said. But she added that several LEED certification professionals who visited the Goodwin booth became interested in reclaimed flooring for their personal homes.
NWFA also exhibited and John Forbes, its manufacturer services director, manned the booth. He said in addition to the NWFA member companies exhibiting at Greenbuild, dozens of NWFA member companies also participated as attendees.
Typically the flooring companies that exhibit at Greenbuild are those that carry multiple flooring types, adhesives or sound control systems, he said. Greenbuild is commercially focused, and wood flooring captures only about 4 percent of the commercial space, Forbes added.
Next year’s Greenbuild is scheduled Oct. 5–7 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles.
