From Inside a Greenbuild Environment, Day Two of the Greenbuild Road Show!

Posted: November 4, 2009

Slyvia Mohr is the Standards Specialist for the U.S. Commercial Service at the U.S. Mission to the European Union. She has been with the Mission since 1986 and been a part of the U.S. Commercial Service since 1991.

Day Two of the Greenbuild roadshow: another sunny day in Pittsburgh, which we were able to appreciate from inside a perfect greenbuild environment – Carnegie Mellon’s Intelligent Workspace – the greenbuild state-of-the-art home of the Faculty of Architecture, with special shading, ventilation system and lighting. At the invitation of Professor Volker Hartkopf, Director of the Center, the Commercial Service team participated in a greenbuilding conference attended by approximately 35 representatives from government, academia, industry, and service providers.

A series of presentations from selected speakers, among others, Kevin Kampschroer from the General Services Administration, and William Sanders from the Environmental Protection Agency, set the scene for a lively discussion on how the U.S. and EU can work together to speed up the process in addressing climate change. It was interesting to hear that participants felt a need for government to set green building target – it struck as me as so European!

We heard that promoting awareness of the benefits of green building to the general public – especially the incentives to stimulate going green and enabling green technologies – is key to making the program a success. While ambitious energy performance targets now have to be met, and preferably exceeded, for public buildings, it is often a challenge to balance budget realities and green build opportunities.

Our own mission – to reach out to U.S. greenbuild firms who are new to exporting – was expressed most eloquently by George Ruffner, the Senior Commercial Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Germany: “Where are you?!” asked George, adding, “We in the Commercial Service are ready to help American companies succeed in European markets, but we need your help to find those companies and encourage them to export.” After highlighting the individual markets in Europe, we left the participants with some food for thought for future projects, outreach, and more… Hopefully, it is the beginning of more to come!