Materials and circularity at Greenbuild 2024

Explore sessions at Greenbuild that will focus on how materials and technology help us meet our sustainability goals.

Green building professionals make choices in materials selection that affect many aspects of a building's life cycle, energy performance and occupant health, as well as our global goals for climate change mitigation. The Greenbuild International Conference and Expo, taking place Nov. 12-15 in Philadelphia, offers many opportunities to explore new technologies, materials and services both in the Expo Hall and through attending education sessions.

Five special pavilions in the Expo Hall dedicated to particular organizations and types of materials are available throughout the show, and Education Labs will feature presentations from Greenbuild suppliers. Explore the exhibitor list and learn more about the pavilions.

Take a look at a small sample below of opportunities to engage in learning about materials and circularity, and explore the full Greenbuild education program when you register to attend. You can sort by track, topic, learning level and more.

Building Materials Summit

Tuesday, Nov. 12

Greenbuild is launching five all-new, in-person summits in 2024. Each summit includes a keynote, a full day of sessions specifically designed for each topic and opportunities to network. Summits are available only to attendees with a Conference or Student pass.

As embodied carbon becomes a larger share of buildings' emissions profile in the coming decades, materials will require novel approaches, nature-informed solutions and a great deal of innovation. Building products of tomorrow need to be multi-attribute and encompass circular, low-carbon and healthy concepts. Innovation will only happen through collaboration among aligned organizations, adequate focus and funding for the next wave of products, and recognition of leadership criteria through rating systems like LEED, Living Building Challenge and WELL. The Greenbuild Material Summit will focus on these emerging trends and provide harmonized solutions for manufacturers and project teams looking to optimize building materials.

Decarbonizing the Concrete Supply Chain: Findings from New England Initiative

Wednesday, Nov. 13, 10:30-11:30 a.m.

In this session, you will learn about how a team from the Boston/Northeast hub of the Carbon Leadership Forum and the Boston Society for Architecture hosted a yearlong stakeholder engagement process to identify obstacles and opportunities for adopting low-carbon ready-mix concrete in Massachusetts and throughout the Northeast U.S. Over the year, the team engaged with over 100 participants through interviews, a survey, focus groups and multidisciplinary workshops. Participants and stakeholders included local and national representatives of the concrete industry, ready-mix suppliers, general contractors, architects, structural and civil engineers, material specifiers, owners and developers, and others. The team will share what they learned and highlight the power and agency we each have to make low-carbon concrete "business as usual."

The AIA Materials Pledge: From Aspiration to Action

Wednesday, Nov. 13, 1:45-2:45 p.m.

In this session, learn about the AIA Materials Pledge and how to practically implement your company's pledges and achieve sustainable materials goals. Brand-new AIA Materials Pledge reporting metrics are being unveiled this year for design firms to start implementing in preparation for official AIA reporting, and new versions of LEED, WELL and the Living Building Challenge will directly apply to and support Materials Pledge goals and reporting. During this session, you will hear from leaders of the AIA Materials Pledge Working Group and sustainable building materials experts and will leave with knowledge of how to harness current marketplace momentum to help move your work beyond commitments and into measurable progress.

Why Are EPDs So Important...Yet Difficult to Understand?

Thursday, Nov. 14, 1:45-2:45 p.m.

Environmental product declarations (EPDs) have started to become a requirement in the procurement of materials at the federal, state, local, and architecture and design levels-so why are there still so many questions about them? This session will touch on how LEED v5 will use EPDs and the data from these documents. We will discuss potential barriers that some manufacturers face in getting these done and how, once they are in the marketplace, EPDs build on each other for greater clarity. Because EPDs are being used in comparisons for procurement and product selection, we will discuss the best ways to digest EPDs for non-life-cycle-assessment (LCA) practitioners and give some rules of the road to help individuals make the best selections. Finally, we will help attendees understand where all of this EPD momentum is going by sharing the perspectives of a leading global rating system, a leading manufacturer and a leading global LCA team.

Roadmapping for Reuse: Embedding Circularity Into Your Building Practice

Thursday, Nov. 14, 3-4 p.m.

Commercial-scale building material reuse can significantly reduce carbon emissions in the built environment. In this session, members of the Carbon Leadership Forum of Boston will navigate the Reuse Roadmap, a publication the group created to demystify reusable building materials. The guide provides instructions and resources for all stakeholders, detailing how the building industry can begin taking steps toward a more circular economy. The presenters will share insights into real (and perceived) barriers, highlight critical first steps toward circularity and illuminate how each role in the construction process can support decarbonization through deconstruction and reuse. Case studies, lessons learned and tools to incorporate zero-waste practices will be shared. Construction practices, as well as material flows and downstream waste impacts, will be highlighted to show the need for simple but effective process changes. Attendees will learn emerging best practices and strategies so that they can begin to enact change.

View the full education lineup.

Register for Greenbuild.

View the full education lineup

Comments

Related articles