SBIC Inaugurates Ecobuild America Conference & Exh

Orlando, FL, July 13--The Sustainable Buildings Industry Council’s (SBIC) Ecobuild America Conference and Exhibit, held in conjunction with twelve co-located events, had its debut in late June in Orlando, Florida. Over a hundred educational sessions including in-depth workshops, hands-on tutorials, panels, and plenary speeches provided attendees with a rich and highly interactive program. “There were almost too many things to do,” said Deane Evans, FAIA, director of the NJIT Center for Architecture and Building Science Research and this year’s Vice Chair of SBIC. “The quality of the programs was outstanding and the speakers were refreshingly new. They are not on the typical ‘green conference programs’ that we’ve seen in the past few years.” SBIC, the Marquee Sponsor of Ecobuild America, presented three workshops: “High-Performance School Buildings” for school procurement officials, “Green Building Guidelines” for home builders, and “Designing Low-Energy Buildings with ENERGY-10.” Participants in the ENERGY-10 workshop were enthusiastic about the new Version 1.7, distributed to everyone the week before to allow them to get up to speed. Greg Franta, President of ENSAR Group and this year’s Chair of SBIC, taught the workshop and was pleased with the results. “The workshop participants were focused, asked great questions, and appeared ready to analyze their first buildings with ENERGY-10,” said Franta. SBIC’s members had an opportunity to exhibit their products and services at the conference. SBIC’s revamped booth, which featured detailed information about the Council’s programs and our members’ promotional materials, got a good bit of traffic throughout the conference. “Our corner location in the front of the hall gave SBIC a lot of visibility,” said SBIC Marketing Director Matt Nowakowski. “We were able to talk to the attendees and other exhibitors about SBIC’s mission.” SBIC’s Ecobuild project manager Richard Paradis agrees that the goal of getting SBIC’s message out to a new and broader audience than ever before was achieved. “Individuals were impressed with our programs and publications,” said Paradis. “Company representatives, particularly those wishing to market to the federal sector, were interested in becoming active members of SBIC to help increase their products’ exposure at SBIC workshops and events.” SBIC’s Ecobuild Federal 2005 in Washington, D.C., will cover the latest innovations in materials, services, energy, and technology, with special emphasis on sustainable growth, green building, and environmental design in the federal and local building sectors. Matt Nowakowski believes this event will be an excellent follow-up to the Orlando conference: “We are confident that Ecobuild Federal will be a great way to showcase SBIC’s members while presenting our annual FORUM at a new and exciting venue,” says Nowakowski. For more information, visit www.ecobuildfederal.com. Now celebrating its 25th anniversary, SBIC advocates a balanced, holistic approach to designing new buildings. Many terms are used to describe improved buildings, such as green, sustainable, high performance, and environmentally responsive. SBIC is mindful these ideas must be kept in context with other equally important design objectives, such as aesthetics, accessibility, cost effectiveness, flexibility, high productivity, and security. SBIC members believe all sustainable buildings must be low-energy, climate-responsive, use minimal fossil fuels and cleaner, renewable energy. Working in close partnership with federal agencies, policy makers, and national laboratories, the council has led the way in “Advancing a ‘whole building’ approach to design.”

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