Greenbuild usually has a couple of blowout parties before the final day and after cruising the USGBC's most-excellent party at the Merchandise Mart, I headed over to the Green Umbrella Group party held at a local club.
After a couple of hours of vodka-infused dancing, I looked out over the couple hundred people on the dance floor of all sizes, shapes, colors, ages and had this thought:
• Fees paid to USGBC for LEED certification: $0.04/ft2
• Average cost of LEED EBOM certification for a global property management company: $0.24/ft2
• Full conference registration fee for Greenbuild: $700
• Being part of a large and growing intergenerational movement to make the world a better place: priceless
It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without thanks and there is so much for which to be thankful.
Naturally, my gratitude begins with my family: my muse and inspiration, Peg, and my amazing son, Max, who is everything I wasn't at his age. I'm thankful that I didn't die last summer in the cardiac intensive care ward with a heart rate of 27, the result of second-stage Lyme disease.
I'm also thankful for having rediscovered yoga, which keeps my body strong and head on straight. I'm thankful for being a part of something much bigger than myself: being with 30,000 compatriots at Greenbuild and realizing that several times that number would have liked to have been there, but were not able to make it. Sharing hugs with old friends who have been in the trenches for decades. Witnessing the enthusiasm, energy, and knowledge of the emerging green builders -- I did not know a fraction of what these guys know when I was their age, and that is really, really cool.
Those of you who were at Greenbuild in 2007 may remember how Chicago rescued USGBC from the perfidy and betrayal of the Los Angeles Conference Center -- and the chaos of the last-minute squeezing of a bigger-than-expected show into half of this year's space at the McCormick Center. Those at the conference last week got to see Chicago demonstrate that it really knows how to put on a show when it is prepared. Things were so seamless at Greenbuild it was like driving in a Prius: No sound and smooth as silk.
