Last week's Greenbuild conference in Phoenix drew 28,000 participants, hundreds of speakers, and more than 1,000 exhibitors, to discuss the state of green building and to showcase the latest products, processes, and projects. It also drew a team from GreenBiz.com, including our intrepid reporter Leslie Guevarra, who spent three days scurrying to sessions and crisscrossing the two cavernous exhibit halls to bring a steady stream of stories. You can find all of our coverage of Greenbuild here.

What's the sum total of all this? Is the growth of green building during a severe recession a matter of hope or hype? There's a little of each, of course, but as I report from my visit to Greenbuild, the growth of green building is real -- indeed, it may be keeping the overall building industry in business. And, as my colleague Rob Watson concluded recently in our Green Building Market & Impact Report, the greening of buildings is also making a significant contribution to our environmental challenges. Overall, it's a helpful indicator of what's possible when green goes mainstream.

Inside the Sustainability Consortium: Toward that end, we're pleased to announce a very special webcast on December 2 -- a 90-minute conversation with Jay Golden and Jon Johnson, the co-chairs of the Sustainability Consortium. That organization is the one established by Walmart, but now boasts members from more than a dozen of the world's largest consumer products manufacturers. The group's goal is nothing less than to "establish the scientific standards to measure the sustainability of consumer products."

How will the Sustainability Consortium affect your company's (or your customers') products and services? Should you join or otherwise engage with the group? What are its chances of success? We'll be addressing these and other key questions head-on -- and taking your questions, of course. We expect this event to sell out (much like our September webcast with Walmart's Rand Waddoups), so reserve your spot early.

This study, conducted by the U.S. Green Building Council and Booz Allen Hamilton, predicts that the green building industry will be responsible for the creation or support of 7.9 million jobs, contributing $554 billion to the U.S. GDP, in the next four years.

The study from Sustainable Value looks at the sustainability performance of 17 leading car manufacturers worldwide between 1999 and 2007.