The True North Strong and Green?

For the first time since Greenbuild’s inception, the annual green building tour de force was held outside the United States – in Toronto, Canada.

Being a Canadian, albeit that I am from Montreal and we have somewhat of a rivalry with Toronto, I was excited that the event was taking place in my native land. Growing up in Canada is part of the reason I feel a strong connection to the natural world. The country has 10 percent of the world’s forests, 25 percent of the world’s wetlands, and 7 percent of the world’s renewable water supply. Even the staunchest urban dwellers have experienced a night of camping under the stars, swimming in a freshwater lake, or being munched on by black flies during a trek through the woods. In fact, Canadians take nature and its resources so much for granted that we shamefully use more oil per capita than the US and almost as much water.

I was naturally curious as to what would distinguish this year’s event from previous Greenbuild conferences I had attended in Chicago, Boston or Phoenix. Now that the event was in its tenth year, what new and innovative topics would be discussed, and would any be Canuck-specific? How were environmental issues in Canada translated with respect to the global green building industry? Would there be lessons learned from the world’s top producer of hydropower? And how were some of the more controversial topics, such as certified wood, which has tremendous impacts on the Canadian lumber industry, being addressed?

In many respects, this was the best Greenbuild I have attended. FXFOWLE had a tremendous opportunity to share our work by presenting at two educational sessions, giving an interview to GreenSource magazine, and participating in a benchmarking roundtable between New York and Canadian governments. Unfortunately, this did not leave much room to attend many educational sessions, but those I did attend were well worthwhile. Other colleagues I spoke with also felt that the content at this year’s event was of a high caliber.

Yet at one point during the conference, I caught myself feeling as though I was not in Canada. True, there was a smattering of introductory words in French. Tom Friedman gave his eloquent keynote address under the old Stanley Cup banners at Maple Leaf Gardens, and to the credit of the conference organizers, there was a dedicated educational track entitled “The Best of Canada.”

However, these tokens of recognition did not get to the critical issues. Perhaps I missed them, but where were the discussions and debates about the Alberta tar sands – which are toxic, extremely greenhouse gas, energy, and water intensive? Or that the US imports more crude oil and petroleum from Canada than any other country in the world, much of which comes from this controversial source? What about the Boreal forests – which take up more than half of the country’s landmass and contain almost 40% of the planet’s carbon? In a country who is the third largest exporter of forestry products, why were there no sessions addressing issues of wood sourcing?

At future Greenbuild conferences, I hope that this opportunity to deeply educate and inform from a regional perspective is not missed. We must recognize that we build in a global society where a single construction product or commodity can have very complex international DNA. As sustainable designers and builders, we cannot afford to avoid controversial environmental questions, nor draw borders around them.