Portland didn’t become America’s most famously green city by not having any conferences on sustainability. So get yourself over to the tomorrow to boost your company’s green cred.

The GoGreen ’11 conference will run from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Portland’s iconic LEED platinum Gerding Theater at the Armory, 128 N.W. 11th Ave. 91ĘÓƵ will include keynotes from Hannah Jones, vice president of sustainable business and innovation at Nike, as well as Lorie Wigle, president of climate savers computing and eco-technology general manager at Intel.

You can also go to workshops on lowering your company’s waste, greening your fleet (of vehicles), and overcoming other challenges. The sessions are full of sustainable figureheads from area businesses.

And lest you get all cynical about this, your lunch session will be “The Truth About Greenwashing.” The truth, you guys!

The cost for the day is $150 (Prices go up $25 at the door) or $125 if you’re in a group of two or more..

The post Don’t let Portland be ashamed of you – GoGreen appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Portland this week is hosting the first Green Sports Alliance Summit, a conference featuring studies, lectures, panels, breakout groups and site visits to introduce sports executives to a range of best practices for sustainability.

Technological innovations and collaborative research have propelled the movement for more sustainability in sports, but strategies are still in early stages. Venue operators, green building experts and sports marketing directors are working to share more information through the Green Sports Alliance, a nonprofit founded in March by six professional sports teams. However, some people in the sports industry remain skeptical about investing in green practices at all.

“There are definitely two very disparate opinions about green building in the sports industry,” said Michael Wooley, a partner at Venue Solutions Group LLC, a Nashville, Tenn.-based consulting firm that specializes in facility management. “Most teams do some level of sustainable operations and recycling, but some look at the cost and just don’t think it makes sense economically.”

Most new facilities are being built to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards according to Wooley, who worked for the past two years on an arena for the NBA’s Orlando Magic that was certified LEED gold. He added that the sports industry as a whole is trailing in sustainable practices, though the Pacific Northwest is ahead of the rest of the nation.

“Seattle and Portland do far more than most other people do in terms of incorporating all sustainable features and from an operations standpoint,” he said. “But I’ve taken a lot of time to see what the health care and commercial industries have done with their technology and operations, and sports facilities are far behind them in using green technology to help drive down costs.”

Owners of older venues, in particular, don’t seem to be eager to pay for improvements until the economy regains momentum, Wooley said.

“With existing buildings it’s definitely more challenging,” said Ted Spear, a senior consultant at Green Building Services in Portland. “But even so, you can do a plumbing upgrade that reduces water usage, and especially in parts of the country where water is scarce, they’re being even more aggressive with how they consume water.”

On Monday, Spear and colleague Elaine Aye co-led a building performance workshop at the summit. Part of their focus was on the rating system LEED established for existing buildings.

“Recycling is a big category for this group because the events are usually big consumers – tens of thousands of people consuming lots of food and beverages,” Spear said. “What I see in the industry is that people are trying to integrate the sustainability with the whole aspect of their operations – they don’t want people to have to think about recycling because they want it to be a natural process. It just happens subconsciously or without much effort.”

The Rose Garden arena in Portland achieved LEED gold certification last year. Its operations team has found ways to improve its recycling rate, according to Spear. For instance, items such as cups, forks and hot dog wrappers were swapped out for compostable ones, and custom-made bins were installed so that fans could improve efforts to recycle and compost.

“At the end of the day, what’s important to me is running our facilities and assets in the most energy-efficient way possible,” said Chris Oxley, general manager of the Rose Garden. “An energy-efficient building is less expensive for me to run.”

The rapid growth of the Green Sports Alliance and the collaborative efforts at the summit may indicate an increasing commitment to sustainability in the sports industry.

“The opportunity for the green building community is significant,” said Martin Tull, executive director of the Green Sports Alliance. “As sports facilities’ (operations officials) consider how they can save money, reduce energy and improve the performance of their buildings, Northwest-based and national green building companies stand to do the work.”

Others are not as optimistic, and expect sports-related construction work to increase only after the national economy stabilizes.

“Investing money in something that might take a couple of years for payback is not a popular idea during a recession when you’re laying off employees, so I understand why some owners are not spending money on that,” Wooley said. “Hopefully our politicians will get their act together in Washington this week – when the economy rebounds, I think we’ll see more a lot more work.”

The post Green movement not a slam dunk for sports appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The Oregon-Columbia chapter of Associated General Contractors is going back to the future this year for its annual summer conference.

The theme pays tribute to the construction players who weathered the past recession by offering them the inside track on industry and business issues expected to arise in the future.

In addition to educational and informational sessions, the conference features a beach bonfire on Friday evening and a closing banquet with entertainment provided by the Boomers, a band from the Salem-Keizer area.

For information about the conference agenda, go to .

Associated General Contractors-Oregon’s summer conference is Thursday, Aug. 4 to Saturday, Aug. 6 at the Salishan Spa and Golf Resort, 7775 N. Highway 101, in Gleneden Beach. Registration fees vary.

The post AGC-Oregon going ‘Back to the Future’ at annual conference appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The Future Energy Conference at the Oregon Convention Center on Tuesday featured Portland building industry professionals speaking about how tenant behavior will influence design in the years ahead.

The post Photos: Future Energy Conference appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Gov. John Kitzhaber spoke today at the , held at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, giving his first speech on energy since he took office earlier this year.

The governor’s 10-year energy plan was the main focus of the speech. Kitzhaber said his energy plan, currently in its early stages, will address three main points:

• Developing energy resources in Oregon to reduce the need for imports
• Making strategic investments to expand clean technology manufacturing and opportunities for small businesses
• Streamlining state bureaucracy around its energy policy and permitting apparatus

Kitzhaber also pitched a regional plan to address the built environment: he encouraged a cooperative approach by Oregon, Washington and California to increase the efficiency of the built environment making current buildings more efficient rather than investing in new buildings.

The governor lauded the history of Oregon’s clean energy economy and said the helped move the state’s energy efficiency and industry to its current place.

Kitzhaber launched his Cool Schools initiative yesterday with a visit to Helman Elementary School in Ashland, the first of 500 schools that will receive energy audits as part of the program. In his speech today he asked for support of , which will establish a fund to perform audits and green retrofits on the state’s public K-12 schools.

The post Kitzhaber speaks on Oregon’s energy future appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The Future Energy Conference at the Oregon Convention Center on Tuesday featured Portland building industry professionals speaking about how tenant behavior will influence design in the years ahead.

“How occupants use buildings is the greatest frontier to conquer for creating truly energy-efficient buildings,” said John Breshears of Architectural Applications.

Breshears, Dennis Wilde of Gerding Edlen and Steven Straus of Glumac addressed specific challenges that arose in the design and development of their firms’ energy-efficient buildings.

Phone and computer chargers, and most other things that plug into a wall, consume a lot of energy and are difficult to predict, Wilde said. This problem is multiplied by the increasing density of workers in office spaces and the exaggeration of how much energy is produced by solar panels, Straus said.

Wilde spoke about the challenges ahead for the Oregon Sustainability Center. Project partners are aiming for net-zero energy and water consumption. Technology will decrease the energy requirements of the building about 65 percent below the expected average, Wilde said; however, an additional 10 percent will need to come from changes in tenant behavior.

But how will such behavior be encouraged?

“I don’t think we have, basically, the foggiest idea,” Wilde said.

The post Future Energy Conference addresses building energy reduction appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Tours along the Portland streetcar line and a symposium will anchor the fourth annual Congress for the New Urbanism summit in Portland on March 25-26.

The symposium will feature a speaker panel that includes Steve Mouzon, Kingston Heath and Ross Chapin. Mouzon, an architect and urbanist, will speak about how earlier generations embraced sustainability. Heath, a historic preservation professor at the University of Oregon, will discuss eco-centric architecture. Chapin will discuss aspects of small-scale “pocket” neighborhoods.

The cost to attend the summit is $35. For more information and registration options, go to www.brownpapertickets.com/event/159900.

The post New urbanism summit lands in Portland appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Sustainability slips into the driver’s seat Jan. 28 when E.V. Road Map 3 arrives at the Oregon Convention Center.

The conference will offer a series of sessions focusing on how the next two years will shape electric vehicles and the companies that design and produce them. Filmmaker Chris Paine, director of the “Who Killed the Electric Car” documentary, will lead a special afternoon presentation.

The conference’s $89 admission fee includes lunch, beverage service and free admission to the Portland Auto Show.

For more information, contact George Beard at 503-772-0222 or gbeard@pdx.edu.

The post Electric vehicle conference coming to Portland appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.