Greenbuild 2025
Right on the heels of PhiusCon, HKP was proud to present at this year’s Greenbuild Conference in Los Angeles. Thanks to Phius for inviting us to participate in the Passive House Summit held on Tuesday, November 4th, as part of a day-long focus on Non-Res Passive Building design and certification. I co-presented with Julie Kriegh, of Kriegh Architecture Studios, the sustainability consultant for the Mount Vernon Library Commons.
This year’s themes revolved mainly around embodied carbon reduction, inclusive design, and updates included in the latest LEED version 5.0. It was hard to keep up with all of the sessions and wonderful presentations, but some of my favorites include “How to Non-Res” by Phius’ James Ortega, “Informing Inclusive Design thru Community Engagement for K-12 Schools”, “Deep Energy Retrofits for Significant Historic Buildings”, and case studies like The Academy of Global Citizenship, Hotel Marcel, and The Portland Building. My favorite quotes include:
“Vinyl is Final.”
“Change isn’t linear.”
“If you haven’t made someone uncomfortable on a project, you are not trying hard enough.”
“Instead of % better goals, work to be at 193 kgCO2e/m2 or less to stay below our 1.7C target.”
“We don’t need certain things to last longer than their intended use (Luxury Vinyl Tile).”
“I walk around with my built-in thermal imaging glasses on.”
The highlights of the conference for me were the Women in Green Luncheon and the Conference Keynote with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Julia lost her home in the Palisades fire, one that she had renovated to green standards a decade or so ago, and has been active in environmental causes since joining beach cleanup efforts in her community. Her message was a simple one - when it all feels too big, start small in your community. If we all do that, it will be something big.
And, of course, I got to enjoy a bit of Los Angeles while in town. Highlights included the new Broad Museum and exhibits, Grand Central Market, and the Museum of Neon Art. I left with yet another renewed spirit of hope with new information and resources to build “Better Buildings, Better Futures”.
