The annual Greenbuild Conference was held two weeks ago at the Washington Convention Center in Washington DC. Still the largest green building gathering each year, 200 booths filled the expo hall where 20,000 attendees from 90 countries explored green innovations.  Acclaimed author Deepak Chopra, co-Host of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" Mika Brzezinski and Academy Award–winning director James Cameron were some of the notable speakers providing inspiration at the conference. NRMCA Vice President of Sustainability Tien Peng was also on hand to represent the industry and promote concrete industry leadership programs. NRMCA Senior Vice President of Structures and Sustainability Lionel Lemay was a guest panelist at the Materials and Human Health Summit which covered topics such as supply chain optimization, innovative materials and market transformation.

This year’s GreenBuild conference released a suite of three LEED pilot credits on resilient design, which was encouraged by NRMCA. The pilot credits fall into the Integrative Process category of LEED and are applicable to all Building Design and Construction (BD+C) rating systems, along with Homes and Mid-Rise Residential rating systems.  The US Green Building Council also announced implementation procedures for Option 3 Supply Chain Optimization of the LEED v4 Materials & Resources credit (Building Disclosure and Optimization - Material Ingredients).