Even as the green building industry congregates in November at the GreenBuild conference in Chicago, U.S. Green Building Council members hope to create a smaller trade show in Stamford to showcase local innovators and opportunities.
Last June, the nascent Connecticut Green Building Council debuted a southwest Connecticut chapter covering Fairfield County, with the initial meeting held at Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk. With an average of between 50 and 75 people showing up for the first few meetings, the chapter is now hoping to galvanize additional support for larger events, including a trade show.
“The chapter is a huge start, because the presence of the U.S. Green Building Council in southwest Connecticut was virtually nonexistent,” said Keith Crosby, an organizer who is vice president of construction and property management of Albert D. Phelps Inc. and ADP Service Corp.in Norwalk. “When I had to take a (green certification) course, ”¦ I had to get to New Jersey.”
In its own efforts to draw green conventioneers, neighboring Westchester County publishes a fact sheet on steps taken by hotels and conference centers there to institute green policies and products.
Despite the recession”™s impact on corporate marketing and travel budgets, assorted industries demonstrated a willingness to get to such shows to keep up on the latest ”“ an estimated 24,000 people attended last year”™s GreenBuild show in Arizona, along with a record 1,800 exhibitors.
If Crosby and other USGBC members get their way, Fairfield County will have a new show all its own for local businesses who actively buy or sell green products and services.
The trade group Building Owners and Managers Association International had held a small green expo for May 2008 at High Ridge Park Corporate Center in Stamford, but BOMA International has not scheduled a similar event since, although it holds seminars addressing green topics.
There have been multiple efforts to create showrooms in the Fairfield County area that would feature ongoing seminars and product demonstrations. Panelized Building Systems L.L.C. won notice in 2006 for its plans to build a 15,500-square-foot green technologies center in New Milford. The publisher of The Modern Estate magazine has been soliciting interest in an Open Source Design Center that would allow area vendors to showcase products and techniques. And in October 2009, Westport developer Michael Greenberg proposed creating a sustainable design center in Ridgefield on Route 7, with the goal of providing designers and contractors a showroom and training facility for the latest green building products and services.
A Norwell, Mass.-based company called Green Design Center is even hoping to franchise the concept of small green-product stores that would offer meeting space for the industry, with one location so far in Mashpee on Cape Cod.
On the trade show front, it is not as if tri-state area companies have lacked options to showcase their wares during the recession; only in late September, the U.S. Green Building Council and the Urban Green Council hosted the Urban Green Expo in New York City at the Metropolitan Pavilion and the Altman Building, with Farmington-based Carrier Corp. a major sponsor.
In November, the Alternative Energy & Business Efficiency East Conference & Exhibition is slated for the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford.
At the Stamford Marriott mid-month, Stamford Mayor Mike Pavia is scheduled to appear at the third annual Fairfield County Green Faire, where some 45 groups exhibited last year; and which will include presentation of the Green Coast Awards that recognize businesses and individuals for their work toward sustainability.
And next March at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York City, Norwalk-based Reed Exhibitions has scheduled the GreenBuildingNY show, which will include an architectural design and technology center where IBM Corp. plans to exhibit among other companies.
