GreenTown Chicago 2010

GreenTown: The Future of Community is designed to help create sustainable communities. Mayors and elected officials, public works directors, park district directors, planners, developers, architects, landscape architects, builders, school leaders and others interested in seeing how a community can become greener, gather to hear from inspiring speakers, learn from been-there case studies and discuss actionable ways to make communities greener, healthier and more prosperous.

GreenTown Chicago will be held on October 13-14, 2010, at Columbia College Chicago and will be sponsored by the City of Chicago, Department of Environment. 

There are many great presenters from the City of Chicago, Animal Planet and Planet Green, iGo, Seven Generations Ahead, Plant Chicago, City of San Francisco, Chicago Public Schools, and many, many more.  Here is a preliminary agenda from the event, Agenda.

One of the many great breakout sessions:

Innovation in Building Material Waste Reuse & Recycling.   This panel will feature managers of two Chicago businesses that are reusing or recycling large volumes of construction & demolition waste and a business that makes it easy for architects and builders to find reclaimed materials for their projects.  The ReBuilding Exchange (RX), a new Chicago-based building material reuse store that diverted 1,200 tons of building materials from deconstructed homes and residential rehab work in its first year of operations.  Recycling Systems, Inc. is sorting and reselling even greater volumes of C&D waste from demolition activity in Chicago.  PlanetReuse matches reclaimed materials with designers and builders to save projects money. Panelists will discuss major markets and customers and present visuals of how materials are being reused or recycled by contractors, designers and how the use of recycled materials can help buildings earn LEED certification.

Moderator:  Chris Slattery, Senior Director, Delta Institute

Panelists: 
·         Meegan Czop, Business Manager, the ReBuilding Exchange
·         Jerry Golf, Jr., President, Recycling Systems, Inc.
·         Nathan Benjamin, Principal + Founder, PlanetReuse

This “Biocycle #2” breakout will run from 2:15 – 3:15 p.m. on October 14, 2010.

USGBC Chicago Chapter Event: "Deconstruction: Why, How, Now?"

February 23rd, Nathan Benjamin will be speaking at another USGBC event in Chicago. Fellow speakers will include Dave Hampton, President of the Urban Habitat Chicago and Echo Studio, and Elise Zelechowski, Deputy Executive Director of the Delta Institute. Here is a little bit of information on the topic of discussion which will be, "Deconstruction: Why, How, Now?"

"Deconstruction, the process of carefully dismantling a building in order to salvage components for reuse, results in products for sale, a trained labor force, and improved environmental quality by keeping air and water cleaner while diverting thousands of tons of material from overtaxed landfills. This panel discussion will cover deconstruction in various aspects, from WHY it is important to utilize methods of deconstruction over a traditional demolition process, HOW it is done, and NOW covering projects and resources available to facilitate deconstruction."

If you would like more specific information on attending this event, click here. See you there!