I arrived in Atlanta, GA yesterday. My mom and I flew in to Georgia to attend the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo hosted here by the Georgia World Conference Center. A link to the Conference's website is below. This opportunity is a result of the Johnathan Kruger Scholarship; I could not be more grateful to the school for awarding it to me and to Johnathan's family for this beautiful tribute to Johnathan's life. I enrolled in the sessions here that I thought would give me the best resources to improve Maumee Valley's community and campus.
The day started with the keynote speaker for the day: Barack Obama. The former president addressed thousands of starstruck engineers, architects, sustainability directors, and a student or two on the importance of addressing what he made clear was a climate emergency (no longer a crisis). As one would expect, his interview was inspirational. Former President Obama advised on energy and economics strategy and how to lead groups of people who all come from different backgrounds. It was life-changing to hear him speak.
After the keynote address, I wandered around the showroom where informational and product sales booths had been set up. Each station was selling or showing something to do with sustainability in the built environment (the theme of the conference). I saw roofing finishes that reflect sunlight, solar blinds and trees, flame-retardant-yet-somehow-non-VOC-producing paint, and more. I was fascinated and I look forward to following up on some connections I made this morning.
I had my first of three sessions for the day at around 11:00. It was an intriguing yet confusing session on a Private-Public District based co-op platform that is helping urban centers reach a 50% energy use reduction goal by 2030. I've linked the website for this organization at the bottom as well. The group calls itself simply: 2030 Districts Network. My second session was also interesting as I found it to be very applicable to Maumee Valley. It was titled: Sustainability Beyond the Textbook and it was primarily lead by college students who spearheaded sustainability efforts at their former high schools. They presented excellent insight into the LEED v4.1 certification process and what it looks like for schools. They also examined waste reduction and its benefits to students, schools, and communities. I have more notes which I hope to present to the Environmental Club later this year. My third session today was my favorite one because it featured a system for sustainable investment that I had already considered for Maumee Valley. It's called a Green Revolving Fund (GRF). Put simply, it is a base (seed) investment that is generated internally and used to finance sustainability upgrades. The economic benefits of these upgrades are paid back to the fund when they are received by the larger entity until the fund has been completely compensated for its expenditure. This creates a zero
-interest and internal way for a school to make energy improvements possible and lower base operating costs without the risk of a typical, externally funded investment. I have thought about forming a GRF at Maumee Valley for a while and now I feel like I have the resources and knowledge to do so with confidence. That's what I learned today and it feels like a waterfall of new information every time I enter a session. I am learning so much and can only hope that the next two days of the conference are as informative as today was.
Greenbuild Conference Website: https://www.greenbuildexpo.com/en/home.html
2030 Districts Network Website: https://www.2030districts.org/
