For the fifth year, Sustainable Building Week (SBW) 2022 is coming to Portland (October 10-15) with a diverse slate of events covering electrification, making our communities more resilient to wildfires and social equity to name a few topics. Events are open to architects, interior designers, developers, general contractors, sub-contractors, and anyone interested in learning, connecting, and building collaborations with others in the industry.
“There are so many things we’ve been able to achieve in just five years’ time,” said Webly Bowles, co-founder of Sustainable Building Week. “We’ve become a stable and trusty event that Oregonians are counting on year after year.”
Since its first year in 2018, Sustainable Building Week has hosted 108 events for an estimated 2,500 attendees, despite the impact brought on by a global pandemic. Unlike a typical conference that’s organized by one planning committee, Sustainable Building Week offers a platform for multiple collaborators to design their own events as part of the week-long series. It’s also entirely volunteer-run.
This past spring, organizers launched a companion event called Sustainable Building Monthly. This event takes place on the second Tuesday of each month from 5-7pm at Portland’s most sustainable commercial office space — the PAE Living Building.
Bowles says a top achievement has been the cross-organization collaboration she’s witnessed every year. This October, for example, Oregon Green Schools and the local chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects will be holding an event together.
Sustainable Building Week is supported by a broad network of organizations and businesses that are working daily to improve our state’s social inequities and environment, they include:
AIA Oregon, Oregon Green Schools, Portland Materials Transparency Collaborative, Solar Oregon, the Carbon Leadership Forum, Passive House NW, Women in Sustainable Endeavors, Electrify Now, the ZERO Coalition, Aris Hydronics, Bassetti Architects, Birdsmouth Design-Build, BORA, BRIC Architecture, Brightworks Sustainability, CLEAResult, Gensler, Glumac, Intertek, Lever Architecture, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, PAE, Portland General Electric, Resilient Framing Systems, SERA Architects, Skanska, Sustainable Northwest Wood, and Walsh Construction.
Events will start on Monday, October 10 with AIA COTE’s Green Champions Summit from 12 to 1:30pm. Most events are free, but registration is recommended. To see the full list events and get registered please go to: www.sustainablebuildingweek.com
