Chicago Takes (Green) Rug Out From Under L.A.

By Shannon in News on Feb 18, 2007 9:37PM

Think carefully. Which city is a more natural choice for an environmentally sensitive convention, Chicago or Los Angeles? OK, you can stop thinking now, because the U.S. Green Building Council has moved its annual meeting from L.A. to here. The reason? A scheduling conflict with an auto show.

Greenbuild, a three-day conference that revolves around developing construction that's friendlier to the environment, took place in Denver last year and brought in 13,500 attendees. This year it was all set to go in L.A. in October, but the city asked the USGBC to change their dates to Nov. 7-9 in order to "support a business development opportunity." What, constructing and improving green buildings wasn't good enough? USGBC reluctantly agreed, but when our sunny cousin asked them to move their dates again to December to accommodate the Los Angeles Auto Show, they took their hat out of the ring. Excellent decision.

Looking at the "Chicago Standard" of dedication to green building, Greenbuild chose instead to align itself with us, keeping the same Nov. 7-9 dates as before. Their new location of the West Building at McCormick Place will give them more floor space and, most likely, a more sympathetic audience. It will give us as a city more green street cred and a mayor who will have even more to brag about, as if that were possible. What's really ironic, however, is that we find it very hard to reach the McCormick Place area without a car.

Image courtesy of liz_noise.