Green Building Events

A calendar of events, classes and seminars of interest to the green building community of North Texas.

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April 17, 9:00 am to 7:00 pm, Plano – "Live Green Expo" including Beth Johnson/Keller Williams Realty exhibit

Organized by the City of Plano, the fourth annual event expects 15,000 attendance similar to recent years at this popular event. "The Live Green in Plano Expo is a fun, family event that will help North Texans make informed decisions and take action to lead more healthy lives with less impact on our environment. Free to the public, the Expo will feature hundreds of exhibitors offering a wide selection of products, services and information. In addition, the Expo will include keynote speakers, music, art, food, demonstrations and activities for youth and children."

Yours truly the world's first "Quadruple Crown" green-credentialed Realtor will be exhibiting. Stop by my booth for a chat, DVDs of green home tours, learning about green homes for sale and how to market your own greened-up home!

Click here for more info on attending, exhibiting, or presenting

Apr. 19 through 23, all day, Austin, TX -- Affordable Comfort, Inc. (ACI) Home Performance Conference

Aimed at "builders, remodelers, weatherization providers, HVAC contractors and installers, insulation and air sealing contractors, code officials, administrators, utility representatives, home performance contractors, design professionals, home inspectors, energy raters, building scientists, and others concerned with health, comfort, safety, and energy efficiency in homes," ACI's presentations are excellent, and their conferences are among the premier building science and networking opportunities for greenbuilding professionals. This year the annual national conference is back in Austin! ACI is a "non-profit organization that has delivered knowledge-based home performance conferences since 1986. ACI conferences bring cutting edge information to a large audience of residential building professionals."

According to conference organizers, "Home energy retrofits provide good jobs that can’t be outsourced.

The home performance industry is gearing up to complete 10 million residential retrofits per year by 2020. That means more than 1.25 million American jobs will be created as contractors, energy auditors, and manufacturers work together to bring energy efficiency to American homes. And yet another 8 million jobs will be created in manufacturing and other supporting market sectors.

Energy efficiency has never been so closely and inextricably tied to economic opportunity. The market for housing retrofits is huge, estimated at an overall potential of $400 billion. With the American Reinvestment & Recovery Act, the Weatherization Assistance Program has gained new momentum, promising energy efficiency and comfort to qualified applicants.

And as the new housing market begins to thaw, homeowners will be increasingly aware of energy concerns, demanding ENERGY STAR® homes and products. The ACI Home Performance Conference creates a forum where forward-thinking people meet to explore building science know-how and high growth career prospects. This year, our program will address both hot and cold climate issues, with a focus on energy retrofit for “whole house” solutions."

Registration: $315 and up. Click here for info and registration.

(tentative) April 28, 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm, Dallas -- “Green Homes are Better for People, Pocketbook, and Planet” free seminar by Beth Johnson, Keller Williams Realty

Keller Williams Realty proudly offers this jam-packed residential greenbuilding seminar by our own Beth Johnson, first REALTOR® on the planet to earn the “Quad Crown” of green building credentials (LEED AP, EcoBroker, Certified Green Professional, NAR GREEN designee).

Beth will help you get started to buy, build, sell, or upgrade your green home with her dynamic slide presentation that includes discussion of why building performance is important, what is green building, Home Energy Rating System, North Texas third-party green building rating programs, green costs and benefits, green marketability, retrofitting, managing your energy and water usage. Highlights include photographic tours of Metroplex new greenbuilt homes from 15% to 92% more energy efficient than code and of Habitat for Humanity affordable homes to $700K 3800 SF luxury homes, as well as a photographic “gallery of horrors” of existing-home items that waste energy or are unhealthy or unsafe.

WHERE: Keller Williams Dallas Preston Rd. training room, 3rd floor, 18383 Preston Rd., Dallas, TX 75252. Building is on west side of Preston, north of Frankford and south of Bush/190 Turnpike. Park and enter on south side of building. Call my cell 214.415.5089 if lost.

RSVP: Event is free of charge but seating is limited, please call Beth Johnson at 214.415.5089 to reserve your seat. We'll provide cookies and drinks, and if desired you may bring in your own food, we've got kitchen with microwave, refrig., etc.

May 22, 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, Austin – “Green by Design” Workshop

(These fill fast! Register NOW! No registration at door.)

Held only 4 times per year, this is an excellent informative workshop by the world’s first and still-largest green building program. A must for anyone planning to build, buy or remodel a home, you’ll learn how to improve energy and water efficiency, increase comfort and reduce maintenance. Its recommendations are pertinent to both Austin’s hot-humid climate and North Texas’ mixed-humid climate. It’s a well-presented balance of accurate technical explanations delivered at an understandable layman’s level.

The workshop is offered at the low price of $35/per person, which includes: a full day of instruction with the Green Building Program staff; the interactive CD-ROM, Green By Design; a comprehensive workbook, Green By Design; continental breakfast, lunch, and break refreshments.

Topics include assessing what your family needs in a home; choosing a designer and builder; selecting a lot or making the most of the one you have; increasing comfort and reducing utility bills; making smart material and appliance choices; developing a beautiful landscape that saves water, time, and money; and in general creating a home that benefits your family and the planet. Instructors are staff members of Austin Energy's Green Building Program. They are design, building, engineering, and landscape professionals with many years of experience in homebuilding and remodeling.

For info and to register, click here

June 6, 10:00 am to 6:00 pm, Austin – “Cool House Tour” by Austin Energy Green Building Program and Texas Solar Energy Society

Sponsored by Texas Solar Energy Society and Austin Energy Green Building Program and ranking second only to Austin's "Green by Design" Workshop as a must-see educational event for consumers and emerging green builders, this is a wonderful educational, uplifting tour with a rare chance to see finished homes rated into Austin's world-renowned green building program, to talk personally to the architects and builders and program staff who made them happen, and to do it all in a non-sales-pressure environment!

Tours feature more than a dozen projects "showcasing the best of energy efficient design. Included were new and remodeled homes, single family and condominium projects, plus modern and traditional housing". Thousands of folks have the opportunity to talk to architects, builders, contractors and owners.

Fee: A Guidebook ($10 last year, available at Austin Central Markets and online at website below the first week of June) to the locations serves as your ticket and provides directions. Each site has a full page devoted to its significant features and sustainable highlights, along with a photo, so you can choose what you want to see and go at your own pace. Plot your personal tour from the map and directions in the Guidebook. Homes range from affordable to high-end custom and feature climate responsive design; solar electric systems (PV); healthy and comfortable interiors; low-toxicity and durable materials.

Click here for info