The show is over. Greenbuild 2009 has come and gone. I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I’m finally glad to be coming home, seeing my family and sleeping in my own bed (not to mention actually sleeping). On the other hand, there were a lot of great products to see, people to talk to and new ideas to share — all of them focused on sustainability. Think about it, how often do you hear people discussing the idea of sustainable architecture or construction outside of your workplace or social circles? At least for me, it’s rare. So, it was nice to actually walk down the street or sit in a restaurant or hotel lobby and overhear people discussing the aforementioned topics.

Most of what I heard centered on the topic of retrofitting or remodeling existing structures. A group of us were at the Hard Rock Café on Tuesday night, and Michelle and I were talking with SSRCx vice president and frequent ED+C contributor, James Qualk. I wish I could remember some of the numbers he was throwing at us, but we told him we were off the record so maybe it’s best that I can’t remember. Anyway, the gist of what he said was that we already have more than enough buildings in the United States. Instead of creating new ones and using up resources, we should instead be focusing on making the buildings we already have to make them more sustainable. Given what we’ve seen of the industry recently, that seems to be in line with what current building owners are doing. It’s more difficult companies that are in buildings to get loans to build new structures, so they’re putting what money they can get into their current structures. With that said, product manufacturers seem to be trying to capitalize on this trend.

I’m not going to turn this into a name-dropping blog entry, but suffice to say that plenty of product manufacturers I spoke with were turning their attention to the existing building market. People or companies with whom I was unfamiliar with and speaking to for the first time often became much more interested when I told them one of our publications, Sustainable Facility, focused solely on the management of existing buildings.

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend any sessions this year or hear any speakers. I’m unaware of anything that was presented which addressed this specific phenomenon. Still, it was good to hear that people had hope for the future by pursuing opportunities in the retrofit and remodeling market.