Hillary Clinton Nails Greenbuild 2013 Keynote

Let’s step back for a moment: There’s 30,000 brilliant individuals who are creating green buildings, nontoxic classrooms and sustainable architecture. And they’re in Philly this week, taking in our city skyline, Federal Donuts & local fare.

The keynote by Hillary Clinton peaked the week at Greenbuild 2013 last evening at the Liacouras Center in Temple University. Greenbuild has been a great mix of companies, organizations, workshops and more coming together to work towards a greener future. And wow, the keynotes all emphasized and motivated the 10,000 attendees in the crowd.

Introduction by Mayor Michael Nutter

Mayor Michael Nutter kicked off the keynote by welcoming the Greenbuild crowd to Philadelphia. As he emphasized the importance of the sustainability in our urban design, he mentioned several references to the best Philly examples. The Eagles stadium with 11,000 solar panels and wind turbines to create energy. The Newbold neighborhood with LEED platinum status. Comcast Center’s LEED-gold status.

As Nutter best summed it up,

“Green building is a $100 billion dollar industry, and continues to double in size every 3 years. Green is here to stay. It’s not a fad, it’s the future.”

He also asked the audience to continue to pushing everyone – public service, elective office, business community to make sure to do what’s right for the environment and our cities.

Nutter reminded the audience that he made the goal for Philadelphia to become the #1 green city in America on his first day in office, and other cities should get in on the ‘friendly competition’ to lead the way.

President & CEO of US Green Building Council Rick Fedrizzi Remarks

Rick Fedrizzi, president, CEO & Founding Chairman of the USGBC took the stage next. His remarks looked back on the USGBC past,  creating a movement to have a better world for individuals, cities and businesses.

Comparing the struggles of the green building industry to Silver Linings Playbook throughout his speech, Fedrizzi spoke of overcoming a challenge by looking for the silver linings.  Greenbuild expands worldwide and across the US, with goals to implement sustainable solutions. After the earthquake in Haiti, USGBC built a LEED-certified orphanage, or the ‘silver lining’ of a disaster.

And the best part? Fedrizzi was also proud to have held Greenbuild in Philly. Just check it out:

“I can’t even find the words to describe the energy and excitement that I’ve seen in Philadelphia this week… You come to the conclusion Philadelphia was the exactly the right place to convene Greenbuild Nation at this moment in time.”

Greenbuild Keynote by Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton took the stage after Fedrizzi, complete in a green suit. She joked about Nutter talking about the Eagles but complimented Nutter’s green accomplishments in the city.

As Clinton pointed out, with 15% of carbon emissions & 1/3 of energy worldwide, our buildings need to be more sustainable for security and our future.  She told stories of ‘greening’ the White House 20 years ago, to using green building solutions in the State Department – to save money and energy, not to be ‘trendy’.

As far as getting more buy-in from the public? Clinton gave a great suggestion for the media: Don’t give equal air time to climate change deniers when that only represents 1% of scientists.

She joked that Winston Churchill allegedly said that the “Americans get around to doing the right thing, after trying nearly everything else.”

Some of the highlights of Hill’s speech, in video form:

Another off-topic thing I noticed? Hill was using a ceramic coffee mug & glasses of water, both reusables. Why is that a big deal? Many artists like Adam Levine tend to use countless plastic water bottles on stage.

Readers, did you get a chance to see Hillary Clinton at Greenbuild? What do you think about her perspective?