About the Conference

Conference Constituency

Greening the Heartland is the premier annual conference on green building and sustainability in the Midwest; the conference is a gathering for experts, practitioners, administrators, government officials and business to come together. We expect more than 600 conference attendees from the following fields: architecture, engineering, planning, landscape design, contracting and building, urban design, government, interior design, building ownership, operation and maintenance, real estate development, material suppliers, facility management, property management, and cleaning products and services.

The conference will highlight sustainability innovations, programs and activities in the Midwest states including: Missouri, Minnesota, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

Mission Statement

The Greening the Heartland Conference promises to encompass broader sustainability issues into the green building discussion. The conference takes the next very important steps to articulate the connections between buildings and the society in which they exist. It will examine the dependent links and important relationships between our most valuable resources and services, such as water, land, energy, transportation, education and the way we conduct business and operate our governments.

Conference Objectives

The conference will offer important tools for planning and building green buildings while also providing attendees with state-of-the-art design concepts, approaches and practices used in managing, enhancing, preserving and restoring the range of resources on which we all depend. The conference will offer a mix of practical and theoretical sessions that will expand yet integrate sustainability practices to further enhance the green builder and planner's "tool box." The 2007 Greening the Heartland conference will offer an opportunity to present and examine green building in the context of sustainable business models from the agricultural market to utility transmission and distribution models of performance, from cities and counties where we operate, develop, test and replicate throughout the region. By sharing information on our respective projects and identifying opportunities for cooperation, we can do a great deal to eliminate redundancies and maximize the returns on our efforts.

Core Goals

• To serve as the pre-eminent green building and sustainability conference in the Midwest to advance the state-of- the-art in green building and the marketplace. To examine green building in a larger sustainability context - to discuss the effects and interaction of buildings with the environment. To provide a forum to bring people together to promote sustainability in the Heartland states. To provide a resource base of services and products that are "locally" available to support a "local" sustainability approach - "buy local for local needs."
• To highlight the region's sustainability success and build on this foundation to advance progress.

Rotation

This year's Greening the Heartland Conference by the Wisconsin Green Building Alliance is in Madison, Wisconsin. St. Louis Regional will be the Host Chapter for the 2008 Conference.

Heartland Regional Chapters

US Green Building Council - Central Illinois Chapter
http://www.usgbc.org/chapters/organizing/centralillinois.asp

US Green Building Council - Cincinnati Chapter

U.S. Green Building Council - Mississippi Headwaters Chapter
http://www.usgbcmn.org

U.S. Green Building Council - Chicago, Illinois Chapter
http://www.usgbc.org/Chapters/chicago/

U.S. Green Building Council - Indiana Chapter

U.S. Green Building Council - Iowa Chapter

U.S. Green Building Council - West Michigan Chapter
http://www.usgbc.org/chapters/westmichigan/

U.S. Green Building Council - Detroit Chapter
http://www.usgbc.org/chapters/Detroit/

U.S. Green Building Council - Greater Kansas City Chapter
http://www.usgbc.org/chapters/kansascity/

U.S. Green Building Council - Missouri Heartland Chapter
http://www.usgbc.org/chapters/missouriheartland/

U.S. Green Building Council - St. Louis, Missouri Chapter
http://www.usgbc.org/chapters/stlouis/

U.S. Green Building Council - Flatwater Chapter
http://www.usgbc.org/chapters/flatwater/

Cleveland Green Building Coalition
http://www.clevelandgbc.org/

Wisconsin Green Building Alliance, an Affiliate of the U.S. Green Building Council
http://www.wgba.org/

Pittsburgh Green Building Alliance , an Affiliate of the U.S. Green Building Council
http://www.gbaphg.org/