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He went on to show the crowd a box of Animal Crackers, pointing out that the box displayed more relevant information about the ingredients within than most buildings do.

Fedrizzi also spoke of the opportunity for the green-building movement to promote economic justice, such as the 100 million "green collar" jobs that could become available in the building industry as the United States seeks to retrofit its inventory of existing buildings to use less energy and reduce its carbon footprint. "There should be green buildings for everyone within a generation," he added.

When the former President took the stage, the energy in the room picked up. Before beginning his talk, though, Clinton had a prize to accept: the plaque awarding his Presidential Center in Little Rock, Arkansas, a LEED Platinum certification — the highest rating in the LEED system. Designed by Polshek Partnership Architects, the multiple-award-winning building had originally received a LEED Silver rating upon its completion in 2004, but Clinton insisted that it meet the USGBC's top green specifications.

Green building, Clinton told the audience, is "perhaps the most important cause we can be involved in today." He compared the threat of global warming to the collective response of citizens in the worldwide struggle against fascism in World War II. The Kyoto Protocol is a start, the former President charged, but in the future, there must be a new international agreement that includes not only the famously missing-in-action United States, but also major polluters like India and China. "Saying we won't jump unless you do means we all fall," he said.

Clinton pointed out that the economic outlook for countries that have ratified and implemented the Kyoto Protocol is far from dire. In fact, countries like Denmark and the United Kingdom have shown that implementation of strategies to curb greenhouse-gas emissions has actually bolstered their economies, with wages rising and inequities falling. "Every place this has been taken seriously," he said, "they've found that the savings and economic opportunity were underestimated."

Although Clinton added undeniable celebrity draw to the Greenbuild schedule, ultimately attendees were there not for stargazing, but to learn from their peers about the latest in design and construction with a green focus. In the exhibit hall, hundreds of booths testified to the powers of permeable pavement, mirrored skylight tubes, photovoltaic panels, and green roofs.

Even one of the design industry's most relevant players, Autodesk, was part of the action, unveiling a new design software interface that, with the USGBC's help, allows users to access ecological and energy-performance data with the ease and pizzazz of an Apple iPhone.

In the educational sessions, practitioners from architecture firms and development companies, including sustainability specialists, offered their knowledge about a host of projects worldwide.

The office of celebrated British architect Nicholas Grimshaw detailed a master plan for a development in the Canary Islands that will have net-zero carbon emissions. The continuous flow of wind on the island of Las Palmas provides plenty of power for specially designed V-shaped wind turbines offshore. A massive curving sculpture in the center of the island acts as a desalination plant to provide fresh water, inspired by a Namibian beetle that forms condensation on the surface of its skin to nourish itself, according to Andrew Walley of Grimshaw Architects. At the same time, the firm also looked to past vernacular architecture for lessons about shading, ventilation, and thermal properties.

Another renowned architect who spoke at Greenbuild, Pritzker Prize-winner Thom Mayne, seemed to go out of his way to stress green principles over the strictures of LEED ratings. As if to make a point, Mayne even continually referred to the acronym in an erroneous plural form, "LEEDs." But as the work of his Santa Monica firm, Morphosis, has long attested, Mayne is a process-driven architect who demands that the freedom to create remain unbridled.

Mayne showed how his San Francisco Federal Building, federal courthouse in Eugene, Oregon, and Caltrans District 7 Headquarters in Los Angeles rejected programmatic calls for wide, stumpy buildings in favor of taller, thinner structures that allow offices and meeting spaces to be flooded with light. Many of his works also include extensive structures built into the ground, offering thermal benefits while still daylit through light wells.

But the heart of Greenbuild lay not in any one famous name, be it a political or an architectural one. Instead, it comprised the hundreds of presenters from around the country showing colleagues "how they did it."

There were administrators from the City of Chicago delineating the long succession of permits, meetings, advocacy, budget hearings, code reviews, and other steps necessary to begin transforming Chicago — an old, gray, industrial-heartland of a city — into one of the greenest in the United States. There were developers from Canada talking about how they'd turned an old brownfield in Victoria, British Columbia, into one of the world's most sustainable urban communities, Dockside Green. And many more.

The hordes in line on that first morning continued to proliferate and move amongst the product displays, educational sessions, and building tours throughout the three days of Greenbuild.

With recent reports from the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) showing that world temperatures are indeed rising, there was a real sense of urgency among the masses. And with buildings accounting for nearly half of all energy consumption and greenhouse-gas emissions in the United States, the sight of those crowds gave a spectator more than a little sense of hope that the tide may be turning.

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Brian Libby is a Portland, Oregon-based freelance writer who has also published in Metropolis, The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, and Architectural Record.

SUBSCRIPTION SAMPLE About 22,000 participants filled Chicago's McCormick Place convention center for the three-day Greenbuild conference in November 2007. Photo: Matthew Wilder, ASLA, LEED AP The William J. Clinton Presidential Center, designed by Polshek Partnership Architects, originally received a LEED Silver rating when it was completed in 2004. Photo: David Simmons The Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Arkansas, recently earned a LEED Platinum rating for existing buildings. Photo: Linda Summers An elaborate metal grille shades the southern facade of the San Francisco Federal Building, by Thom Mayne and his firm, Morphosis. Photo: Sally Kuchar The tall, narrow profile of the San Francisco Federal Building optimizes daylighting and cross-ventilation. Vertical fins shade its tall northwestern facade. Photo: Richard Summers The LEED Silver-rated Caltrans District 7 Headquarters, designed by Morphosis. Photo: Omar Bárcena SUBSCRIPTION SAMPLE The Wayne L. Morse U.S. Courthouse in Eugene, Oregon, by Thom Mayne and his firm, Morphosis, with DLR Group, earned a LEED Gold rating. Photo: Kevin Matthews / Artifice Images Dockside Green, developed by Vancity and Windmill Development Group, is a mixed-use development in Victoria, British Columbia. Image: Courtesy of Tartan Public Relations   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.