The theme for Build It Green's second annual Summit, "Reaching the Mainstream", proved to be a popular motif, drawing nearly 300 members of the green building community. The Summit kicked off with a welcome message via video from San Francisco's Mayor Gavin Newsom, who lauded Build It Green's efforts in the promotion of green building practices throughout the state. Tom Bates, Mayor of Berkeley, appeared in person, and spoke of Build It Green in the context of Berkeley's Solar Initiative and his city's plans on the green forefront. These introductory messages from the leaders of two forward-thinking Bay Area cities opened the dialogue for carrying the green building message to the mainstream.

The methodology for achieving this goal was presented by Damian Newman and Neil Stevenson of the branding and strategic marketing firm IDEO, an international company that helps businesses innovate their branding identity with a user-oriented approach. Using organic produce as an example, Damian and Neil spoke of the difficulty of marketing solely to the green consumer niche. Alienating the mainstream consumer base by appealing to the green consumer can be a very real outcome, and can be avoided by creating a product experience that everyone can relate to.

The agenda continued with the following concurrent Educational Panel Sessions. Panel presentation files are available for download below.

1. How Can Policy Support the Market? Part 1 and Part 2
2. Product Standards and Defining Green
3. The Value of Green: Insurance, Appraisal and Finance

One of the primary goals of the Build It Green Summit is to facilitate networking between the various stakeholders in the green building industry, providing a forum for the communication of ideas and experiences. The afternoon's main activity, a World Caf brainstorming session, functioned as the vehicle to bring about interpersonal communication in a room full of different types of building professionals. Led by Barbara Chan, a Build It Green CGBP and professional facilitator, the World Caf concept is designed to tap into the collective intelligence represented in the room by beginning a conversational process that builds on itself as participants move between groups, cross-pollinate ideas and discover new insights. Ideas were captured in hand-written notes on butcher paper table-cloths, to be harvested later by Build It Green staff, and presented to the group at the end of the session.

The 2007 Summit focused on innovative communication methods for bringing the green building philosophy to the greater community. We would like to continue the days theme of creating an experience and carrying it forward by sharing what we learned from the many people who participated in this process. Most of the event's presentations and documents have been posted here for public knowledge. We encourage you to incorporate some of these ideas into your own green building practice and look forward to seeing you at a future summit!