Note: September 23, 2011 – Everyone at Metro was saddened to hear that Stephen Dupuis passed away suddenly, hours after receiving a high-profile industry award on Thursday. Our sincere condolences go out to Stephen’s friends and family.

I came across the catchy title of this column on the Greenbuild conference website, courtesy of Ashley Katz, manager of communications at the U.S. Green Building Council.

Greenbuild is the annual conference of the USGBC, the organization behind the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) labelling program for residential and non-residential buildings. 

This year, for the first-time ever, the Greenbuild Conference is being held outside the U.S.

From Oct. 4-7, Toronto’s hotels, restaurants, bars and coffee shops will be even busier than they were during TIFF, albeit serving a slightly different crowd, as up to 25,000 green builders, designers, suppliers, consultants and government officials from all over the world descend upon Toronto for Greenbuild. 

As Katz puts it, “Greenbuild is packed with opportunities to experience the architectural, political and financial capital of Canada (I’ll have to tell her about Ottawa), while learning about its long legacy of green building leadership and innovation.”

Katz encourages delegates to “take a tour inside the inner workings of Toronto’s greenest buildings. Tour a green art gallery, green roof, or a green office. Indulge in the areas best restaurants and cafes (peameal bacon sandwich anyone?)”

It’s entirely apropos that Greenbuild would come here given our leading-edge Ontario Building Code and Green Energy Act, not to mention the Canadian home building industry’s enviable track record as world leaders in energy-efficient construction.

On that note, BILD is proud to be working with the Canada Green Building Council to host a welcome party at the Steam Whistle Brewery, which will be known as Canada House for the duration of the conference.

Note to self, make sure there’s a peameal bacon hors d’oeuvre.

– Stephen Dupuis is President and CEO of the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) and can be found on Twitter (twitter.com/bildgta), Facebook (facebook.com/bildgta), and BILD’s official online Blog (bildblogs.ca).