Full-Day Tours

Register for a tour through Greenbuild Registration »

Saturday, November 17 » 8:00 am – 4:00 pm

FD01: A Walk in the Woods – Explore the Coastal Redwoods
Connect LEED principles of responsible forest management directly to environmental benefits in a stunning California coastal redwood forest habitat. Attendees will tour a forestry operation that is certified to the standards of the Forest Stewardship Council. Gain an exclusive view of a sustainably managed forest, and participate in a discussion with an FSC certifier and a representative from the lumber company regarding why responsible forestry techniques are so important to the health and biodiversity of forests and our planet. In addition, the economic viability of a successful sustainable forestry operation will be discussed.

FD02: Green Buildings Within Reach: The forerunners of Affordable Housing and Neighborhood Revival
The Bay Area is known as one of the most expensive housing markets in America. In response to the growing demand of affordable housing, local architecture firms came up with various avant-garde green design solutions for neglected neighborhoods to transform them into vital community assets, while allowing the homeownership dream to become a reality. Attendees will explore four award-wining eco-friendly communities in Oakland and Emeryville including both new construction and adaptive reuse; understand the challenges of meeting stringent California energy standards and LEED Neighborhood design criteria; and hopefully gain an appreciation of the importance of design and economic diversity to the dignity of residents in affordable housing.

FD04: Better Homes and Vineyards
You can’t visit California without a jaunt to Napa Valley! We start at the Blu Homes factory where they build pre-fabricated super-energy efficient, quiet, well-ventilated healthy homes with the help of computer modeling and revolutionary folding/shipping/installation technology. Then we visit two exemplary LEED Gold wineries featuring organic and sustainable vinicultural methods. CADE is a boutique winery with scenic vistas from Howell Mountain; not normally open to the public, this is a rare glance inside their operation. And HALL in St. Helena pays special attention to their performance across all environmental metrics, employing extensive water reuse and self-generated power with their 42,000sf PV array.

FD05: It Takes a Net-Zero Village: Eat, Drink, and Live Green at UC Davis
The University of California at Davis, California’s center for agricultural education, has long been a center for environmental innovation. The UC Davis West Village is a 13-acre neighborhood for 2000 students and faculty, and is now the largest Net Zero Energy neighborhood in the US. The Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science houses the departments of Food Science and Technology and Viticulture and Enology, the UC Davis Olive Center, state-of-the-art sensory facilities and a food innovation kitchen. This LEED Platinum certified winery, brewery, and food and milk processing laboratory is the only facility of its kind in the world.

FD06: Green Historic Office Preservation
Adaptive reuse and high performance renovations are key to preserving the historic fabric and embodied resources in our existing buildings. Adobe’s San Francisco office, first built in 1923 is now LEED-EB Platinum certified with a 100 point Energy Star score and 99% waste diversion. The 1924 Federal Reserve Building, on the Historic Register since 1984, has now become the Bentley Reserve, an architecturally spectacular LEED Silver mix of offices, banquet and meeting rooms. A registered historic landmark building since 1977, The Mills Building, built in 1891 and currently undergoing LEED-EB, highlights natural daylight and ventilation, while representing the creative conjunction of architectural preservation and responsible reuse, with state-of-the-art technology and ardent conservation practices. The Integral Group, an engineering firm, has performed a deep green office renovation achieving 102 points on LEED-CI, the highest score ever on a very limited budget.

FD09: Innovation & Transition: Revitalizing a City with Sun & Fun
Richmond is a former ship-building industrial Bay Area community that has suffered from rough times in the past 60 years. But in recent years, amazing renewal has brewed, with the opening of new parks, community centers, and businesses. This tour will visit inspirational buildings in this transitional city. Highlights will include the renovated Ford Assembly Plant (a 2011 AIA Honor Award Winning historic renovation project), a house made from shipping containers, a community aquatic center powered by solar thermal, and a CA Department of Public Health EBOM-certified office that has heroically pushed the green envelope for over 10 years.

FD10: Greening Silicon Valley: A Tour of Municipal Green Buildings + US’s First Net Zero Commercial Office Building
The City of San Jose pioneered the development of green certified buildings in Silicon Valley with the implementation of its Green Building Policy in 2001 and the design and construction of the 30+ new municipal buildings that followed. Each exemplifies sustainable design strategies, implements green management practices, and incorporates public art that represents the cultural diversity of both the local environment and community. In addition to touring several of the City’s eighteen LEED certified facilities including City Hall (Richard Meier, 2005), a visit to IDeAs Design Facility (EHDD, 2007), the U.S.’s first net-zero commercial office building is included.

FD12: 2030 today: Three Institutions Leading the Way
This full-day tour highlights four recent projects at three sites on the San Francisco peninsula that aim beyond high-performance buildings toward broader views of sustainable institutions: the Packard Foundation’s effort to reduce their organizational carbon footprint; Portola Valley Town Center’s accounting for embodied CO2 emissions in the materials and construction; and finally, Sacred Heart School’s effort to create healthy learning environments where students can conceive of a more sustainable future. The projects showcase a range of certifications and goals, including the first LEED Platinum for Schools project, a AIA Top Ten award winner, a Living Building Challenge contestant, and Net Zero Energy performance.