Aceh Community Room
Mercy Corps, 45 SW Ankeny St
Portland, OR 97204
In the quest for durable, long lived building materials the construction industry has relied on products that are often toxic or harmful to the environment and the building occupants. This presentation discusses the Red List of toxic materials and what designers and specifiers can do to replace them. New trends in bio-based technologies will be discussed along with a challenge to the attendees to avoid such materials in their own practice.
James is a green building professional with a broad range of industry experience from design and construction to research and advocacy. He is a graduate from the University of Washington with degrees in Architecture and International Studies. Prior to joining the Institute, James worked on green building projects at the Seattle offices of MulvannyG2 and GGLO. After a trip to Hong Kong in 2008 he became fascinated with the incredible pace in scale of urban development in China and the potential for green building. James is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and recently completed a Fulbright Research fellowship in Beijing on green building evaluation systems in China. James is an avid writer and blogger, and and his research has been featured in news outlets such as China Dialogue and Engineering News Record. He currently manages the Declare, the Institute's building ingredients labeling program.