A view into the workings of GPA

On Friday I had a chance to visit the expo floor West Coast Green Conference here in San Francisco.  There were quite a range of products on display – everything from organic wines to spray foam insulation.  Most were oriented toward the building industry.

Among them were these compressed blocks of rice straw:

Oryzatech's "Stak Block"

Stak Block assembly

This was the first public display of this product.  They claim their assemblies have seismic resistance better than wood framing, sequester carbon, and of course insulate extremely well.  An intriguing improvement to traditional straw bale.

Here we see a company simply making tanks for rain water catchment systems.  Their modular form enables them to fit along walls or underneath decking.  A simple improvement to the bulky tanks often used.

HOG water tank

Why have a green roof, when you can have a green….dock?

Green Dock

Outside, bamboo was used to sculpt an outdoor seating area/walkway:

Outside the West Coast Green Conference

Overall, the Expo seemed to be full of smaller companies vying to be the “next big thing” in green building.  The building industry doesn’t accept new materials and methods on whims, so only time, and perhaps a bit of marketing, will tell which ideas succeed.