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Yudelson to Keynote Australian Green Cities Conference

Feb. 5, 2010
Green-building consultant Jerry Yudelson, PE, MBA, LEED AP, will keynote the Green Building Council of Australia's (GBCA's) fourth-annual Green Cities conference in Melbourne, Australia, to be held Feb. 21-24. Yudelson will speak Feb. 23, addressing ...

Green-building consultant Jerry Yudelson, PE, MBA, LEED AP, will keynote the Green Building Council of Australia's (GBCA's) fourth-annual Green Cities conference in Melbourne, Australia, to be held Feb. 21-24. Yudelson will speak Feb. 23, addressing green-building business and performance issues during his presentation, "If It Doesn't Perform, It's Not Green." Yudelson also keynoted the first Green Cities conference in Sydney in 2007, speaking to nearly 1,000 delegates.

According to conference organizers, property and environmental-industry leaders from around the world will use the conference to tackle the issue of greenhouse-gas production from Australian cities, which are estimated to account for 70 percent of that nation's greenhouse-gas output.

“The major focus of the green-building movement has become the performance of green-rated and green-labeled buildings,” Yudelson, principal of Tucson, Ariz.-based Yudelson Associates, said. “What we're seeing is many high-level rated green buildings falling well short of predicted performance.”

Yudelson advocates reducing the certification level of green buildings that fall short of initial performance claims.

“Certifying existing buildings as green uses actual performance data; new buildings should be held to the same standard,” he added.

Green Cities is a joint initiative of the GBCA and the Property Council of Australia.