The U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC) LEED Automation program will be featured in a Master Series session as part of its annual Greenbuild International Conference & Expo, taking place this week in Toronto. The LEED Automation program is streamlining and creating increased capacity for the LEED green building certification process through a close collaboration with leading technology companies that offer supporting functionality, making the LEED project management, documentation and certification process faster and easier.

The session will highlight some of the program's own success stories told by some of its leading technology partners, and show how customers' business agility is being increased through improved data, information and content integration. New features of the program, which launched in 2010, will also be announced during the session.

"LEED Automation enables automated access to data and capabilities of USGBC's systems such as LEED Online--the certification platform for LEED projects," said Scot Horst, SVP, LEED, USGBC. "Following the launch of LEED Automation last year, more than 50 technology companies have expressed interest in the program and this year's session will showcase some of the leading partners to date."

The partners will share their experiences on completing integration of their applications and provide an enhanced experience for their customers, including USGBC's own Green Building Information Gateway (GBIG) program. The session speakers include:
•    Mahesh Ramanujam, USGBC
•    Chris Pyke, USGBC
•    Alan Z. White, SCIenergy
•    Jim Duffy, Vorpalware
•    Dimitri Contoyannis, Architectural Energy Corporation and COMNET Management Team
•    David Pratt, LoraxPro
•    Mike Stuart, Greengrade
•    Adam Berholz, GreenWizard
•    Emma Stewart, Autodesk (Session Moderator)

The LEED Automation Session will be held today, Oct. 5 at 10:30 AM - 12 PM and is part of the Master Series sessions, all of which focus on key updates and developments in LEED this year. All LEED Master Series sessions qualify for GBCI LEED-specific credit for LEED AP and LEED Green Associate credential maintenance. Following the session, USGBC will host a press conference featuring USGBC's Ramanujam and Pyke, and representatives from some of the leading LEED Automation Program partner companies.