Guest blog post by Jennifer Devlin, Managing Principal, EHDD

Ed. Note: EHDD is a San Francisco-based architecture and planning firm that pioneered green building in California.

We joined the India trade mission because it is a wonderful opportunity to mark the the opening of EHDD's Mumbai office this month. This week, the meetings set up by the U.S. Commercial Service with the Department of Commerce have been outstanding and have led to some key leads for new work. To share a quick story of what has already come of this visit:
 
We met with Amity University representatives from their Noida campus on Monday in Delhi. After an exciting conversation about the extensive expansion plans at Amity, and knowing we were on our way to Jaipur, they invited us to make a presentation to their students and colleagues at Amity University, Jaipur. Upon our arrival in Jaipur, Preetha Nair excitedly showed us the front page of The Times of India where our lecture was announced with "limited seating available"!

We took the morning off from the official business of the delegation and visited Amity University's Jaipur campus, where we were welcomed by Vice Chancellor Singh, his deputies, faculty and students. We spent time in a seminar format answering very challenging questions from the architecture students about climate change, the Kyoto Protocol and the efficacy of passive design strategies in buildings. We were imminently impressed with water research presented by a faculty member from the civil engineering department. After our lecture, to some 400 students and faculty, titled, "The Future of Green Building and Planning on University Campuses," we shared more time with students and toured campus buildings.

We could not have asked for a more inspiring and productive day! And this was only one experience-there have been countless more.