Illustration by Melissa McGill

Q.What is the Catalytic Finance Initiative?
The Catalytic Finance Initiative (CFI) is a multipartner collaboration launched in September 2014 by Bank of America. The goal of the initiative is to stimulate at least $10 billion of new investment into high-impact, yet hard to finance, clean-energy and sustainability projects. The initiative is focused on developing or advancing innovative financing structures that reduce investment risk, and thereby attract a broader range of institutional investors to these projects. Bank of America began the initiative with a $1 billion capital commitment and asked others to join.

Q.What are the main goals of the Initiative?
The goal of the CFI is to demonstrate how we can accelerate and scale up investment into high-impact clean energy projects by making it easier for larger amounts of capital to be mobilized and invested. In general, we expect CFI to focus on large-scale renewable energy and energy efficiency opportunities, new financing structures for increasing energy access in emerging markets, and expanding the types of green bonds being issued to include green project bonds and green asset–backed securities as well as new corporate issuers in emerging markets. The CFI is also part of the bank’s larger $125 billion environmental business commitment that helps to address climate change and outsized demands on natural resources through lending, investing, capital raising, advisory services, and developing financing solutions for clients around the world.

Q.How has the partnership expanded?
On April 6, 2016, we announced the expansion of the CFI to an additional eight partners with a total commitment of $8 billion. Partners joining the CFI include AllianceBernstein (AB); Babson Capital Management LLC, a subsidiary of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual); Crédit Agricole CIB; European Investment Bank (EIB); HSBC Group; International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group; and Mirova, a subsidiary of Natixis Group, all of which have pledged capital and expertise to develop and advance innovative financing structures for investments in clean energy and other sustainability-focused projects. In addition, the Aligned Intermediary, representing a group of long-term institutional investors, will collaborate on specific investment opportunities with members of the partnership.

Q.What has the partnership accomplished?
Examples of deals we have completed at Bank of America Merrill Lynch include:

• A partnership with the New York State Green Bank totaling $800 million to enable a scale-up of energy efficiency financing;
• Arranging a $204 million green project bond for wind developer Energia Eolica S.A. in Peru;
• Contributing to a $100 million facility being structured with the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves to provide a new working capital facility for companies active across the clean cookstoves value chain; and
• Structuring and arranging a $978 million green project bond to refinance Meerwind, an offshore wind project in the North Sea, Europe’s largest ever renewable project bond.

Illustration by Melissa McGill

Q.What are some of the threats of climate change to the city of Oakland?
As a waterfront city, Oakland is threatened by sea level rise. Our airport, seaport, and low-lying neighborhoods are all at risk as sea levels rise and tidal and storm influences change. In addition, climate models predict more intense droughts and storms, which will affect our entire community as wildfires and floods grow stronger and more damaging. However, the most critical threat that Oakland faces is the impact of climate justice. Ensuring that the City can protect the lives, homes, and well-being of our most vulnerable community members in the face of a changing environment is key to our sustainability strategy.

Q.Who will be most affected?
Communities of color, low-income residents, and other disadvantaged groups are disproportionately affected by climate change impacts. These groups occupy much of the lower elevation lands closer to the waterfront, placing them directly in the path of both sea level rise and flooding. Unfortunately, these are also often the people with the fewest resources available to help them recover once impacts occur. We know this is true not only in Oakland but also around the world. We must act together as a global community to solve this challenge.

Q.What changes has Oakland made in recent years to address climate change?
I am proud to say that we, as Oaklanders, have a long history of focusing on sustainability and reducing our carbon footprint. I was asked to be part of the Local Climate Leaders Circle, one of 11 mayors selected to represent U.S. cities in Paris at COP21. I shared with the global community the successes that Oakland has had in reducing its emissions by more than 16 percent since 2005, and lowering our per capita emissions to among the lowest anywhere in the nation. The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) recently rated Oakland as the sixth best city in America on their City Energy Scorecard, and it is part of a communitywide effort to make Oakland the greenest city on the planet.

Q.What were some of the highlights for you during COP21 in Paris this past December?
COP21 was an amazing experience. Seeing the nations of the world come together to address climate change was incredible, but the true highlight for me was seeing the power of mayors in action. More than 500 mayors from 115 countries came together in Paris to demonstrate that change can happen. Cities are not only where the majority of emissions occur, but are also the home of the technologies, companies, and leaders who will achieve the needed greenhouse gas reductions. Seeing Oakland companies and the Oakland community so well represented at this landmark event is an experience I will never forget.

Q.What are new goals being set in your city to continue to create a healthier environment?
Oakland has adopted both short- and long-term GHG reduction goals and is seeing success in achieving these targets. Our long-term goal of reducing emissions by 83 percent by 2050 is among the most ambitious targets in the world. In addition, we are updating our Energy and Climate Action Plan in 2016 to continue our path toward lower emissions and a healthier community. I am thrilled to report that I signed two agreements in my first year as Mayor—the Under 2 Memorandum of Understanding and the Compact of Mayors—which raise the bar for cities to improve coordination, drive deeper GHG reductions, and share best practices across the globe. These efforts work in tandem to demonstrate Oakland’s commitment to ensuring a safe, equitable, and resilient community.

Illustration by Melissa McGill

Q.What are some of your responsibilities in your role with the U.S. Army?
As the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment, I am responsible for policy and oversight of sustainability and environmental initiatives; resource management, including design, military construction, operations, and maintenance; base realignment and closure (BRAC); privatization of Army family housing, lodging, real estate, and utilities; and the Army’s installations safety and occupational health programs.

Q.What has been your greatest achievement in your 5 years in this position?
I am proud to lead a team to establish the Army’s Net Zero program, publish a comprehensive Energy Security and Sustainability Strategy and create the Office of Energy Initiatives (OEI).

The Net Zero Strategy is the cornerstone of the Army strategy for sustainability and energy security. This strategy is based on the principles of integrated design, which will ensure the Army of tomorrow has the same access to energy, water, land, and natural resources as the Army of today. The Net Zero approach consists of five interrelated steps: reduction, re-purpose, recycling and composting, energy recovery, and disposal. The approach has been adapted to each of the three Net Zero focus areas of energy, water, and waste. Net Zero Energy Installations reduce overall energy use, maximize efficiency, implement energy recovery and cogeneration opportunities, and then offset the remaining demand with the production of renewable energy from onsite sources.

Building on what the Army has learned from Net Zero, in May 2015 we published a comprehensive Energy Security and Sustainability (ES2) Strategy that provides strategic direction for efficient and effective use of our critical resources. The ES2 Vision is a clear guide to our future— “A ready and resilient Army strengthened by secure access to the energy, water, and land resources in order to preserve future choice in a rapidly changing world.”

Q.What are some of your greatest obstacles?
One of the biggest obstacles we face is the fact that funding levels are not keeping pace with the reality of the strategic environment and increasing world threats. The 2016 budget approved by Congress is much less than our budget in 2013. As a result, the Army has had to accept significant risk by reducing manpower and minimizing, delaying, or deferring modernization programs and infrastructure sustainment. The 2017 funding levels may be reduced again, which would result in a dramatic decrease in our infrastructure modernization and construction, as well as a deferral of key modernization programs.

Q.What are some of the technology and sustainable practices the U. S. Army has been able to employ in the past few years?
Starting with the simple, the Army has worked diligently to implement the latest lighting technologies. From using LED lighting in warehouse, manufacturing and exterior applications we not only significantly reduce our energy costs, but since they have a much longer life, we also reduce our maintenance labor costs.

We require all new construction to be Leadeship in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified. This has resulted in almost 800 buildings being certified, with associated energy, water, and waste reductions.

Our potable water consumption has been reduced by 9,877 million gallons in the last 5 years. This has been achieved through technologies such as ultrasonic leak detection, recycling water in vehicle wash stations, rain water harvesting, water-saving fixture and equipment upgrades.

The Smart Power Infrastructure Demonstration for Energy Reliability and Security (SPIDERS) Program was initiated to test and demonstrate microgrid and control system capabilities that could provide resiliency to critical assets from electrical commercial power loss.

As the owner of the largest fleet of vehicles in the world, the Army is in a powerful position to promote new technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save energy. We are making great progress converting our fleet of non-tactical vehicles to become more fuel efficient. We are transitioning to electric vehicles, hybrids, and natural gas powered vehicles. We are also testing hydrogen, fuel cell and autonomous (driverless) vehicles.

Q.Can you share some stats on energy and water savings through these practices?
Since 2010 we have reduced our potable water use intensity consumption by 18.6 percent, which exceeded our expectations, and is timely considering the drought conditions faced in much of the United States. We have decreased our total energy consumption by 8.2 percent, during a period when we had more soldiers in home station as we wound down operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Petroleum consumption in our non-tactical fleet has been reduced by 38.9 percent since 2010 as we focused our efforts on more efficient vehicles. All of these savings have contributed to a more resilient Army.

Q.Tell us about the 1GW project and what its goals are.
As the single largest consumer of energy in the U.S., the entire Department of Defense (DoD) has embarked on an ambitious program of expanded renewable energy generation on our installations and in the field. Renewable energy is not just a “policy objective” for the Army, but an “operational imperative.” The deployable and decentralized energy production possibilities offered by renewable sources, and by enabling technologies like microgrids, have tremendous implications for the safety, security and effectiveness of our Soldiers. Renewable energy and efficiency improvements can increase warfighter capability, enhance the energy security of our installations, and cut operational and base energy costs.

The Army made a commitment to the President to deploy 1 GW of renewable energy from projects installed on Army installations. The Army will not spend tax-payers dollars to construct, own, or operate these systems. Instead, we will provide the land and purchase only the energy produced. We are using a variety of long-term power purchase agreements (up to 30 years), to ensure that we have predictable energy costs and assured access to power. Many technologies are being evaluated including solar, wind, biomass and geothermal.

Illustration by Melissa McGill

Q.When did you take over as the GSA Federal Director?
I have been the Federal Director for the GSA Office of Federal High Performance Green Buildings since the office’s inception in March, 2008. The Office was created by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.

Q.What are the sustainability goals of the General Services Administration (GSA)?
GSA set goals for greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction, building energy efficiency, water efficiency, renewable energy use, percentage of green buildings, and GHG per mile for fleet. We benchmark these goals (and their sub-goals) across the Federal government. For example, one sub-goal is purchasing a certain percentage of alternative-fuel and electric vehicles. Another is conducting energy audits every four years on each of GSA’s larger buildings.

Over the last 10 years, GSA reduced the energy intensity of our portfolio by 32 percent, and we’ve set a goal of another 25 percent reduction in the next 10 years. Since 2008, we have reduced building GHGs by 43 percent, and by 2025, we are committed to reaching 54 percent, with a stretch goal of 73 percent.

Q. How many buildings does the GSA own and lease?
Currently, GSA manages just under 9,000 buildings, totaling 379 million square feet. Of that space, 51 percent is leased and 49 percent is owned. GSA owns about 1,500 buildings.

Q.Can you share some statistics on the number of federal buildings working toward sustainability measures?
In one sense, all federal buildings are working toward sustainability. GSA’s portfolio-wide goals affect every building. We are focused on targeting the best opportunities for improvement in water conservation, in energy reduction, in waste avoidance, and in improving the environment for the people who work in federal buildings. These focused efforts help increase impact on existing buildings while budgets in the federal government remain tight. GSA works diligently to maximize and leverage scarce capital—very few new buildings are being built, and very few whole building modernizations are being undertaken. And for the limited number of these projects, every one seeks very high performance across the sustainability spectrum.

Q.How many federal buildings are LEED certified?
Within the GSA federal building portfolio, a little over 130 of the buildings we own are LEED certified, and also 400 leases are LEED-certified buildings.

Q.What are some of the greatest challenges facing the GSA in terms of sustainability?
Complexity and capital are the greatest challenges facing GSA in terms of sustainability. As we develop high-performance buildings, they become more complex to use, operate, and maintain. We need to incorporate more disciplines, like behavioral economics and public health, to better understand how people use buildings, and how to tune buildings so people can be effective and healthy. We know we have opportunities to better utilize the buildings in our inventory, and we must pursue those opportunities. We will be increasing the value of buildings while reducing the number of them we need. We have to become more integrated with other disciplines (IT, for example) in a consistent manner.

Q.What do you see for the GSA’s future?
For GSA’s future, I see a leaner inventory of better buildings supporting work in new ways, and perhaps different ways we can only barely envision today.

We will have a much more detailed understanding of how buildings influence the health of the people using them, as well as new metrics that we will be using to maintain healthy workplaces.

Overall, I see sustainability as a special emphasis program fading into “the way we work.” It will be woven into the understanding—and practice—that buildings are a tool for people to use to work and live.

llustration by Melissa McGill

Q.How did you get involved in LEED for Homes Provider program?
I started working on LEED for Homes in 2005 as a production builder where we built one of the first LEED Homes in the country. When I came onboard with Davis Energy Group in 2007, they were already a LEED for Homes Provider (one of the original 12), and I manage that providership.

Q.How are you educating homebuilders on the value of LEED?
Every meeting we have with homebuilders, we discuss green building in general as we gauge where they are on the green building programs ladder. This helps us evaluate if the builder is ready for LEED for Homes or would be better served with a more entry level program. In California, we have our CalGreen building code, which makes it much easier for builders to pursue LEED for Homes as they have already met the majority of the prerequisites.

Q.Out of the eight categories, which is the easiest to achieve?
The easiest categories for a multifamily project to achieve are Locations & Linkages and Sustainable Sites. The easiest for single-family projects to achieve is between Energy and Materials & Resources.

Q.How critical is Integrated Design in the housing industry and the success of LEED?
Integrated Design would actually save builders a lot of money if they would just use it. The hurdle that keeps them from utilizing it properly is the upfront cost and time for consultants to get the best building for the budget and working out issues in design as opposed to in the field. When we worked for a production builder, we actually put this practice in play and we do save money on change orders, last-minute decisions that affected build schedules, and we are able to take advantage of the synergies that are available when building homes—which also saves money.

Q.How has your educational background both in marketing and law helped you in your work?
My marketing and business backgrounds have helped me create a profitable business, after a very big initial investment, in becoming a provider while offering great customer service to our clients and our Green Raters. My environmental law degree allowed me to look at land for developments in a much more holistic and environmentally friendly way.

Q.What is the future of the LEED for Homes Provider program?
The LEED for Homes Provider program is strong with 36 providers across the country. I see LEED for Homes growing with the marketing efforts the providers and Green Raters do in conjunction with USGBC.

Illustration by Melissa McGill

Q.What is most remarkable about LEED’s trajectory?
It still stuns me to see how far and wide LEED has grown in so little time. When Rob Watson first came to me with the idea for a green building rating system–and the hopeful promise of a full turnkey effort for just $100,000!– I could never have envisioned it being used in 150 countries with over 13 billion square feet of space rated. From a few early federal buildings and industry leaders, it amazes me to see iconic buildings like the Empire State Building, Shanghai Tower, TAIPEI 101 and Carpe Diem in Paris all LEED rated. The 2002 Olympic Oval Building in Utah, the 2008 Beijing Olympic Village, the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, 2012 London Olympics, and the Olympics and World Cup in Brazil–all LEED. Buildings and neighborhoods around the world are healthier, greener, and more efficient. They offer the occupants clean, productive places to live, work, and play. Now that is a trajectory to be proud of!

Q.What is the coolest project you’ve worked on recently?
One of my favorite projects was the Sarah E. Goode STEM Academy. This is one of four prototype Chicago public high schools. The other three achieved LEED Gold; Goode achieved LEED Platinum at lower first cost than all of the other buildings! The big difference—it used a different heating and cooling system—ground source heat pumps —which allowed duct sizes to shrink dramatically, allowing the building height to also shrink. By eliminating the giant ducts, the overall mechanical system, including the geo-exchange wells, actually cost less than the baseline.

Q.The Mark Ginsberg Sustainability Fellowship was named in your honor. What can you tell us about this program and this year’s recipient?
What an honor when Rick Fedrizzi announced at the 2004 Greenbuild in Pittsburgh the Ginsberg Sustainability Fellowship “to pursue Mark’s vision, spirit, and integrity in perpetuity.” Talk about humbling. Rick’s kind gesture has led to the naming of several exceptional professionals to serve as Ginsberg Fellows. It has translated into some very practical and cutting-edge work. I thank Chris Pyke and the selection team for finding “the best and brightest” who have contributed analysis and policy on topics like sustainability, social equity and resilience, research funding and the prospective research agenda, the green connection to health, and how we can connect green building with the real estate and capital markets. The 2016 Fellow, Hossein Shahrokni, will work from the KTH University in Stockholm with GRESB to improve scoring and benchmarking, strengthening our ability to help the real estate industry assess sustainability performance. The work of all the Fellows has expanded the reach of USGBC and I am so impressed and grateful for all they have accomplished.

Q.Your mother was a flapper in the 1920s. What are some lessons she taught about life and how has this impacted your career?
Yes, my sisters and I were lucky to have terrific parents. Our mother was quite an amazing person. She grew up in the period of our history when suffragettes were marching for the right of women to vote – and succeeded in allowing women to vote for the first time in the 1920 Presidential election. It was a time of early women’s rights – before the term was coined. She was independent – and part of the generation of women who smoked and danced the Charleston, and believed they should have equal rights. She took her citizenship seriously. The right to vote was cherished. And we talked about current events and world issues at dinner. She introduced my sisters and me to international food – curry, quiche, tacos. So, from my earliest days, I felt we were citizens of the world – and we had responsibilities as Americans. The most fundamental value was education – it was assumed we would go to college. And we were instilled with a belief that we “should leave the world a better place.” That has been a part of my DNA and led me to my life in public service. We were supposed to give back and I have been honored to have the chance to do that in my career. My mother was an early environmentalist – before that term was coined too. We read Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. Growing up in the Depression, she was always frugal – but it was more. She was a conscientious consumer, she understood “reduce, reuse, recycle” before anyone – and instilled it in us. We lived it. We turned lights out, we put clear plastic over windows in winter, we cared about the environment. Despite the loss of my mother over a decade ago, her life lessons, cheerful spirit, social conscience and practicality stay with me. A lucky guy.

Q.Your travels have taken you to India and China on numerous occasions. What are the biggest barriers and opportunities in these countries facing “green buildings for all within this generation?
Thanks for the honor of sharing my thoughts with you. Yes, I’ve been very lucky for many years to work with leaders in China and India. Both have an enormous opportunity – it’s much easier to “build it right the first time” than to retrofit it later. With the unprecedented urban growth in those countries, they face the daunting challenge of building a city the size of New York (or 15 cities of a million people) – every year – as an estimated 15 million people move from rural China to cities. India faces similar urban growth. The barriers they face are not unlike ours. There is always the tension between “least first cost” vs life cycle cost investments. Some builders in China and India still want to build it cheap and fast. There are other challenges however. There is less availability of green professionals and a trained workforce. We have an estimated 2,000 LEED APs in China, for example, but that is not enough for the size of the market. In both countries, there is also a challenge of having widespread availability of certified green products. I am optimistic that government and industry leaders want to build green, and they are working to overcome these challenges, but I hope our member companies will be able to step up and provide the trained workforce and quality materials so that China and India can share our vision of “a green building for all within this generation.

Q.You have worked with LEED while at the U.S. Department of Energy and now at USGBC and have seen it evolve and grow over the years. What is most remarkable about LEED’s trajectory?
It still stuns me to see how far and wide LEED has grown in so little time. When Rob Watson first came to me with the idea for a green building rating system – and the hopeful promise of a full turnkey effort for just $100,000! – I could never have envisioned it being used in 150 countries with over 11 billion square feet of space rated. From a few early federal buildings and industry leaders, it amazes me to see iconic buildings like the Empire State Building, Shanghai Tower, Taipei 101 and Carpe Diem in Paris all LEED rated. The 2002 Olympic Oval Building in Utah, the 2008 Beijing Olympic Village, the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, 2012 London Olympics, and the Olympics and World Cup in Brazil – all LEED. Schools, hospitals, homes, hotels, retail, office buildings and neighborhoods around the world are healthier, greener and more efficient. They save water, energy and resources. And they offer the occupants clean, productive places to live, work and play. Now that is a trajectory to be proud of!

Illustration by Melissa McGill

Q.How and why did you get into green building and LEED?
My final project in architecture school in the mid 1970s was a solar house and my first job after graduation included doing research on passive solar heating and cooling systems and designing passive homes. In 1991, I became deeply involved with the nascent American Institute of Architects Chicago Committee on the Environment. At the time, I was consulting on energy efficiency and lighting design projects. As a committee, we actively debated green building and, more than anything, we wanted to work on a green building project. Eventually we had the opportunity to work on the first municipal LEED Platinum project in the country.

Q.What is the coolest project you’ve worked on recently?
One of my favorite projects was the Sarah E. Goode STEM Academy. This is one of four prototype Chicago public high schools. The other three achieved LEED Gold; Goode achieved LEED Platinum at lower first cost than all of the other buildings! The big difference—it used a different heating and cooling system—ground source heat pumps —which allowed duct sizes to shrink dramatically, allowing the building height to also shrink. By eliminating the giant ducts, the overall mechanical system, including the geo-exchange wells, actually cost less than the baseline.

Q.How would you define the intersection of adaptive reuse and LEED?
I’ve worked on many adaptive reuse and historic renovation projects where we could get LEED points for keeping much of the original building (walls, structure, floors, etc.). Adaptive reuse projects are usually located in established (often dense) neighborhoods with transit, giving them an automatic edge with respect to LEED points. In addition, we often need to upgrade the building envelope insulation and the windows. This, together with the fact that LEED provides 2 extra points for energy savings, can result in a major energy savings boost (i.e. more LEED points!).

Q.Where do you turn for inspiration?
I’m inspired by people—what they do with their lives. I recently went to Ghana with The Hunger Project and visited incredibly poor villages where people, especially women, had been empowered to turn their lives around. They were no longer wondering where the next meal would come from but whether they could get a big enough micro-loan to start a new business.

Q.Misconceptions overcome, innovations, new paradigms?
I’m really glad you asked about new paradigms. I would love to see a paradigm shift in the way we think about our economic system. Most people involved with sustainability have heard of the triple bottom line. Sustainability occurs at the junction between people, planet, and profit (or society, environment, and economics). I prefer to modify this and think of the environment (nature, eco-systems) as the context for everything. Within that context are the social systems that we have created and within that context are the economic systems. If we began to think of nature, rather than the economic system as the driver of decision-making, wouldn’t we be making different decisions?

Q.What’s next for green building?
My dream is that we will all be embracing a regenerative design process. This isn’t about regenerative buildings, which actually cannot exist, but about a new way of thinking, a new mindset, a new process for designing projects. It will include more stakeholders in the design process and will embrace more than single buildings even if the initial focus is on a single building. It will seek to spark the imagination of communities, likely in ways not yet considered. It will require owners and other design team members to think outside the box, to think of their projects in the context of the larger systems surrounding them, including the community and the region. It will be inspirational and communities will continue to regenerate beyond the design/ construction of individual projects. It will embrace nature as the context for social and economic systems.

Q.How and why did you get into green building and LEED?
I have always been concerned, from a young age, about the disconnect between our built environment and our natural environment. I grew up in a military family and moved around a lot as a child, and so I saw a lot of different development patterns and rates of natural destruction. It took me until graduate school to realize that I wanted to work with the folks who design our built environment—these folks have such an amazing ability to see and shape the future. I wanted to be the part of that conversation that asked about the trees, and the water, and the energy demands, and the human health impacts. I decided the best way for me, with my background in biology and environmental science, to be part of that conversation was to work with the designers and the architects themselves. Lucky for me, as I embarked on my career as a lone biologist in an architecture firm, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) was also embarking on their important journey with the launch of LEED v1.0. As it turns out, lots of people wanted in on this important conversation and it has been very rewarding to be a witness to the significant changes in the design and construction industry since the turn of the millennium.

Q.What has been your most challenging project?
Moseley Architects works predominantly in the public sector, designing education, local government, and detention/correctional facilities. Each of those markets has its own challenges, but the most challenging perhaps has been introducing “green” concepts to the detention/correction market. Jails and prisons, which operate 24/7/365, use a tremendous amount of resources—especially water and energy. They are also a building type that taxpayers, and therefore government authorities, are not terribly excited about throwing a lot of money at. At Moseley Architects, we have been fortunate to work with many clients in this market who are open to the conversation about how to save water, save energy, and improve the safety of the officers in these facilities through green design strategies, without breaking the bank. This effort, in the early years, was extremely challenging… but after being able to demonstrate with multiple projects that you can green a jail or prison in a fiscally responsible way, it perhaps has been among the most rewarding outcomes of my career.

Q.Which is your favorite LEED Credit? Which is your least favorite—and how would you fix it?
I don’t know that I have one favorite LEED credit, but I do know that I get really excited when one design solution is powerful enough to contribute to or earn multiple LEED credits simultaneously (and no, it’s not about the points… it’s about the fact that one decision can positively influence multiple aspects of green design!). For example, I love talking about design strategies like green roofs and cisterns because they address multiple issues surrounding sustainable sites, water efficiency, and energy performance all at the same time.

I think my least favorite credit, historically, was the Measurement and Verification credit of v2 and v3 fame, mainly because I am not sure anybody truly knew what was required in terms of compliance and documentation. I am a huge fan of the collection and analysis of building performance data (just ask my colleagues, who will readily tell you what a data junkie I am), but the way the requirements were presented in past versions of LEED was terribly confusing. I think the v4 prerequisite and credit language goes a long way to simplify the requirements for the building owner and design practitioner while still getting at the core objective, which is getting people to understand how buildings use energy.

Q.Where do you turn for inspiration?
I turn to the children in our world who are going to inherit an Earth that is in need of a lot of fixing. When I speak at local elementary schools, I am always amazed at the awareness and insight of this next generation. With questions and commentary about space junk, landfill life spans, energy security, and rainwater pollution coming from third and fourth graders, I am sometimes rendered speechless. When we host middle and high school students in our LEED Platinum office building to talk about environmental issues in building design, and they ask me how they can get a job like mine in a building like the one I work in, I know they share my concern and determination to improve the relationship between our built and natural environments. And when I get calls and emails from college students trying to determine their path in this world, wanting advice on how to get a job that will improve our collective environment, I know I am in the right field and working for the right company. These are the experiences that keep me going.

Q.What’s next for green building?
The immediate “next big thing” is net-zero buildings, starting with net-zero energy and spreading to net-zero water and net-zero waste. A few years ago, the mention of net-zero energy buildings was typically met with a quizzical look and a statement to the effect that nobody can afford that. But the mood seems to be changing, as does the market, and net-zero doesn’t seem to be crazy talk any more. LEED has successfully transformed the market enough over the last decade and a half that people are now ready to talk about concepts like how we get to net-zero on a much larger scale. I believe we are ready to embark on the next phase of our journey to becoming a sustainable world, and being able to talk about new concepts like net-zero and net-positive is an important step.