USGBC Announces Leadership Award Winners

By Allyson Wendt

At its annual Greenbuild conference in Boston, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced the winners of its annual leadership awards, recognizing companies and people whose vision and commitment have significantly advanced green building. This year USGBC bestowed a special President’s award, “given in acknowledgment of a distinguished career and exceptional contributions to the green building movement. This award went to Alexander “Andy” Karsner, formerly of the U.S. Department of Energy, for his support of research into climate change, energy efficiency, advanced energy sources, and for his work to ensure that federal buildings, including laboratories and military bases, adopt green building practices.

The other winners were:

• Scot Horst, principal of Horst, Inc., and 7Group, in the LEED category for his leadership of the LEED Steering Committee and contributions to the rating system, including the launch of LEED for Core and Shell;

• Alex Wilson, president of BuildingGreen, LLC and executive editor of Environmental Building News, in the education category for his 25 years of contributions to green building knowledge;

• San Diego Gas & Electric’s Sustainable Communities Program in the community category for encouraging green building with incentives for LEED registration and certification, and for supporting renewable energy production;

• Davis Langdon, Inc., in the research category for the firm’s work on tracking the costs of green building, particularly Peter Morris and Lisa Matthiessen’s report “Understanding the Costs of Green”

• Governor Ted Strickland of Ohio in the advocacy category for promoting green school building and green jobs in the state, with the goal of making green schools available to every child statewide within a generation;

• The founding members of The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee on the Environment (COTE) in the organizational excellence category for making green building central to AIA’s mission; and

• Development firm CB Richard Ellis, also in the organizational excellence category, for its firm-wide focus on green building and its commitment to move toward carbon neutrality.

This article was produced by BuildingGreen, LLC.- www.buildinggreen.com