Presenters:

Pliny Fisk, Co-Director of the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems

Gail Vittori, Co-Director of the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems

Bill Reed, President, Integrative Design Collaborative

Kath Williams, Owner, Kath Williams and Associates

Kathleen O'Brien, Principal, O'Brien & Company

Moderator:

Jason F. McLennan, CEO, Cascadia 

Join Pliny Fisk, Gail Vittori, Bill Reed, Kath Williams and Kathleen O'Brien in a lively and historic discussion about the evolution of the green building movement from the 1970's through to today.  Moderated by Cascadia CEO - Jason F. McLennan, the panel discussion will explore and revisit key moments in the history of green building  
prior to the dramatic rise of the USGBC and LEED.  Learn how the history of our movement will inform its future and discussions about the urgency that should inform all of our actions.  This is a rare opportunity to hear so many key leaders in one session.

Session Format - PANEL

Presenter Bios

Jason F. McLennan

Jason McLennan serves as the CEO of the Cascadia Region Green Building Council. Jason is the author of the Living Building Challenge, an international green building program and co-creator of Pharos, the most advanced building material rating system in North America. Jason is known as an international thought leader in the green architecture movement and he has lectured on sustainability across the US and Canada and beyond. His work in the sustainable design field has been published or reviewed in dozens of journals, magazines, conference proceedings and books.  Jason was recently named one of the top 40 under 40 most influential individuals in the design and construction field by Building Design and Construction magazine and one of the top 25 most influential people in Seattle by Seattle Magazine.

Pliny Fisk

Pliny co-founded the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems in 1975, and currently serves as Co-Director. The Center is recognized as the oldest sustainable design and planning 501C3 non-profit in the United States. In addition, Pliny also serves as Fellow in Sustainable Urbanism and Fellow in Health Systems Design at Texas A & M University where he holds a joint position as signature faculty in Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Planning.  Pliny’s special contributions in the research field have been principally in materials and methods; from low-cost building systems development referred to as open building, to wide ranging material development that includes low carbon and carbon balanced cements, and many other low impact materials.  He was instrumental in developing the first input/output life cycle assessment model for material flow in the U.S. and connecting this to a Geographic Information System, so that human activities can be placed into the context of natural systems on a national scale.

Gail Vittori

Gail Vittori, LEED AP, is Co-Director of the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems, a non-profit design firm established in 1975 dedicated to sustainable planning, design and demonstration where she has worked since 1979. She is the 2009 Chair of the U.S. Green Building Council’s Board of Directors. Since 2000, Ms. Vittori has been a catalyst for several national initiatives focused on greening the health care sector and advancing environmental health considerations in green building.  Ms. Vittori has spearheaded emerging green and affordable housing initiatives, tools and resources, including directing a Hands Across America program in 1989 that created a building materials exchange and cooperative homebuilding training program for colonias residents along the Texas Rio Grande Valley and many more projects.

Kath Williams

Kath's areas of specialization include greening of corporations and professional firms, LEED project development, LEED documentation, sustainability education and training, and strategic planning using the charrette process.  She was the project chief for Montana State University's EPICenter project. Named as a Fulbright Senior Specialist in Sustainability, Kath contributed to the development of GreenStar, the green building rating system in Australia. She contributed to the development and formation of the India Green Building Council and is frequently welcomed "home" there as a keynote speaker for their annual Congress. The design and construction team for the first LEED-Platinum building outside of the USA was supported by Kath as LEED-AP. The Green Business Centre in Hyderabad was named the 2009 Aspen Institute Energy and Environment Award.

Bill Reed

An internationally recognized proponent and practitioner in sustainability and regeneration Bill is a principal in three firms focused on green buildings, living systems, and living education working to lift building and community planning into full integration and co-evolution with life. His work centers on structuring and managing an integrative, whole-systems design process. The objective: to improve the overall quality of the physical, social and spiritual life of our living places and therefore the planet.

Kathleen O'Brien

Kathleen O’Brien is a nationally recognized leader in the field of sustainability, having been in the field as a writer, educator, strategic planner, and project consultant for nearly 25 years.  She has won several leadership awards including Sustainable Seattle’s Outstanding Leadership Award (2006), Kitsap County Earth Day Award for Environmental Leadership (2007), and most recently, recognition by the Cascadia Region Green Building Council as a Cascadia Fellow – a lifetime achievement award (2008). Kathleen is a LEED Accredited Professional, a Certified Sustainable Building Advisor, and earned her Masters at Antioch University in Environment and Community.  Ms. O’Brien is a prolific writer and has published dozens of articles and publications on a variety of sustainable building topics.  Since founding O’Brien & Company, Kathleen has been instrumental in developing programs, plans, and policies that have both led the way, and supported sustainable development initiatives by government agencies, industry trade groups, and non-profit environmental groups.  Kathleen’s leadership style, while taking practicality into account, energizes and inspires innovation, making practical and measurable advancement possible.