Presenters:

Anthony Ravitz, Google

Kirsten Ritchie, PE, LEED® AP O+M,Principal and Director of Sustainable Design, Asia/Pacific Region of Gensler

Patty Grossman, CEO, O Ecotextiles

Tom Lent, Policy Director, Healthy Building Network

Nadav Malin, President, BuildingGreen, Inc

Robin Guenther FAIA, MArch Principal, Perkins+Will

Eden Brukman, Vice President, International Living Building Institute 

Moderator:

Mary Davidge, Principal, Mary Davidge Associates

How do our design decisions influence health? Our children start life with umbilical cords infused with chemicals that affect the essence of human life itself, the ability to learn, reason and reproduce. This session offers practical effective support for getting the worst of these chemicals out of your projects through the practical perspectives of owners pushing the market by demanding healthy work environments; architects bringing the best tools and knowledge to select best in class materials; and manufacturers committed to transparency and environmental responsibility in high performing products. Participants will think beyond Red Lists to develop strategies to move to a truly regenerative material industry. 

MATERIAL RULES
(with a nod to Michael Pollan)
- If they won’t tell you what’s in it, you probably don’t want what’s in it
- Consult your nose - if it stinks, don’t use it
- Just because almost anything can kill you doesn’t mean our building products should
- If it starts as hazardous waste, you probably don’t want it in your house
- If it is cheap it probably has hidden costs
- Question the generation of hazardous waste rather than where to put it your building
- Use materials made from substances you can imagine in their raw or natural state
- Avoid materials that are pretending to be something they are not
- Question materials that make health claims
- Use carbohydrate based materials when you can
- Pay more, use less
- Regard space age materials with skepticism

Presenter Bios

Anthony Ravitz
Anthony Ravitz spearheads sustainability efforts in Google's offices, promoting the healthiest and most productive workplace possible while reducing the company's environmental footprint and operating costs. He works on design, construction, and operations with projects ranging from master planning to office renovations and alternative energy systems. Over the past twelve months he has initiated a pilot project requiring all new facilities, worldwide at Google, to be designed and built without the use of the LBC Materials Redlist. His team developed tools to survey manufacturers, created a virtual materials library, and trained architects and contractors on the program. Anthony earned his bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Stanford University.

Kirsten Ritchie
Kirsten Ritchie, PE, LEED® AP O+M is a Principal and Director of Sustainable Design for the Asia/Pacific Region of Gensler, a global architecture and design firm. She serves as one of the firm’s leading sustainability ambassadors and evangelists, engaging staff, clients, and the public on sustainable design and operational thinking. She is an expert in green product certification, environmental cleanup, and sustainable infrastructure. Kirsten is active in a wide range of sustainable standards development organizations, including USGBC, the Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS), NSF International and ASTM. She is a frequent beta-tester and early product-adopter, evidenced by creation of “The EcoLiving Sourcebook” one of the first online green product catalogs, which premiered on the web in 1996.

Patty Grossman
Patty Grossman, CEO, and her sister, Leigh Anne Van Dusen, founded O Ecotextiles to green the entire textile production process. For seven years O Ecotextiles has pioneered many production techniques; introduced the first GOTS fabrics for interiors in the US (we think); and now leads in analyzing and publishing the standing of their fabrics – from field to finished fabric - in each of five categories: impact on the environment; impact on human and animal health; carbon footprint; social justice and workers rights (of paramount concern in textile production still); and end of life disposition.

Tom Lent
Tom Lent, Policy Director, Healthy Building Network, has thirty years of experience with energy and environmental issues focused on the environmental impact of buildings, materials, and energy. His diverse career has included energy studies of row houses, environmental critiques of the Iraq war, employment impact analyses of national energy investments and health analyses of PVC backed carpets, and a solar and biodiesel fueled rock concert national tour. Tom helped coordinate development of the Green Guidelines for Health Care (GGHC), LEED™ for Healthcare, Sustainable Bioplastic Guidelines and now the Pharos Project.  His house is solar powered, but not his flight to Living Future.

Nadav Malin
Nadav Malin, President, BuildingGreen, Inc. oversees the company’s industry-leading information and community-building resources, including Environmental Building News, GreenSpec, and the project certification help tool LEEDuser. He also lends his technical expertise and vision to McGraw-Hill Construction, serving as executive editor of GreenSource magazine. When the LEED rating system was just starting out, Nadav was tapped to lead its new Materials and Resources Technical Advisory Group, which he chaired throughout LEED’s formative years. A long-serving member of the national LEED Faculty, he is a sought-after speaker for USGBC, AIA, and CSI events, and as a consultant to architecture firms and government agencies alike.

Robin Guenther
Robin Guenther FAIA, MArch Principal, Perkins+Will, co-coordinates the Green Guide for Health Care, served on the LEED for Healthcare Committee, and co-authored “Sustainable Healthcare Architecture,” with Gail Vittori in 2007.  She is a board member of both the Center for Health Design and Healthy Building Network. In 2005, she received the Center for Health Design’s Changemaker Award for her leadership and innovation in the design of sustainable healing environments. Author and Designer Rosalyn Cama describes Robin as “a pioneer who defied the odds.” Healthcare Design magazine named her the “#1 Most Influential Designer in Healthcare” in 2009.  Robin’s work has actively addressed the need for transformation of the industry and the profession, utilizing sustainability as a guiding framework for design

Eden Brukman
Eden Brukman, Vice President, International Living Building Institute, licensed architect and co-author of Living Building Challenge 2.0, has focused her professional career on incorporating socially and environmentally responsible strategies into design and construction. Since 1996, her work has included research and implementation of sustainable policies, particularly related to building certification and the specification of appropriate building materials. Eden has consulted on dozens of green building projects nationally and internationally, authored articles for periodicals, and lectured at conferences, universities and professional development programs. She now dedicates her time to the development and global deployment of the Living Building Challenge.

Mary Davidge
Mary Davidge, IIDA, LEED® Faculty - Mary’s primary focus is in managing teams to develop healthy, vibrant, restorative buildings. For more than 20 years, she has consulted with major corporations such as Google, HP, Ebay, Yahoo! and Apple, helping them to articulate and implement their vision for the built environment. She is a Living Building Ambassador and has worked over the past two years as the environmental consultant on a Living Building Challenge registered project in the Bay Area. Her firm, Mary Davidge Associates is consulting with Google, Inc. in developing their program to achieve "LBC Redlist Free" environments for their worldwide facilities.