The U.S. Green Building Council announced Nov. 1 the recipients of its 2018 Leadership Awards, an annual recognition of the outstanding individuals and organizations at the forefront of the green building movement. The recipients will be honored at the USGBC Leadership Awards Reception taking place on Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018, at the Willis Tower in Chicago during the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo.
“The Leadership Awards recognize the power of truly outstanding leadership in the marketplace, and within the green building community,” said Mahesh Ramanujam, president and CEO of USGBC. “Each of the 2018 awardees demonstrate leadership in a different way, and all of them provide examples for others to emulate. Through actions informed by decades of experience, collaboration and partnership, and calculated risk taking, these individuals and companies exemplify the types of leadership that will allow all of us to benefit from a healthier, more prosperous and more sustainable world in the future.”
George Bandy Jr. Photo courtesy of Mohawk Group.
The 2018 USGBC Leadership Award recipients are:
- George Bandy, Jr. is well known for his years of experience in, and deep understanding of, sustainable business practices and corporate social responsibility. He currently serves as vice president of sustainability and commercial marketing for Mohawk Industries. Bandy leads the sustainability efforts of the largest flooring manufacturer in the world by identifying opportunities to position environmental, economic and socially responsible solutions for both the organization and its customers. Bandy has been engaged with USGBC throughout its 25 years and previously served as chairman of USGBC’s board.
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Laurie Kerr. Photo courtesy of LafargeHolcim Foundation.
Laurie Kerr, president of LK POLICY LAB, is a national leader in green building and urban sustainability policy. She was the deputy director of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Sustainability under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, where she led the development of the nation’s first comprehensive green building and energy efficiency strategies. She subsequently founded the City Energy Project to help 20 major American cities adopt policies similar to that of New York’s and laid the groundwork for next-gen urban efficiency strategies at the Urban Green Council, the New York aligned community of USGBC.
- Mueller is a sustainable, transit-oriented community just three miles from downtown Austin, Texas, and is one of the largest LEED for Neighborhood Development projects in the world. A former brownfield site, this redeveloping mixed-use, mixed-income urban village of 700 acres has high green building standards and advances a number of sustainability initiatives, ranging from diverting construction waste from landfills and reusing former airport infrastructure to installing rooftop solar energy production and utilizing reclaimed water to irrigate 140 acres of public parks and open space. With office, institutional, retail, residential and public space, it is where more than 14,000 people will work and an additional 14,000 people will live upon completion. Mueller is developed through a public-private partnership between Catellus Development Corporation and the City of Austin.
- Ameren Corporation and S&C Electric Company are the joint recipients of this year’s Robert W. Galvin Award for Performance in Excellence in Electrical Renewal for their efforts to modernize electric infrastructure in Illinois through the creation of the Ameren microgrid. The first microgrid to achieve PEER v2 Gold certification, the Ameren facility is the only known microgrid in the nation capable of seamlessly transitioning the power source for an entire distribution circuit from exclusively distributed generation sources to the traditional grid. The facility supports a one-megawatt residential and commercial load through a variety of distributed generation sources, including solar, wind, natural gas and battery storage.
- NIKE, Inc. is the recipient of the Ray Anderson Award for Radical Industrialism. Through tremendous leadership and innovation combating waste, reducing their carbon footprint, engaging and educating consumers, and more, NIKE sets a superb example for both the apparel and retail markets, and for sustainable business overall. With more than 327 of its facilities LEED certified, NIKE has a robust system for tracking, recording and benchmarking the sustainability efforts of all of its stores and locations.
- The Ramboland volunteer team is the 2018 recipient of the Malcolm Lewis IMPACT! Award. A global volunteer effort focused on a project in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, initiated by Ron Rambo (who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair) turned into a vision for a new approach to urban communities that provides maximal independence for people with any level of mobility. The project will produce eight times more energy than it uses, 100 percent of the occupant’s nutrition on-site, meet all water needs from rain, and establish economic and ecological resilience via many other innovations.
The 2018 Leadership Award recipients represent some of the best of USGBC’s 12,000 member organizations, more than 201,000 LEED professional credential holders and network of local leaders across the United States and throughout the world. With more than 95,000 commercial projects currently participating in LEED, comprising more than 19 billion square feet of construction space in all 50 states and 167 countries and territories, the efforts of the award recipients stand out as exceptional examples of sustainability leadership among a strong and growing network of projects, companies and individuals. For more information or to register for Greenbuild, visit: greenbuild.usgbc.org.