HATS OFF

Building Operating Management, Feb 2005

HATS OFF Former CEO and president of the U.S. Green Building Council, Christine Ervin, has lots to be proud of as she steps down from her leadership role at the council. For her success, Ervin was honored along with a group of other influential green leaders at GreenBuild.

Ervin, who led the council from 1999 to 2004 saw the fledgling organization go from 200 members to 4,500. Helping to create something new was "fun and exciting," she says, but what she remembers most was the launching of LEED in Washington, D.C., in the spring of 2000, followed by the first GreenBuild conference in 2002. To see the efforts of everyone come to fruition was worth all the ups and downs, she says.

"Along the way, we encountered the full gamut of reactions," she says. "GreenBuild's huge success has been gratifying."

While her regrets are few, Ervin was and is concerned about the council's rate of growth with so many new products and ventures. "The most consistently successful companies and organizations know the value of focus and great execution on top priorities," she says. "I wish I could have done more to see that staff and volunteer resources were focused on fewer priorities."

She now heads Christine Ervin Co., a green building consulting firm based in Portland, Ore.

Winning the green leadership award was William Browning, senior fellow and founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute's Green Development Services. Browning now is helping to develop "new urbanist" community in Virginia called Haymount. Edward Feiner, chief architect of the U.S. General Services Administration, Herman Miller and Seattle-based Mithun, an architecture firm, also won for their green building and environmental successes.