Alex Wilson

For more than 30 years, Alex Wilson has been the most trusted voice on energy efficiency and environmentally responsible design and construction. Since launching Environmental Building News (EBN) in 1992, he’s built a reputation, resources, and staff to provide the foundation for BuildingGreen, a consulting and information company that produces BuildingGreen.com and LEEDuser, as well as providing consulting for a variety of companies for whom sustainable design is a core value.

Alex’s expertise in energy efficiency comes from hands-on engagement in the industry, including serving as executive director of the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association for five years in the early 1980s and teaching workshops on the construction of solar greenhouses in New Mexico in the late 1970s. A noted author, his work includes Your Green Home; the Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings, as co-author; and the Rocky Mountain Institute's comprehensive textbook, Green Development: Integrating Ecology and Real Estate, along with hundreds of articles for publications from Architectural Record, to Popular Science.

Alex also leads BuildingGreen’s involvement with Boston Architectural College’s sustainable design curriculum. He served on the board of directors of the U.S. Green Building Council for five years and was a founding member of the USGBC Research Committee. Alex served for many years as a trustee of The Nature Conservancy–Vermont Chapter, an appropriate role for someone who has written guidebooks on quiet-water paddling throughout the Northeast.

In 2008 Alex received the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership Award for Education, and in 2010 he became the second recipient of the prestigious Hanley Award for Vision and Leadership in Sustainable Housing. In 2012 Alex founded the Resilient Design Institute, also based in Brattleboro. RDI is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing practical strategies for making buildings and communities more resilient in the face of storms, floods, heat waves, droughts, power outages, and interruptions in heating or motor fuel.