Advisory Board

Our all-volunteer Advisory Board helps BuildingGreen identify the most critical topics for our coverage, and directs our research as we investigate these topics and bring them to our readers. Their distinguished and varied service in the field of environmentally responsible building is an inspiration.

Steve Baczek, R.A., Reading, MA

Steve Baczek is a registered architect with over 20 years of construction industry experience. As a sole practitioner, he typically works with clients on select custom residential projects. Utilizing my strong building science background, he strives to integrate good design practices with good construction practices to provide exceptional design solutions to their design problems. His projects include a number of LEED Platinum and Zero Energy Homes, and also one of the first Passive Houses built in New England. In addition to new construction, Baczek has done extensive work in architectural renovation and building systems re-engineering, including deep energy retrofits and zero energy renovations.

Bob Berkebile, FAIA, Kansas City, MO

Bob Berkebile has focused his career on improving the quality of life in our society with the integrity and spirit of his firm’s work. He has worked in architecture for 45 years and is a founding principal of BNIM. Berkebile is an accomplished environmentalist and preservationist who has received many awards, including the 2009 Heinz Award (for his leadership and commitment to the environment); the 2008 Regional Leadership Award from the Mid-America Regional Council; the 2005 USGBC Leadership Award, Community Category, recognizing him as the number one Environmental Champion for 2005; and the IIDA Mid-America Leadership Award in 2007. Berkebile is the founding chairman of the AIAs’ National Committee on the Environment; he was instrumental in the formation of the USGBC and its LEED rating system. Berkebile’s architectural work and thought leadership focus on moving the building industry towards triple bottom line solutions—a balance of people, planet, and prosperity. Berkebile and BNIM focus on regenerative design and resource efficiency for buildings and communities. He was elected to the AIA College of Fellows in 1989 and as an Honorary Fellow to the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s College of Fellows in 2008.

Arlene Blum, Ph.D., Berkeley, CA

Arlene Blum teaches a Himalayan Trekking Course at the University of California (UC), Berkeley, based on her vast mountaineering experiences; she has traversed Mt. Everest, was on the first women’s team to climb Mt. McKinley, and led the first American team to climb Annapurna and Bhrigupanth. Blum was the first woman to complete the Great Himalayan Traverse through Bhutan, Nepal, and India. Her research at UC Berkeley helped ban Tris—a carcinogenic flame retardant used in children’s sleepwear. Blum has also taught at Stanford University and Wellesley College. She is currently focused on motivational lectures and workshops for a broad range of audiences, from business executives to children. She has published articles and photographs in many journals, magazines, and newspapers, including Smithsonian magazine and National Geographic. Blum authored Annapurna, A Woman’s Place, which may be turned into a miniseries by NBC. She has received many awards, including the Sierra Club's Francis P. Farqua Mountaineering Award and a Gold Medal from the Society of Women Geographers.

John Boecker, AIA, Harrisburg, PA

Architect John Boecker is a founding partner at 7group, a consulting firm focused since 1996 on green building development through integrated design, regeneration, and multidisciplinary collaboration. Boecker has participated in more than 130 LEED projects. He is a LEED reviewer with GBCI and a faculty mentor to GBC Italia LEED Instructors. Previously Boecker served on the LEED Steering Committee and the USGBC’s national LEED Curriculum Committee. He wrote the LEED Services Profile used in the AIA Architect’s Handbook for Professional Practice; he also co-authored The Integrative Design Guide to Green Building, in 2009. Boecker has received more than 40 design awards, 25 of which were AIA Awards for Design Excellence. Some of his projects were named in AIA’s COTE Top Ten Green Projects list in 2000 and 2009. He has also represented the U.S. team at international Sustainable Building conferences between 2000 and 2008. Boecker has been a design teacher at Carnegie Mellon, University of Pennsylvania, and Harrisburg Area Community College, and has given lectures at Harvard. In 2009, Boecker became an honorary fellow of the Institute of Green Professionals.

Terry Brennan, Rome, NY

Terry Brennan owns Camroden Associates, which provides forensic, analysis, research, and training services to the building, research, and public health communities, as well as building owners and occupants. Brennan is a building scientist and educator; he is on the editorial board of HPAC Engineering Magazine. Brennan recently worked with the Boston Region HUD Healthy Homes project, presenting healthy building training with Joe Lstiburek of Building Science Corporation. Brennan provided fungal dynamics analysis for AECTM’s Crawlspace Characterization Pilot Study and consulted on a research project to restore three homes in the Seventh Ward of New Orleans after hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Brennan teaches moisture and mold workshops at Washington State University and the University of Alaska; he also teaches healthy housing courses at the National Center for Healthy Housing. Brennan serves on the ASHRAE 62 Ventilation and Air Quality Committee and is a consultant to the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Dampness and Health in Buildings.

Bill Browning, Hon. AIA, Washington, DC

In 2006, Bill Browning founded Terrapin Bright Green, a consulting and strategic planning group focused on environmental strategy, policy, and related opportunities. Browning has worked with Fortune 500 companies, universities, non-profits, the U.S. military, and some foreign governments. He founded Green Development Services at Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), branded as a “think and do” tank devoted to energy-efficient and environmentally responsive design; Browning is now a Senior Fellow at RMI. He has consulted on many diverse projects for towns, resorts, the White House, Wal-Mart’s Eco-mart, the Grand Canyon National Park, and the Sydney 2000 Olympic Village. Browning was a founding member of the USGBC Board of Directors, and now serves on the Governance Board. He co-authored Green Development: Integrating Ecology and Real Estate; A Primer on Sustainable Building; and Greening the Building and the Bottom Line. Browning is an honorary member of AIA, and in 2004 he received the USGBC’s Leadership Award. His list of projects includes advanced multi-story solar greenhouses using Buckminster Fuller’s last structural system, and an AIA-sponsored joint Soviet/American team for an award-winning youth exchange camp in the Republic of Georgia. He has worked on a number of U.S. Department of Defense facilities, including the Pentagon Renovation, the Navy Yard, the Air Force Academy, and the Pacific Air Force Headquarters. Browning has given lectures at MIT, Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, Peking University, Yestermorrow Design and Build School, and AIA. While at MIT he received the MIT Center for Real Estate’s 1991 Public-Sector Fellowship and the 1995 Charles H. Spaulding award.

Nancy Clanton, P.E., Boulder, CO

Nancy Clanton, P.E., FIES, LC, IALD, is the founder and president of Clanton & Associates, a lighting design firm specializing in sustainable design.  She is a Fellow of IESNA, a LEED AP, and her firm is a member of USGBC; in Colorado Clanton is a registered Professional Engineer. Ten of her firm’s projects have been named to the AIA Committee on the Environment’s Earth Day Top Ten List, and eight have been LEED Certified. Clanton has been the chairperson for IESNA Outdoor Environmental Lighting Committee and on the Board of Directors for the International Association of Lighting Designers and the International Dark Sky Association. She is a top editor for the IESNA Lighting Handbook and helped produce the IESNA Recommended Practices on Outdoor Lighting; she also edited the California Energy Commission’s Advanced Lighting Guidelines in 2001. Clanton lectures on sustainable design, energy efficiency, and light pollution. She was group leader for the Greening of the White House initiative. In 1999 the Colorado North Chapter of AIA awarded her the Contribution to the Built Environment Award. She serves on the professional advisory board of the University of Colorado at Boulder’s engineering department.

Raymond Cole, Ph.D., Vancouver, BC

Raymond Cole is the director of the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of British Columbia, where he has also been a professor for the past thirty years; Cole is the academic director of the Design Centre for Sustainability and co-founder of the international Green Building Challenge. He has served on many environmental and building committees internationally. In 2001 he was selected as a North American Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture distinguished professor for sustained commitment to building environmental research and teaching. Cole received the 2003 Barbara Dalrymple Memorial Award for Community Service from the Architectural Institute of British Columbia; the same year, he received the USGBC’s Green Public Service Leadership Award. Cole is a director member of the Canadian Green Building Council and the Canada Solar Buildings Research Network, and holds the UBC designation of Distinguished University Scholar.

David Eisenberg, Tucson, AZ

David Eisenberg co-founded and is now the director of the Development Center for Appropriate Technology in Tucson, Arizona. Eisenberg has thirty years of experience in the building industry; he has helped troubleshoot the construction of the cover of Biosphere 2, and has built a hypoallergenic structural steel house and many masonry, wood, adobe, rammed earth, and straw bale structures. Eisenberg spent five years as vice-chair of the ASTM E-06.71 Subcommittee on Sustainability for Buildings. He co-authored the book The Straw Bale House along with many other articles, papers, book forwards, and chapters. Eisenberg has been a leader in the creation of a sustainable context for building codes for more than ten years; while a USGBC board member, he founded, and now chairs, the Building Codes Committee. Eisenberg has lectured at many universities and conferences worldwide.

Drew George, P.E., San Diego, CA

Drew George has worked in design and construction for more than 25 years, a decade of which focused on sustainable design. He is principal of Drew George and Partners, a consulting and commissioning firm, where he oversees all projects. George founded the Washington, D.C., and San Diego Chapters of the USGBC and is on the National Board of Directors of the USGBC. He is a LEED Faculty member and a member of the LEED EBOM Committee. George is also a founder of the Big Green Discussion Group. George is a Certified Quality Manager, a LEED AP, a Certified Building Commissioning Professional, a California Professional Engineer, and a High Performance Building Design Professional.

Harry Gordon, FAIA, Washington, DC

Harry Gordon is the senior vice president and chief operating officer at Burt Hill Kosar Rittelmann Associates, a global architecture, engineering, and planning firm. With the firm for more than 36 years, Gordon has developed energy-efficient, environmentally responsive building designs and master plans for many corporate, institutional, residential, and government projects. He has been a member of the USGBC board of directors and a founding member and past chair of the AIA Committee on the Environment. He helped develop and evaluate many sustainable features of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Gordon is a registered architect, a LEED AP, and a member of the Society of Engineers and the AIA College of Fellows.

Bruce King, P.E., San Rafael, CA

Bruce King is a recovering structural engineer with 35 years of worldwide experience in structural design and construction.  in 1998 he founded the Ecological Building Network (EBNet) to develop localized, low-carbon building enclosures from China to Haiti to Palo Alto.  He is also the author of Buildings of Earth and Straw, Making Better Concrete, Design of Straw Bale Buildings, international ASTM earthen building standards, and dozens of papers and articles for conferences and journals. He has organized three international conferences on ecological building, organized and completed quarter-million dollar testing programs for alternative building, and speaks to professional groups and universities all over the world.  He also raises chickens and children.

John L. Knott, Jr., Charleston, SC

John Knott is a third generation developer and a recognized leader in sustainability. In his 40-year career he has worked on award winning projects in Baltimore and Washington DC; the University of Texas Health Science Center in the Houston Medical Center; Dewees Island in South Carolina; and the Noisette Community of North Charleston, South Carolina. He is the creator of the CityCraft process, a planning process that restores and builds the economic, environmental and social health of communities. He has advised the White House and the Department of Homeland Security on energy security and sustainability, and served as an advisor to HUD, DOE, EPA and the National Park Service, as well as cities, major corporations, and foreign governments. 

Sandra Mendler, AIA, San Francisco, CA

Sandra Mendler is a principal at Mithun Architects, a design firm devoted to integrated sustainable design. An architect, Mendler has more than 20 years of experience designing high performance buildings, including office, mixed-use and laboratory projects. Four of her projects have been AIA Top Ten Green Projects of the year. She has completed work for the EPA, NOAA, World Resources Institute, the National Wildlife Federation, and sustainable transit developments in San Francisco and Baltimore. Her goal as a designer is to broaden and elevate the discourse on design, thereby raising expectations and ultimately transforming the design and construction industry. She has been on the USGBC board of directors, contributing to the early development of LEED, and the national AIA Committee on the Environment. Mendler has co-authored two books and many articles; she has taught classes and lectured at various events. She is a member of the U.S. team for the International Green Building Challenge, and participated in the development of this evolving international standard to rate green buildings around the world. In 2004 Mendler was named an Environmental Champion by Interiors & Sources Magazine; in 2001 she received the Sustainable Design Leadership Award from IIDA and Collins & Aikman; in 1998 she received the national Environmental Sensitivity Award from the Construction Specifiers Institute.

Greg Norris, Ph.D., N. Berwick, ME

Greg Norris is Co-Director of SHINE (the Sustainability and Health Initiative for Net-positive Enterprise), an initiative of the Harvard School of Public Health's Center for Health and the Global Environment. He also conducts research, advises graduate students, and teaches Life Cycle Assessment at Harvard. Norris founded New Earth, a nonprofit institute developing and deploying technologies that enable people around the world to drive sustainable development “from the bottom up.”  Its projects include Earthster, an open source platform for product-level sustainability assessment; Handprinter, which helps people take actions at home and at work which more than compensate for their environmental and social “footprints”; and the Social Hot Spots Database, a transparent data source on supply chain impacts and opportunities for improving human rights, working conditions, community and other social impacts. In 1996 Norris founded Sylvatica, which has consulted on LCA to the U.N., governments in the U.S. and abroad, a variety of Fortune 500 companies, industrial associations, and smaller companies, and the non-profit sector.

Russell Perry, FAIA, Washington, DC

Russell Perry is the managing director of SmithGrouJJR’s Washington, D.C. office and its Corporate Sustainability Initiative. SmithGroup is the seventh-largest architecture and engineering firm in the U.S. Most of Perry’s 35 plus years in the design profession have been focused on sustainable design with an emphasis on integrated water systems and material transparency. Perry is an member of the AIA College of Fellows and a LEED AP. For the USGBC, he served on the committee that authored the LEED-CS rating system and he is a founding Board member of the Health Product Declaration Collaborative. In his spare time, Rus enjoys a shockingly diverse music collection.

Peter Pfeiffer, FAIA, Austin, TX

Peter Pfeiffer is a founder and principal at Barley & Pfeiffer Architects, a firm recognized nationally for its pioneering use of environmentally responsive design and construction techniques. Pfeiffer has more than 33 years’ experience designing high performance buildings and homes. He is an architect, interior designer, and building scientist whose work has been recognized by the Washington Post, Fine Homebuilding, Better Homes and Gardens, the Discovery Channel, and “This Old House.” In 2010, Pfeiffer was nominated for the Hanley Award; in 2006 Residential Architect named Pfeiffer one of the ten most influential architects of the decade; in 2003 the National Association of Home Builders honored him as the National Green Advocate of the Year. Pfeiffer is a member of the AIA College of Fellows, a LEED AP, an active charter member of the NAHB Green Building Subcommittee since 1999, and an active member of the USGBC’s LEED for Homes program.

Bill Reed, AIA, Arlington, MA

Bill Reed is a principal at three firms: the Integrative Design Collaborative, Regenesis, Inc., and Delving Deeper. Reed is focused on sustainability and regeneration through the management of an integrated, whole-systems design process. His objective is to improve the overall quality of the physical, social and spiritual life of our living places and therefore the planet. At Delving Deeper he participates in green building consulting, living system design, and educating organizations working to lift building and community planning into full integration and co-evolution with living systems. Reed is a founding board member of the USGBC, co-chair of the LEED Technical Committee, a LEED faculty member, a national executive member of the AIA Committee on the Environment, and a board member of A.W.E., Inc. and Ecological, Inc. Previously Reed served as a NESEA Board member and a chair of the ANSI Committee on Whole System Integration. He is a planning consultant, design process facilitator, lecturer, and author who has guest lectured at many institutions, including Harvard, MIT, and the University of British Columbia. Reed has worked on numerous LEED projects, many of which achieved LEED Gold and Platinum certifications. His clients have included New York City Department of Design and Construction, U.S. General Services Administration, the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, various city planning agencies on the East and West coasts, and many private development companies in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

Jonathan Rose, Katonah, NY

Jonathan Rose is the founder and president of Jonathan Rose Companies, a green real estate policy, planning, development, owner’s representative, and investment firm. The firm uses a multi-disciplinary approach to policy and practice to help metropolitan regions become more resilient, competitive, and equitable. The firm is recognized for its ability to achieve visionary goals through practical strategies and affordable, green urban solutions. Rose’s focuses on creating a more environmentally, socially, and economically responsible world. His work has been profiled on CNN and PBS and in the New York Times. The firm’s innovative development, planning, investment, new construction, conversion and historic preservation work has won awards from a wide range of notable organizations, including: the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Global Green USA, the Urban Land Institute, the American Planning Association, and the AIA. Rose is a trustee of the Urban Land Institute (where he co-chairs its Climate and Energy Committee) and the Natural Resources Defense Council and vice chair of Enterprise Community Partners. He serves on the leadership councils of the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and the Yale School of Architecture, and chairs the Trust for Public Land’s National Real Estate Council. He also chaired the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s Blue Ribbon Sustainability Commission, which developed the nation’s first green transit plan. He serves on the Board of the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the American Museum of Natural History, and is a co-founder of the Garrison Institute with his wife, Diana Rose, where he leads the Climate, Mind and Behavior program.

Marc Rosenbaum, P.E., West Tisbury, MA

Marc Rosenbaum works for South Mountain Company, a Martha’s Vineyard design firm, and is the founder of Energysmiths, a sustainable design consulting firm that uses an integrated design approach to help people create buildings and communities that connect with the natural world and support both personal and planetary health. Rosenbaum is a Passive House consultant and trainer focused on integrating renewable energy systems, daylighting, high performance envelope design, health-sustaining mechanical systems, food production and storage, ecological waste systems, efficient electrical and water systems, and benign, resource-efficient material selection into his projects. Rosenbaum’s projects have received awards from NESEA, ASHRAE, and the Energy Efficient Building Association. Three of his projects have been on the AIA Earth Day Top Ten list, and his work on the French Wing for the Society for the Protection of NH Forests earned a LEED-TM Gold certification, the first LEED-certified project in New England. Rosenbaum has completed projects for MIT, Tom’s of Maine, Yale, and many others. He has been published in ASHRAE Journal, Fine Homebuilding, Northeast Sun, Solar Today, Journal of Light Construction, and Northwest Builder. Rosenbaum often lectures for professionals, students, and educators.

John Straube, Ph.D., P.Eng., Waterloo, ON

John Straube is a building science engineer who has been deeply involved in the areas of building enclosure design, moisture physics, and whole-building performance as a consultant, researcher, and educator. Straube is a professor of structural design, material science, and building science in the Department of Civil Engineering and the School of Architecture at the University of Waterloo. He is also a researcher, with a concentration in energy-efficient, healthy, durable, and sustainable building designs supported by advanced computer simulation, laboratory testing and full-scale natural exposure performance monitoring. He has consulted with numerous manufacturers, government agencies, and design professionals. Straube’s broad experience in the building industry includes the design, construction, repair, and restoration of buildings in Canada, the United States, Europe, Asia, New Zealand, and the Caribbean. He is an international expert on moisture-related building problems and has applied this expertise to historic buildings, commercial office towers, manufactured housing, sustainable straw bale homes, and many others. Straube has lectured in North America, Europe, and Asia and published dozens of technical papers in academic peer-reviewed conferences and journals as well as trade journals and magazines. Straube is a registered professional engineer, an associate of ASHRAE, and a principal of Building Science Corporation and Building Science Laboratories.

Michael Totten, Denver, CO

Michael Totten is the Chief Advisor for Climate, Energy, and Green Technologies at Conservation International’s Center for Environmental Leadership in Business. Totten’s focus is to engage the business sector in opportunities to shrink the ecological footprints of their operations and products. He achieves this by advising them on ways to take action to offset these footprints with positive steps, such as preserving threatened biodiversity. Totten develops carbon offset projects that benefit biodiversity and local communities as well as capturing greenhouse gases. Previously, Michael served as the co-director of the World Resources Institute’s Management Institute for Environment and Business. In 1992, he co-founded and served as executive director of the Center for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technology. Michael co-developed one of the first large-scale energy efficiency projects undertaken by the Global Environment Facility and the World Bank in Mexico, known as Ilumex. Michael's current project is with Google.org's Climate and Energy team, focusing on ways to promote solutions that achieve climate protection, as well as other benefits like protecting biodiversity and promoting sustainable livelihoods. His expertise includes watershed protection and the relationship between deforestation and climate change. In 1999 he received the Lewis Mumford Prize from Architects, Designers, and Planners for Social Responsibility.

Gail Vittori, LEED Fellow, Austin, TX

Gail Vittori is co-director of the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems, a non-profit sustainable planning and design firm established in 1975 and engaged with strategic development, design, policy, education, and research initiatives. She was the 2009 Chair of the U.S. Green Building Council’s board of directors, served on the USGBC board from 2002–2010 and was founding chair of the LEED for Healthcare committee (2004–2008). Vittori is currently on the Green Building Certification Institute board of directors, and is convener and a co-coordinator of the Green Guide for Health Care.  In Austin, she oversees sustainability initiatives for the 709-acre Mueller Redevelopment Project, including LEED for Neighborhood Development pilot certification, and coordinates sustainability and LEED initiatives for the 1.1 million ft2, mixed-use Block 21 project and for the new Austin Federal Courthouse, both located in Austin’s central business district. Vittori is co-author of Sustainable Healthcare Architecture, and is on the advisory boards of Natural Home magazine. She was a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design and was featured as an Innovator: Building a Greener World in TIME Magazine.