Advocacy Retreat and New 2012 Leadership –Get Involved!

Contributed by Ashleigh Talberth, Senior Manager, USGBC-NCC

Advocacy Retreat: December 15th

We are pleased to announce the opening of committee member positions in USGBC-NCC’s advocacy committees. This is an incredible opportunity to advance sound green building policy and build grassroots support for green building at the local level.

Now Recruiting 2012 Committee Members (committee descriptions to follow):

• Green Schools Committee
• Sustainable Neighborhoods Committee
• Green Residential Committee
• Sustainable Healthcare Committee

Become a Green Building Advocate at the kick-off Advocacy Retreat on Dec. 15th in San Francisco at 4:30pm:

• Advance USGBC’s mission of green communities for all within this generation
• Bolster personal and professional contacts
• Develop your leadership experience

Retreat attendance is by application only; please submit the application by November 23rd.

New 2012 Leadership:

We are pleased to announce the appointments of USGBC-NCC’s 2012 advocacy leaders:

2012 Advocacy Committee Chairs (bios to follow):

• Green Schools Committee Co-Chairs: John Diffenderfer & Steve Murphy
  
• Green Residential Marketplace Committee Co-Chairs: Michele Skupic & Randy Potter
  
• Sustainable Neighborhoods Committee Co-Chairs: Aaron Welch & Ellie Casson
  
• Sustainable Healthcare: Rob Buckley
  

Special thanks to our 2011 leaders: Pauline Souza, Brendan Bloom, Suzanne Nolan, and Randy Potter.

2012 Advocacy Committee Descriptions:

• Sustainable Neighborhoods Committee: This Committee advances the importance of green buildings and green communities as a critical part of any government’s sustainability planning process.
• Green Schools Committee: This Committee raises community awareness about the benefits of green schools by working with those directly connected to their local schools: parents and teachers, students and school boards, administrators and city officials.
• Green Residential Committee: This Committee is charged with advancing the importance of addressing residential buildings – both new and existing – through smart policy and strategic relationships. USGBC prioritized Green Affordable Housing as a key area for Chapter involvement. This committee will identify and act on opportunities to bring the benefits of green building to the populations that need it most through policy that improves the health, efficiency and environmental quality of affordable housing.
• Sustainable Healthcare Committee: This Committee seeks to advance the unique issues related to sustainable healthcare such as 24/7 operations, energy and water use intensity, chemical use, infection control requirements, and formidable regulatory requirements.

2012 Advocacy Committee Chair Bios:

Green Schools Committee Co-Chairs:

• John Diffenderfer: John is a Principal at AEDIS Architecture & Planning in San Jose and has 20+ years of California school design experience. John designed CA’s 1st Net-Zero Energy School and was a featured speaker at Greenbuild on Net-Zero Schools.
• Steve Murphy: Steve Murphy comes to us from USGBC-NCC’s Monterrey Bay Branch where he served as the advocacy chair. During this time, Steve mobilized ~20 green schools advocates, in partnership with local community colleges, to offer free green consulting services to underfunded schools. Steve is currently the MEP Director for Blach Construction and specializes in green schools.

Sustainable Neighborhoods Committee Co-Chairs:

• Aaron Welch: Aaron Welch is one of the nation's leading LEED-ND experts. Aaron has managed the LEED-ND process for a total of 6 different development projects that are either certified or in the process of certification, wrote portions of USGBC's LEED-ND Reference Guide, and recently completed a Citizen's (Advocacy) Guide to LEED-ND for the Natural Resources Defense Council.
• Ellie Casson: Ellie Casson is an SB 375 expert for Greenbelt Alliance. She works closely with cities throughout Silicon Valley and is the Founder of a Mountain View smart-growth advocacy group that has had a visible impact on local planning and development decisions (this group now has 300+ members). She is also the lead researcher and author of Greenbelt Alliance's Greening Your City's Blueprint: A Toolkit for Climate Friendly General Plans.

Residential Marketplace Committee Co-Chairs:

• Michele Skupic: Michele is based in Sacramento and is the VP, National Director of Sustainable Strategies for Fidelity National Financial. Michele has 32 years of experience in the title insurance industry and has an extensive residential, multi-family, and national homebuilder background. She has been active in multiple realtors associations, the BIA, and served on Mayor Johnson's Green Building Task Force.
• Randy Potter: Randy is the VP of a green, single-family homes company, Earthbound Homes. Randy has over 30 years of environmental advocacy experience. He is a member of the Mountain View Environmental Task Force, an advisor for the Santa Clara green building program, and served as a co-chair for USGBC-NCC’s Residential Marketplace Committee for 6 months in 2011.

Sustainable Healthcare Committee Chair:

• Robert Buckley: Robert Buckley is the Sustainable Design Director for AECOM. Recently, Robert has mobilized a group of healthcare focused engineers, and client representatives from UCSF and Kaiser, to improve energy efficiency in hospitals. He is an esteemed speaker and has been featured at Greenbuild, where he spoke on zero carbon buildings, and as a guest lecturer at Harvard, UCB and Stanford.

For more information or to get involved in USGBC-NCC’s 2012 advocacy efforts contact Ashleigh@usgbc-ncc.org .