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Who is your Champion?

Do you know a person or an organization that is reshaping the way people think about green building? We've just opened up speaker nominations for our Nov. 3 Green Day Forum, Portland's premier green building conference. This year's theme is quite different: "Meet the Champions: Achieving the Triple Bottom Line in Green Building."

The theme refers to individuals or organizations whose sustainable building efforts, business models, products, technologies, services or policies have enabled them to provide their communities with social and environmental benefits while generating revenue.

Green Day Forum keynote Nancy Murray is an example of a leader who has made a positive difference in the lives of thousands, lifting people up AND generating revenue for her organization. She founded Builders of Hope in 2006 with an "extreme green" rehabilitation model: to rescue homes from demolition, rehab them using green building principles and sell them at affordable costs to low- and middle-income individuals.

Murray's first project, Barrington Village in Raleigh, N.C., highlighted green rehabilitation and home recycling for lasting sustainable revitalization efforts in urban neighborhoods, and earned the organization coverage in the Wall Street Journal and on NPR. Her subsequent projects incorporated urban transit-oriented design with increased energy efficiency, high quality materials and a green jobs training program for the chronically unemployed. In 2010 her organization was awarded the National Housing Conference's Pioneering Housing Strategies Award. Builders of Hope is headquartered in North Carolina, with offices in Dallas and New Orleans. She is expanding Builders of Hope by implementing the federal HUD-DOT-EPA Interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities. In an interesting development, she has applied for a patent on the business model that integrates building retrofitting, training and resale. Come to hear her speak in November!

Please take a moment to think about any success stories you've heard -- whether it's green building technologies, business models, services, policies or products -- and nominate a speaker or an additional keynote. The deadline is June 30. Visit the Green Day Forum website and nomination site. You can also make a suggestion on our Facebook page. And pass it on!

About the Author

Sean Penrith

Since 2005, Sean served as Earth Advantage Institute's Executive Director. In 2012, he became the CEO of Earth Advantage's first for-profit spinoff — CakeSystems™, formerly EPS Auditor Pro.
A native South African, Sean earned a BSc in electrical engineering from the University of Cape Town. He is a United Nations Institute for Training & Research (UNITAR) Climate Change Diplomacy graduate. He is an active proponent of the development of voluntary carbon markets, ecosystem service markets, greentech clusters and creating a robust energy efficiency labeling and disclosure standard.
Sean championed the creation of an Energy Performance Score rating label which was supported by the Energy Trust of Oregon. The label provides a 'miles-per-gallon' equivalent, investment grade label of a homes' energy and carbon use. He is Vice Chair on the The Climate Trust board, chairs their Offsets Committee and is an advisor to MIT's Climate CoLab project.
Sean is a recognized Portland Connector, and Edison Awards and Pivotal Leader nominee and an alumni of the EMERGE Leadership for Sustainability program. He frequently presents on topics that include green building, deep carbon reduction strategies, the future of sustainability, energy labeling and climate change.
Affiliations: Advertising Specialty Institute GreenBusiness.net OECDD Green Cluster Committee DRAC sub-committee, Green Permitting Portland Technical Advisory Group Governor's Energy Efficiency Work Group Governor's Future of Energy Summit The Climate Trust Western Climate Initiative Oregon Living Building Initiative Home Builders Association Steering Committee The Climate Registry Global Network of Entrepreneurs CleanTech Network MIT Climate CoLab

Projects: City of Seattle - Integration of EPS into existing protocols Energy Trust of Oregon - EPS Pilot Program Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance - Energy Star for New Homes Program Oregon Department of Environmental Quality - Life Cycle Assessment U.S. DOE - Strengthening Building Retrofit Markets