USGBC-CF

USGBC CF LEEDership Dinner

October 28, 2009

October 14, 2009. At the elegant Church Street Ballroom in downtown Orlando, the U.S. Green Building Council, Central Florida Chapter held its Annual LEEDership Dinner. Well over 360 attendees, political dignitaries, members of the Chapter and their guests enjoyed the celebration of the Chapter’s growth and accomplishments over the past year, recognizing those in our community who are helping to shape green building in Central Florida.

This was not just an association award dinner, but an acknowledgement of momentum for the LEED system and its heavy influence in our sustainability progress in Central Florida. We learned that approximately 50 LEED of projects are already completed in Central Florida, with 169 LEED projects currently registered for homes, new building, existing building (retrofits/re-commissions), interior design and core/shell development.

Shining Example of Sustainability

The USGBC CF LEEDership Dinner team applied sustainability concepts to many aspects of the dinner, achieving a zero carbon footprint event. The dedicated team that pulled off such a wonderful event also greened many aspects of the dinner. In tough economic times, the sponsors of this event deserve a lot of credit. The number and extent of sponsorship is a testament to how committed they are to sustainability action and helping to further build the LEED groundswell. The support of so many that took the time to attend the dinner was terrific. We couldn’t have asked for a better representation of Central Florida governments, schools, associations, utilities, and businesses, see insert for some of the attendees.

Dignitaries

Among the dignitaries attending, was Florida Senator Lee Constantine, who gave a proactive and optimistic speech on what the Florida state legislature will get done to support Florida becoming a leader in sustainability, green technology, green business and JOBS. He highlighted LEED requirements for all government and school buildings and getting to a state building code that requires LEED standards or certification. Lee’s commitment to Florida sustainability, environmental leadership and green jobs in Florida was on display with clear action in progress. He clearly stated that for the state of Florida and its businesses, sustainable action is the only future with policy action required from Tallahassee.

Also in attendance were County Commissioners Bob Dallari of Seminole County and Sam Johnson of Polk County.

The passionate keynote address was delivered by the charismatic Ray Anderson, Chairman and Founder of Interface Inc. Under Ray’s leadership, Interface Inc. has grown to become the world’s largest manufacture of modular carpet tile, a pioneer of industrial ecology, and a champion of corporate sustainability.

The Atmosphere

Beginning with a history of USGBC Central Florida from 13 initial members to today’s over 430 members, the camaraderie and pride throughout the room was on display and a harbinger of a lot more LEED to come.

An initial highlight of the dinner was a commitment to reducing Central Florida energy use 30% by 2012 with the announcement of the Central Florida Energy Efficiency Alliance (CFEEA). As a founding member of CFEEA, USGBC CF was proud to launch the first CFEEA Community Challenge, The Kilowatt Crackdown with the visible support of the City of Orlando’s Vice Mayor, Tiffany Moore Russell, who attended the dinner.

The AWARDS

Then the dinner went on to the presentation of the 2009 LEED Awards for the Central Florida Region. Heather Dupuy with grace and sincerity presented each of the nominees and then the award winners. The award recipients gave gracious acceptance remarks with pride in what they and their teams have accomplished for their organizations and their contributions to the community.

Winners have been using their sustainability progress through LEED to educate and inspire others. Burke Hogue Mills, and OUC (LEED New Construction Project of the Year) welcome all comers to visit their LEED building to learn about sustainability, their LEED experience and to be inspired. Julie McFarland, the Wyndham Vacation Ownership LEED winner for their 1400 Building interior build-out inspired with her experience on learning LEED on the fly and creating a truly collaborative space for the IT team that would be located there. Her LEED team held orientations to share the green and collaborative features of the space, so the users could get maximum benefit. With humility and a sense of being part of something special, she clearly demonstrated the shared purpose her and her team experienced and then brought the occupants into experience.

Passion – Keynote Address

Anderson began his remarks with his company’s commitment to sustainability which is to achieve a Zero Net Footprint by 2020. This is a remarkable goal when you consider the industrial fraternity Anderson’s manufacturing company is a member of is a documented 97% waste making machine.

Crediting Rachel Carson with her book, “A Silent Spring”, for inspiring his environmental movement, he explained that our technosphere is killing our biosphere. “We have to reverse 1000 generations of damaging the biosphere,” Anderson said. “The longer we wait the more daunting and/or impossible to accomplish.” Anderson then explained how it is possible by highlighting some of what Interface has been able to accomplish. Since 1996 Interface has:

Reduced Net Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 71% in absolute tonnage
Reduced freshwater use by 72%
Eliminated one third of their smokestacks
Shut down 71% of their effluent pipes

And for the pure capitalist’s interests: During this same period, Interface grew its sales by 60% and doubled is EBITDA. Anderson made it clear that sustainability doesn’t cost more rather it is a path to recovery in bad economic times, to reducing cost and creating competitive advantage.

“It is very hard to look at the future without getting depressed or overwhelmed by the challenges we face to save our biosphere,” Anderson said. He called it creation care for those in doubt. Ray gave the audience a sobering view of the future, but one we can impact. He highlighted what we have been losing the biosphere one day at a time, one grey wolf at a time, one forest at a time, one polar bear at time, one glacier at a time, one polluted river at time, one species at a time, one fishery at a time… He made it clear that we have to stop losing parts of our biosphere and begin to restore the web of life. “Everything we do impacts the web of life. Humans have to begin acting more like nature, operating in closed loops, where the waste of one process is the feedstock of another.”

Just prior to a standing ovation from the USGBC Central Florida dinner audience, Anderson ended with a poem by one of his employees sent to him after one of the first talk he gave on Interface’s new commitment to the environment, see insert. The poem was a beautiful call to action for all of us. Written in 1996 by Interface’s Bentley Mill Operations Employee, entitled: Tomorrow’s Child:

Without a name; an unseen face

and knowing not your time or place,

Tomorrow’s Child, through yet unborn,

I met you first last Tuesday morn.

A wise friend introduced us two,

and through his shining point of view

I saw a day you would see;

a day for you, but not for me.

Knowing you has changed my thinking,

for I had never had an inkling

that perhaps the things I do

might someday, somehow, threaten you.

Tomorrow’s Child, my daughter-son,

I’m afraid I’ve just begun

to think of you and of your good,

though always having known I should.

Begin I will to weigh the cost

of what I squander, what is lost.

If ever I forget that you

will someday come to live here too.

~ Glenn Thomas

More on Ray Anderson Before coming to the LEEDership Dinner, Ray Anderson did an inspirational interview with Eco Factory and Net Impact Orlando. That video is now in post production. Look for the interview to be up on our Web site by the end of the month, see video insert. Eco Factory was also able to video Ray’s speech to the dinner audience, which was an acknowledged the contribution USGBC Central Florida has made with a call to action to do more. Highlights of Ray’s remarks follow at the end of this article. A video of his remarks will also be available on the Web site by the end of the month, see video insert. For highlights of Ray’s dinner Eco Factory and Net Impact Orlando were able to catch a few LEED Award winners, Michele DiFazio, and Alexa Stone for more personal insights after the dinner. These videos will be available sometime in November after the post production work is done (want to be sure our members look good), see video insert.

Ray Anderson, Chairman of Interface, is our industrialist sustainability pioneer. The company he built is Interface, the leading modular carpet manufacturer in the world operating on 6 continents with over a billion in sales. Manufacturing carpet is a petroleum intensive business.

In 1994, when Ray was asked to give a speech on Interface environmental responsibility he had no idea what to say. With the synchronicity of the universe, Paul Hawken’s book, “The Ecology of Commerce” landed on his desk, sent by one of his sales managers. He calls reading this book as ‘his spear in the heart moment’, i.e., “The implications of the conference were worse than any single participant could have anticipated: The immune system of every unborn child in the world may soon be adversely and irrevocably affected by the persistent toxins in our food, air, and water.” He read on to find out that less than 10% of the resources used to make a product, service or building ends up in the final delivery. From that moment of understanding current world reality and industry’s role, he determined that Interface would take on climbing Mount Sustainability.

Ray and his Interface team began the journey up ‘Mount Sustainability’ making significant reductions in GHG emissions, fresh water use, resource use, energy use, etc. As he said in his remarks at the dinner, they are only 50% of the way up ‘Mount Sustainability’. Due to their commitment and success addressing sustainability, they are inspiring corporations worldwide to take on sustainability. InterfaceRaise, their sustainability consulting arm, created to field all the requests for inspiration and support, works with corporations to take on sustainability with their latest client being the largest corporation by sales in the world, Walmart.

Ray’s and Interface’s contribution to our future is beyond measure.