Annual Awards
Ron Flax, winner of the 2011 Leadership initiative Award
Leadership Initiative Award
The annual Leadership Initiative Award is given to a member of the Boulder Green Building Guild who has shown exceptional and noteworthy commitment to advancing the craft of green building and has lead or encouraged others to do the same. The winner is awarded a plaque and a citation selected and approved by the Board of Directors of the BGBG.
The BGBG membership nominates members and selects the recipient of the Leadership Initiative Award through an online submission process and subsequent survey. The Award will be presented at the Annual Meeting or at a time and place selected by the Board of Directors
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Ron Flax winner of the 2011 Leadership Initiative Award
Ron Flax is Associate and Project Manager at Rodwin Architecture. For the last 14 years Ron Flax, LEED AP, BPI, RESNET has passionately helped lead the local green building movement, with integrity and curiosity around the question of “how to make our buildings better”. He has has applied his skill and effort not only to his own projects, but to sharing that knowledge with the entire local green building community. Among the long list of reasons why Ron deserves this award are:he turned his own Martin Acres home into a HERS 5,utilizing his own home for Boulder's first PV micro-inverter system and ground-breaking research on insulation; simultaneously helping to create a business model for delivering affordable, deep-energy retrofits to our aging existing housing stock. He then opened his home for display through the CRC 2011 home tour to share his experience with the rest of the public. Ron also has taught the Guild's Green Building 101 course for several years and has created a new class with Rodwin Architecture to offer an advanced Green Building Series. He Publicly lectures on green building topics whenever he gets the chance and consults with the city and county on code updates and for Boulder County on improving the effectiveness of the BuildSmart program. Ron also has served on BGBG Board of directors and the legislative and public policy committee for the past two years.
2010 Recipient Tasha Halevi. Tasha has single-handedly concepted and produced Footprint Radio for BGBG. The show explores advanced techniques and metrics in the green building industry through interviews with a wide array of respected industry and community leaders. Tasha's leadership in the education of green building concepts has also been instrumental in the creation and execution of Energy Design Resources (EDR)'s Integrated Design Workshop. Tasha led a team at AEC to design a two-day workshop for college students to take an in depth look at integrated design. The workshop, which was first held in October 2010 and will be offered again in 2011 to an even broader audience, introduces cutting edge industry concepts, tools, strategies and technologies for inter-disciplinary students to design a truly sustainable zero-net energy building using the EDR Integrated Design Process. During her time at AEC Tasha has been the Project Manager for the University of Colorado, Boulder working with the University and design team members to LEED certify new construction and major renovations on campus including the new LEED Gold CU Visual Arts Complex. As a young professional, Tasha has shown incredible leadership in educating design team members, owners, university students, and the broader community on sustainable design practices for the built environment.
2009 Recipient Jim Logan principal of Jim Logan Architects. Jim has shown exceptional commitment to raising the bar on sustainability, and green building in particular. He has been designing model green buildings in our community for over 10 years, including net zero homes, Cohousing communities, and commercial buildings. In addition, Jim’s detailed analysis on how, and what, it will take to reach our green house gas emission goals in the residential sector continues to be invaluable to the local green building movement as we develop strategies to reduce green house gas emissions.
“Jim is an innovator and has been at the front of the green building movement for decades. Jim helped both the City and County create aggressive and achievable green building programs that place our community as a leader in the nation”, says Elizabeth Vasatka, Environmental Coordinator for the City of Boulder.
2008 Recipient Shaun LaBarre, ReSource Boulder Program Manager and City of Boulder Deconstruction Professional, has single-handedly administered the green building City of Boulder deconstruction and C&D waste-diversion program. As a result of implementing this program over 400 estimated tons of reusable and recyclable C&D components have been diverted from our local landfills.
Shaun’s straight-forward management of the program has allowed contractors and homeowners to rest with peace of mind, walking them through the steps of fulfilling adeconstruction plan. The City and County of Boulder have more readily chipped away at achieving waste reductiongoals, and a blossoming industry of deconstruction greenbuilding crews are entering the market.
2007 Recipient Doug Parker of Big Horn Builders has been building green before "green" became a buzzword. He has participated in and taken advantage of every learning opportunity possible and has given unselfishly of his time to many volunteer endeavors, including his service as a member of the BGBG Board of Directors.
2006 Recipient Elizabeth Vasatka, Environmental Coordinator at the Office of Environmental Affairs for the city reduction goals, Boulder. Elizabeth both conceived and helped establish the Boulder Green Building Guild and has worked tirelessly to ensure that the city of Boulder develop and implement credible green building standards.
Pioneer Award
Pioneer's Award The annual Pioneer's Award is given to a member of the Green Building Community who may or may not be a BGBG member. This award is to honor people who have demonstrated commitment to building green in their own lives and whose actions have made a difference to advance the craft of green building in the local and broader community. The awardee will be given a suitable certificate of citation and a gratuitous one year membership to the BGBG. The Board of Directors will select the recipient of the Pioneer Award from the nominations provided by BGBG members and the Board itself. The names of the nominees will be presented to the Board by electronic submission. The Award will be presented at the Annual Meeting, or at a time and place designated by the Board of Directors.
Outlook Hotel winner of the 2011 Pioneer Award
The Outlook Hotel is a model of sustainable practices that are helping to educate consumers in Boulder and around the world about how each action can make a difference. From re-using old linens as rags, to recycling options in the individual rooms, they have integrated sustainable practices in almost every part of their daily operations. Perhaps most exciting is the fact that naysayers are now turning back to the Outlook as a model for how to improve their own business practices and improve their own bottom line.
2010 Recipient IRES LLC
Through the leadership of Lauren Emery, IRES's CEO, IRES is the first of 18 Colorado MLS system to add prominent, searchable green fields and a Green Features Addendum for the listing of green property . This is a critical first step toward ensuring that investing in green equates to true financial value.
2009 Recipient Boulder County ClimateSmart Loan Program
The ClimateSmart Loan Program was approved by voters in November 2008 to allow the county to offer low-interest loans to property owners who want to make energy-efficiency upgrades or add renewable energy to their homes or businesses. The ClimateSmart Loan Program has helped more than 600 residential property owners to add insulation, install renewable energy or make other energy-smart upgrades to their homes. Of course these improvements have helped Boulder County residents reduce their monthly energy bills while helping the County meet local goals for lessening its environmental impact while lowering its carbon footprint. In 2010 the community can look forward to low interest loans to make energy efficiency improvements to the commercial sector as well.
"In addition to helping every one save energy and keep money in their pockets, this program has been a bright light during dark economic times for many of our local contractors and suppliers. I know many of our members have directly benefited from this project and at the same time we are keeping dollars circulating in our community and that benefits us all," said Julie Herman, Executive Director of the Boulder Green Building Guild.
The ClimateSmart Loan program program places Boulder County at the forefront of a new national movement to identify ways local jurisdictions can finance energy efficiency and it has since become a model for governments developing energy efficiency initiatives in Colorado and across the nation
2008 Recipient Mark Bowen, of ReSource has been a boots on the ground force for material Re-Use and recycling, and Deconstruction since ReSource was started back in the mid-90's. While many of us contemplate and discuss Green building and recycling, Mark has been out there doing it - high winds, low temperatures, extreme heat and heavy materials and all. Mark has the ability to recognize valuable material, that others may see as trash, and often makes sure it finds a home rather than end up in the landfill. Mark always has a smile and has been an invaluable resource for many BGBG members over the years who have personally benefited from his knowledge and expertise.
2007 Recipient Dan Odell. This year’s winner is Dan Odell, of TC Woods. For many years, Dan has been saving trees from the landfill, turning them into quality wood, and making that wood available to the community.
Lifetime Achievement Award
In 2009 a Lifetime Achievement Award has been given to David Johnston with What’s Working. David’s early involvement was integral in instituting the mission and values of the BGBG and his visionary leadership was key to the success of the Guild. His latest achievement is the publication of his book
Green From the Ground-up.
“David was very instrumental in the creation of the BGBG. It was his comment at a Greenpoints advisory meeting that gave birth to the Guild. He said, that to take green building to the next level, what this community needed was an entity, other than local government, to come to the forefront and start advocating the benefits of sustainability. A month and a half later the BGBG was formed.” Joseph Vigil, BGBG Board President 2008.
