Page 17 - Green Builder July-August 2019 Issue

A Leading Role
14-37 GB 0719 Eco Leaders.indd
eing an eco ioneer isn t a first an more
as this ear s class of elite green thin ers sho s.
BY ALAN NADITZ
S THE CLOCK TICKS toward a voluntary 2050 deadline for nations to level o
their greenhouse gas emissions and become carbon neutral—and help keep global
warming to around 1.5 degrees Celsius, or about 3 degrees Fahrenheit, an increase
scientists expect is still minor enough not to cause permanent destruction to the
A planet’s environment—many companies are doing their part by enacting policies
calling for net-zero operations status even earlier, around 2030.
A very commendable e ort. But does that make them Eco-Leaders? Not quite. Yes, they’re
acknowledging the truth of climate change and doing what must be done, and maybe they
were the ones who threw down the pro-environmental gauntlet. But if everyone else has now
taken up the challenge, those sustainably minded pioneers are not really “leaders” anymore.
Being an Eco-Leader means “nding di erent and better ways to go about saving the
environment, or newer and bolder ways to put existing e orts to use. That’s what we found
with this year’s green thinkers: a group that’s taken a step beyond simply closing the valves on
the fossil fuel-driven exhaust ports in favor of cleaner renewable energy sources. And because
this is a worldwide e ort, this year we’ve chosen “ve recognizable names with ties to the green
building industry (our “Building Industry Exemplars”) and “ve outsiders whose tactics impact
everyone (the “Aspirational Firms”).
Several decades ago, while attending an obscure but “revolutionary” environmental
conference, I had the pleasure of meeting a certain eventual (and now former) U.S. vice
president who, even then, was very vocal about climate change, pollution and extinction of
species. Something he said has stuck with me for almost 30 years: “Anything you do can make
you a ‘leader’ if you’re the “rst to do it. But to stay a leader? You need to keep being “rst, and
make sure others are following you.”
That’s a goal we can all move toward.
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