Success in Sustainability: An Evolution from Good Idea to Corporate Requirement

The Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems Gail Vittori, LEED Fellow, Co-director of Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems, works at the intersection of green building, sustainable development and human health. She is the 2017 Board Chair of Green Business Certification Inc., and served on the U.S. Green Building Council Board of Directors from 2002-2010, including in 2009 as Board Chair. Her work has spanned private and public sector projects, including Principal Sustainability Consultant for the Pentagon Renovation Project, and Sustainable Design/LEED Consultant for numerous healthcare projects, including Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas—the first LEED Platinum hospital in the world—and, currently, Dell Seton Medical Center at The University of Texas. Ms. Vittori is co-author of Sustainable Healthcare Architecture, is a Founding Member and currently Vice-Chair of the Health Product Declaration Collaborative Board, and was a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. She was recognized in July-August 2015 Design Intelligence as one of the five top role models in sustainable or high performance design, and is the recipient of the 2015 Hanley Award for Vision and Leadership in Sustainability.il Vittori, LEED Fellow, Co-director of Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems, works at the intersection of green building, sustainable development and human health. She is the 2017 Board Chair of Green Business Certification Inc., and served on the U.S. Green Building Council Board of Directors from 2002-2010, including in 2009 as Board Chair. Her work has spanned private and public sector projects, including Principal Sustainability Consultant for the Pentagon Renovation Project, and Sustainable Design/LEED Consultant for numerous healthcare projects, including Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas—the first LEED Platinum hospital in the world—and, currently, Dell Seton Medical Center at The University of Texas. Ms. Vittori is co-author of Sustainable Healthcare Architecture, is a Founding Member and currently Vice-Chair of the Health Product Declaration Collaborative Board, and was a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. She was recognized in July-August 2015 Design Intelligence as one of the five top role models in sustainable or high performance design, and is the recipient of the 2015 Hanley Award for Vision and Leadership in Sustainability.

Ecology Action Before Joining the Ecology Action Board of Directors in 2013, Karly Jo served as a Co-Director and Financial Manager of Ecology Action.  She is a co-founder of the Central Texas Zero Waste Alliance and Treasure City Thrift in Austin Texas.  Karly Jo has a JD from the University of Texas, School of Law and is an Equal Justice Works Fellow at the Texas Fair Defense Project.

State of Texas Alliance for Recycling

Sara Nichols is the Executive Director for the State of Texas Alliance for Recycling (STAR), a nonprofit organization representing the diverse consortium of recycling professionals in Texas and beyond. At STAR, she implemented and now administers the Master Composter program, runs many successful industry events, facilitates private/public partnerships and stakeholder dialogue, and has been published in national trade publications. Sara was an integral part of the Texas Recycling Data Initiative (TRDI) team, which worked to develop the framework for a survey to take the first look at what recycling is occurring in Texas since the 1990s. The report was released in February 2015, and the results have been presented at multiple conferences and industry events. Sara is currently working as a subcontractor on the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s “Study on the Economic Impacts of Recycling,” which is the result of legislation that was passed in the 84 th Texas Legislature in June 2015. Sara sits on the Steering Committee of the National Recycling Coalition’s Recycling Organization Council, is a SWANA Young Professional, and is an active member of the Hill Country Conservancy’s Emerging Professionals in Conservation (EPIC) group. Prior to entering the recycling industry and moving to Austin, she worked as a freelance journalist and copy editor for the Houston Chronicle and as a junior account executive at a boutique public relations company in Houston. She has more than six years of experience in communications, with an emphasis on writing and copyediting. She holds a degree in print journalism from the University of Houston.