In reflecting on 2019, I am encouraged by the growth in awareness, urgency, and action on the issue of climate change.
Never before have we seen so many news clips, articles, and calls to action from a growing range of voices and perspectives. And I have never been more optimistic about what we as an organization can do to address the climate crisis locally. Improving building energy efficiency and sustainability is one of the most important and cost-effective climate solutions, and also presents significant local economic and environmental benefits.
The work that our members, volunteers, partners, and staff have accomplished together over this past year is something to celebrate. Whether it was the passage of the new Building Energy Performance Bill, our sold-out Groundbreakers awards highlighting the region’s most impressive green building projects, or improving the efficiency of our Pathways schools, we continue to make great strides and see measurable results on sustainable buildings. We also wrapped up another year of our Passive House & Living Future Community-led Demonstration Projects, gaining insight into the challenge of transforming the iconic Philadelphia rowhouse into an efficient, resilient home in a changing climate.
Our growing membership remains a source of new ideas and inspiration; you’ll see some of their voices featured throughout this report, highlighting unique perspectives and motivations for advancing green building. Their time, knowledge, and service to our mission is what drives Green Building United to achieve all that we have. We also recognize that, currently, not everyone’s voices are at the table. With this in mind, we will continue to address the diversity gap in our field of work, and strive to ground our policy and programmatic work in equity and inclusiveness. I invite you to support, promote, and hold us accountable to these goals.
Looking ahead, we see tremendous potential in scaling our current efforts, and an enormous amount of solutions-based work that we are eager to take on with your support. Together we can transform our region’s built environment to be sustainable, healthy, and resilient for all.
