Jerry Yudelson

Leading Green Building Expert

Jerry Yudelson is a LEED Fellow, Federal GSA National Peer Professional and the author of 13 books on green buildings, water conservation, green homes, green marketing and sustainable development. He has been involved in the green building movement since 1997 and co-founded the first USGBC chapter, Cascadia, in 1998. Jerry also served for six years as chair of the steering committee for Greenbuild, the largest green building conference and trade show in the US.

LEED

Jerry was one of the first ten faculty members in the US for the LEED system and has trained nearly 4,000 building industry professionals in the LEED system.

Books

Yudelson is the author of over a dozen books, including the often-cited Developing Green: Strategies for Success and Marketing Green Buildings. He has written for many magazines and journals, including Home Energy Magazine, Building Design & Construction, Environmental Design & Construction, Consulting-Specifying Engineer, The Construction Specifier, and Eco-Structure. His most recent book is The World’s Greenest Buildings: Promise vs. Performance in Sustainable Design. His next book, Reinventing Green Building, will be published in the spring of 2016 by New Society Publishers.

Affiliations

In 2014 and part of 2015, he served as president of the Green Building Initiative (GBI), a national nonprofit and the US provider of the Green Globes green building rating and certification programs.

Early Career

His career in green building covers a wide spectrum of roles and issues. He was co-founder and director of the Green Building Services consulting unit of Portland General Electric. He has worked as a consultant for federal agencies, state governments, local governments and utilities. He has been the marketing director for two engineering firms in design and construction, worked in project development for wind power, co-generation, and photovoltaic systems, and been a management and marketing consultant for 200 firms ranging from Fortune 500 companies to small product manufacturers.

Education

Jerry is a registered professional engineer with more than 25 years’ experience. He holds engineering degrees from Caltech and Harvard University and an MBA (with highest honors) from the University of Oregon. He was a Rotary Foundation Fellow for graduate work in engineering at the Technische Hochschule in Aachen, Germany.

PRACTICAL GREEN BUILDING: HOW TO GET SUSTAINABLE BUILDINGS TO THE OTHER 99%

Despite the manifold successes of the green building movement the past 15 years, taken together, all rating systems have certified fewer than 1% of the total buildings in the US & less than 3% of the building area in the nonresidential sector. Climate change and the requirements of Architecture 2030 demand that we move quicker to reduce energy use from the building sector. In this talk, Jerry presents a vision for “A Practical Approach to Green Building” that will lead to a much faster uptake for green building throughout the US.

WHY BUILDING PERFORMANCE MATTERS

Residential, commercial and industrial buildings contribute 40% of US greenhouse gas emissions; improving building performance dramatically holds the key to a low-carbon future. What factors drive building performance, and what can you do to ensure a more livable future? In this presentation, Jerry Yudelson presents the results his research into high-performance buildings around the world, encapsulated in his landmark 2013 book, The World’s Greenest Buildings: Promise vs. Performance in Sustainable Design (London and New York: Routledge).

20/20 VISION: 10 GREEN BUILDING MEGATRENDS

What are the 10 major trends shaping the built environment for the next five years? How can your company or organization prosper from recognizing and acting on these trends? In this timely and dynamic presentation, Jerry Yudelson presents key trends that are shaping the future: high-performance, net zero energy buildings; Cloud-based building management systems, millions of solar rooftops, climate change, resilient design and more. You’ll surely walk away with 10 actionable ideas for profiting from these megatrends.

GREENING EXISTING BUILDINGS: KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

Greening existing buildings is often more valuable, but harder than new construction. Building on his pioneering 2009 book, Greening Existing Buildings (New York: McGraw-Hill), Jerry Yudelson presents a clear path for greening any existing building, using key performance indicators to manage for outcomes and to monitor for results.