Bidding Farewell to James Connelly, Vice President of Strategic Growth

It is with sadness and pride that ILFI says goodbye to James Connelly as our Vice President of Strategic Growth. James has been a steadfast leader for ILFI over his eight years at the organization, bringing new programs to life, pushing the manufacturing industry toward higher standards, and advocating for transparency in materials and products. We will certainly miss James, his ambition and cheerful can-do attitude, and his laugh booming through the office. While we will miss him we know that he will continue to collaborate with ILFI and have great success in his new role as CEO at My Green Lab. 

Our Communications Director sat down with James and picked his brain one last time.

Nicole Van Batenburg: How did you originally find out about the Institute?

James Connelly: I originally learned about the Living Future Institute and the Living Building Challenge through my Senior Capstone project at the University of Washington where we developed initial concept designs for the Bullitt Center. In that studio, I met Denis Hayes, the founder of Earth Day and the President of the Bullitt Foundation. I was incredibly inspired by his vision for the building and knew I wanted to dedicate my life and career to sustainability. 

Unfortunately, I graduated in 2010, which was a terrible job market for architects, perhaps only rivaled by the current market. After college I ended up having a bunch of different jobs, including working as a project manager for the energy-efficient 787 Dreamliner. I got back into sustainability and architecture when I received a Fulbright Fellowship in China to study green building in China. 

I interviewed at ILFI only three days after I left China, and it has been an amazing ride for the past eight years. I started at a junior position, LBC Coordinator, and finished my tenure as Vice President of Strategic Growth, leading our organization’s overall growth strategy around the world. ILFI has been an incredible place to grow and develop as a professional. 

NVB: What do you remember from those early years that stands out?

JC: When I joined ILFI we were a small but mighty group of green building troublemakers. The Living Building Challenge really pushed the status quo for what mainstream green building could be and showed what was possible. Every new project was a first – the first school, the first commercial building, the first university building. 

Most everyone thought we were crazy and that our standards were too high, too aspirational. Fortunately, now with 120 projects all over the world and some incredible project teams, we are able to prove the doubters wrong. In the process, we redefined what is possible in the industry.  

NVB: How different is the organization now? 

JC: As I said at Living Future ‘20, now that we have proven the Living Building Challenge is possible, we must show that it is scalable. My focus for the past three years has been on engaging major corporations, educational institutions, government agencies and developers to really push the envelope and make Living Buildings the norm, not the exception. 

We are no longer a group of renegade upstarts; rather, the Living Building Challenge is widely regarded as the North Star of the green building movement. Everyone is realizing the things ILFI was promoting a decade ago are not only achievable, but absolutely necessary if we are going to meet the critical issues of our time. Living Building principles also result in better buildings that provide more value to the owners, occupants and the overall community.  

NVB: Which accomplishment at ILFI are you most proud of?

JC: That is a really difficult question since I have had the incredible opportunity to be involved in the creation and launch of so many programs, including Declare, Just, Living Product Challenge, Zero Carbon, LBC 4.0, and much more. 

However, If I have to pick, it would be the materials initiative through Declare and the Living Product Challenge that I led at ILFI. The program began with me literally cold calling manufacturers to try to explain the importance of transparency and toxic chemical avoidance. Nearly every manufacturer I spoke to told me there was simply no way they would disclose their ingredients and it was fairly uncommon for the design or construction industry to discuss the impact of building materials on people’s health.  

That effort, through Declare, has now sparked a global movement where transparency and disclosure of toxic chemicals are quickly becoming the expectations of any ethical player in the building industry. That was a huge transition, and will have a massive long-term impact on the health of people and the planet. 

Furthermore, the impact of those toxic chemicals is generally focused on the least fortunate in society. I recently saw a map of the disproportionate impacts of COVID-19 in the US. Sadly, it was nearly identical to Cancer Alley, a region of the country with historic levels of toxic chemicals and plastic production. This has led to higher rates of cancer, obesity, learning disabilities and other reproductive diseases that we are fighting against at ILFI.

The elimination of these chemicals in the building industry is perhaps one of the most important impacts ILFI can have on the world. This also led to the next step in my career to My Green Lab, which also has a strong focus on Green Chemistry.  

NVB: What elements of ILFI are you looking forward to bringing to My Green Lab?

JC: An element of ILFI that I hope to bring to my new role is how effectively we provide a positive, hopeful vision of the future, of where we need to move as an industry. Given the current climate emergency, we must go beyond meeting the market where it is and providing incremental change. Instead, we need a bold, aspirational vision for the future that our society, our companies, and our industries can achieve at a pace and scale we didn’t yet know was possible.  

I will always hold that audacious vision in my heart and hope to bring that ethos to any role I take on in the future. 

NVB: How do you see the future of ILFI and sustainability?

JC: The UN has designated the next ten years as the Decade of Delivery on climate change and the other critical issues of our time. We simply don’t have time to procrastinate or argue anymore. We have to completely transform our building industry, our life science industry and our entire society and culture if we are going to avoid the tragic consequences of climate change, skyrocketing income inequality, pervasive toxic chemicals and the other ‘signal issues’ of our time.

A true paradigm shift is necessary, and organizations like ILFI and My Green Lab offer the type of visionary solutions necessary to reconcile society with the natural world—so the futures of these organization are bright. We have proven that a new way to design and organize our society is possible. We must now work collectively to achieve these solutions at scale and ensure they move from cutting edge to mainstream.  

NVB: What will you most miss at ILFI? 

JC: It is difficult to express without getting too emotional how much I am going to miss the incredible staff and community at ILFI. We have such an amazing global community from Australia and New Zealand, to China, Europe, Canada and Latin America—all united around a common goal and purpose and actively supporting each other. I was inspired by these leaders every day, and they helped me continue to be persistent in my role in the face of pervasive obstacles. 

ILFI also has an amazing and passionate staff. I have had the opportunity to recruit, manage and work with some amazing leaders in my team, that are now ready to step up to the plate with this transition. I am confident the organization will grow and thrive in the future under their direction.

While I have a new role at a different organization, we continue to work towards the same shared future and vision, and I will be doing everything I can to support ILFI as a volunteer and from the outside.

Thank you for eight amazing years, James! Learn more about My Green Lab here.

Below is a brief timeline of James’s accomplishments and history with ILFI.

2010

James is introduced to the Living Building Challenge while working on initial concepts for the design of the Bullitt Center while studying at the University of Washington. He meets Denis Hayes, the founder of Earth Day and dedicates his life and career to sustainability. 

2011

James received a Fulbright Fellowship from the U.S. Department of State to research green building in China and helps develop China’s Green Building Standard, 3 Star.

2012

James joins ILFI as an LBC Coordinator and his first task is to launch Declare, the ingredients label for building products, while supporting the Living Building Challenge. 

2013

Declare recruits the first ten Pilot Companies for Declare, the online database is launched, and the program begins to scale and change the conversation on Material Transparency. 

2014

James launches Just, the social equity and transparency label for ethical organizations, which reinforces ILFI’s mission to lead the transformation to a future that is Socially Just, Culturally Rich and Ecologically Restorative.

2015

James collaborates with ILFI Vice President Kathleen Smith to author the Living Building Challenge Framework for Affordable Housing and to bring the benefits of the Living Building Challenge and Healthy Materials to our most vulnerable populations.

2016

ILFI launches the Living Product Challenge, with an aim to completely upend the manufacturing paradigm by pushing companies to produce regenerative products, which produce more positive good than the negative impact they create. That same year, James is promoted to the Director of the Living Product Challenge, and leads the growth and development of the program.

2017

James produces and launches the first ever Living Product Expo, with the theme of Healthy Materials for All, a first of its kind event to accelerate the transformation of the materials economy.

2018

James is promoted to Vice President of Strategic Growth, and tasked with working across all programs to lead ILFI’s global expansion, including some of the first projects in Europe and South America.

2019

ILFI launches Living Building Challenge 4.0, with a number of major ‘Volume Commitments’ that James recruited from some of the world’s most influential companies and institutions including Google, King County, PCC Community Markets and two innovative Affordable Housing developers. 

James supports the launch of Living Future Europe under the leadership of the current President Carlo Battisti and becomes a founding board member. 

2020

In the face of the global pandemic and under James’s leadership of the event, ILFI pivots to move the Living Future unConference online, and hosts its first ever truly global online experience that reaches its most diverse and global audience since the creation of the event.