ILFI announces new Board Chair to lead CEO transition

January 21, 2020 (SEATTLE) – The International Living Future Institute (ILFI) announced today that Anthony Guerrero, Chief Real Estate and Sustainability Officer at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), will become their new Board Chair. Vivian Loftness of Carnegie Mellon University will also join the Board as a Director. 

ILFI is currently seeking a new CEO, after its current leader Amanda Sturgeon announced she would step down from the position on February 4, 2020. 

At NRDC, Guerrero leads core operations and sustainability across its offices worldwide, which include Beijing; San Francisco; Bozeman, Montana; Santa Monica, California; Chicago, Washington, D.C.; and New York City. Its Chicago office was the first tenant improvement project in the world to achieve Living Building certification. 

“Between my time on the board and my experience advancing Living Building Projects, I am deeply committed to ILFI’s mission,” said Guerrero. “During the CEO transition, I’m looking to bring both a steady hand and my perspective as a leader of color to help ensure the Institute continues to define what ‘good’ looks like.”

Loftness, the former Head of the School of Architecture at Carnegie Mellon, is an internationally-renowned researcher, author and educator with over thirty years of focus on environmental design and sustainability, advanced building systems integration, climate and regionalism in architecture, and design for performance in the workplace of the future. She has served as an advisor to ILFI’s Biophilic Design Initiative. 

“Given the challenges facing our planet and the people who call it home, I share the sense of urgency driving ILFI’s programs,” said Loftness. “We all have a responsibility to push the envelope on climate action, and I look forward to joining the board of this world leading organization.”

ILFI’s Board of Directors include the following:

Board Chair: Anthony Guerrero, Chief Real Estate and Sustainability Officer at NRDC

Vice-Chair: Paolo Bevilacqua, General Manager at Frasers Property Australia

Vice-Chair: Elizabeth (Beth) Heider, Chief Sustainability Officer at Skanska

Treasurer: Tom Bland, owner of Sequoia Financial Consulting

Secretary: Margaret Montgomery, Principal and Global Sustainable Practice Leader at NBBJ

Immediate Past Chair: Jason McLennan, founder and CEO of McLennan Design

Members: 

  • Ted van der Linden, Principal at Integral Group
  • Ibrahim Abdul-Matin, Urban Strategist and Author, Green Deen: What Islam Teaches About Protecting the Planet
  • Vivian Loftness, University Professor and former Head of the School of Architecture at Carnegie Mellon University
  • Carolyn Aguilar Dubose, Professor at Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City
  • Lisa Petterson, Senior Associate at SRG Partnership
  • Richard Piacentini, President and CEO at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens

About the International Living Future Institute

The International Living Future Institute is an environmental NGO committed to catalyzing the transformation toward communities that are socially just, culturally rich and ecologically restorative. ILFI is premised on the belief that providing a compelling vision for the future is a fundamental requirement for reconciling humanity’s relationship with the natural world. ILFI operates the Living Building Challenge, the built environment’s most ambitious performance standard. It is a hub for many other visionary programs that support the transformation toward a living future. Learn more at www.living-future.org.

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CONTACT:

International Living Future Institute

media@living-future.org

206-223-2028

Written By

ILFI Staff