CSU’s Dunbar named to U.S. Green Building Council’s Advisory Council

Note to Reporters: A high-resolution photo of Dunbar is available at http://col.st/BM67Q.

The “green” streak at Colorado State University continues.

Brian Dunbar, executive director of CSU’s Institute for the Built Environment, was recently elected to the prestigious national Advisory Council of the U.S. Green Building Council.

Dunbar will serve a three-year term in the USGBC Advisory Council’s education seat, alongside recognized leaders in architecture, urban planning, engineering, real estate, facility management and construction. As ambassadors for the global sustainability movement, the 20-member Advisory Council provides visionary industry leadership, connects with key stakeholder groups and identifies emerging technical and engagement opportunities.

USGBC has 13,000 member corporations and organizations, including CSU, the City of Fort Collins and 88 of the top Fortune 100 corporations. USGBC, which created and maintains the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Rating System, has 73 regional chapters in the U.S., and helped establish the World Green Building Council, which is home to 72 green building councils.

The USGBC selected Dunbar as one of the nation’s first LEED Fellows in 2012, and he remains one of only two such Fellows in Colorado. The CSU professor emeritus, who holds two degrees in architecture from the University of Michigan, created the graduate emphasis in sustainable building and multiple courses on sustainability at Colorado State. He also taught interior design and construction management coursework, and co-founded the Institute for the Built Environment in 1994.

Through IBE, an interdisciplinary applied research institute that engages faculty, students and industry partners in healthy and sustainable planning and design issues, Dunbar has guided project work and facilitated design charrettes for the National Park Service, American Institute of Architects, cities, school districts and the Colorado Energy Office. Dunbar is co-author of 147 Tips on Teaching Sustainability, and he was named a “Hero of Sustainability” by the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado in 2008 for his impact on green building and sustainable development in Colorado and the West.

At CSU, Brian is an advisory council member for the School of Global Environmental Sustainability and a member of the CSU President’s Sustainability Committee. That committee helped earn Colorado State the world’s first Platinum STARS rating from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education in March.

The USGBC hosts regional and international conferences such as Greenbuild, which attracts more than 20,000 built environment professionals and students annually. The USGBC is connected to the Green Business Certification Institute, which performs LEED certification and LEED accreditation, the WELL Building Standard and other recognized certifications. There are nearly 160,000 LEED-accredited architects, engineers and other building professionals in the U.S. and another 40,000 internationally.

The Institute for the Built Environment is in CSU’s College of Health and Human Sciences.

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