Awardees include CEC Commissioner Nancy Skinner, SFO, Sonoma County Sup. Lynda Hopkins, CalPortland, Rockwool & CalWEP
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (May 22, 2025) The U.S. Green Building Council California (USGBC California) will today present the Product & Civic Leadership Awards at its 24th Annual California Green Building Conference, being held for the first time in San Francisco. These awards acknowledge the leaders who are making a difference through outstanding achievements in sustainability, green building, and innovative products. The awards will be presented during the lunch hour (12:45-1:45p) of the Conference, an impact-oriented, one-day event that is the largest and longest-running gathering of leading advocates across California’s public and private sectors. For complete information on the day’s programming, please refer to the May 5th announcement, or visit the website for the agenda.
“Today, for the first time ever, we bring our Conference to the Bay Area, uniting green building leaders across our great state at an important moment when our leadership is needed now more than ever,” said USGBC California Executive Director Ben Stapleton. “Not only will we be celebrating the people and products creating a more sustainable path forward, but our panels, case studies, startup pitches, and speakers elevate and illustrate how we can increase resilience, while being green, today.”
THE AWARDS LIST
CIVIC LEADERSHIP AWARDS
- Policy Leadership Award: San Francisco International Airport (SFO). The award honors a municipality or agency that is leading the way in advancing green building and sustainability for California and beyond. SFO is being recognized for its exceptional and continued leadership in creating a resilient, healthy, and sustainable transit environment, particularly around waste, making the airport very deserving of this award.
- Elected Official Award: Supervisor Lynda Hopkins (Sonoma County, District 5). The award honors an elected official who is leading on sustainability for California and beyond. Supervisor Hopkins is being recognized for her work for the County of Sonoma, Sonoma Clean Power, RCPA, and many other climate focused organizations, including now CARB and the BAAQMD, as well as her values-based connection to nature and more.
PRODUCT AWARDS:
- Material Impact Award: Rockwool. The award honors a building product or material presenting the biggest opportunity to move the market forward by reducing embodied carbon in buildings across California and beyond. Rockwool is being recognized for its innovation and ongoing commitment to sustainable and resilient insulation materials and its role in driving carbon-smart construction, leveraging nature-based materials.
- Market Transformation Award: CalPortland. The award recognizes a product or solution that has significantly influenced the adoption of sustainable practices and transformed how the market approaches green building and sustainability. CalPortlandis being recognized for their leadership in low-carbon cement and sustainability is helping to transform construction across the West.
- Ripple Effect Award: California Water Efficiency Partnership (CalWEP). This new award honors innovation serving as a catalyst for sustainable water management. CalWEP is being recognized for their role in driving impact, water conservation, and increased resilience across California.
DAVID GOTTFRIED SUPERHERO AWARD
Commissioner Nancy Skinner, California Energy Commission. This award recognizes an individual’s outstanding stewardship in advancing regeneration in the built environment. The criteria include unprecedented vision, innovation, leadership, significant regenerative impact, and unending commitment. The Superhero’s contribution inspires others to step up their game and achieve higher levels of resiliency and global health. Retiring this year, Commissioner Skinner is being recognized as a lifelong champion of climate action and sustainability, whose vision and policy work have left an enduring legacy.
Stapleton continues, “We are especially pleased to reestablish the David Gottfried Superhero Award here today, as it was originated by our Bay Area community in 2009 and later given out globally by the World Green Building Council. David founded the U.S. and World Green Building Councils, and this award recognizes an individual’s outstanding stewardship in advancing regeneration in the built environment, a core focus of his. We are also fortunate that he has become a friend and frequent collaborator with USGBC California. We cannot think of a more deserving recipient to relaunch this award than Commissioner Skinner.”
Today’s Conference is a dynamic platform, with 20 panel sessions, 14 Table Talks, 12 Collective Impact™ case studies, company fast-pitches of innovations from the Net Zero Accelerator, and over 70 exhibitors and community organizations all coalescing to form what has become the West Coast’s premier green building experience. The five session tracks are Climate Action & Decarbonization, Rebuilding & Recovery, Equity & Healthy Buildings, Nature-based Solutions, and Water Innovation.
The Bay Area’s long-running, well-respected ‘Water Conservation Showcase’ presents this year as a dedicated track of four sessions along with the Water Innovation Pavilion, which will house six or more companies and organizations.
Three esteemed keynote speakers will appear throughout the day. Dr. Ruth Thomas-Squance of Build Healthy Places Network will offer the morning keynote (10:15-10:30am); California Senator Scott Wiener (D-11) will engage in a lunchtime Fireside Chat with USGBC California’s Stapleton (12:45-1:15pm); and reflecting the city’s renowned food reputation, Chef Rachelle Boucher of the Building Decarbonization Coalition will be the closing keynote speaker (4:20-4:35pm). Additional featured speakers throughout the morning include architect Bill Leddy, FAIA, whose company led the Gateway Pavilion’s renovation; San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman; and the U.S. Green Building Council’s Managing Director of U.S. Market Transformation & Development, Rhiannon Jacobsen.
USGBC California is grateful for the significant support for the California Green Building Conference: Assa Abloy, CalPortland, CALSTART, East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD), Energy Code Ace, Glumac, Green Building Initiative, Hathaway Dinwiddie, Rockwool, Sunbelt Rentals, and Trane. cNaught serves as carbon offsets sponsor, and Trellis Group serves as a media sponsor.
For further California Green Building Conference or USGBC California information, please contact Julie Du Brow at julie@usgbc-ca.org (310-922-1301) or Ben Stapleton at ben@usgbc-ca.org.
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About USGBC California
USGBC California is a 501(c)3 non-profit and member-based organization whose vision is to transform California’s built environment into a more sustainable, resilient, and equitable region for all. USGBC California comprises green building communities across the state. We lead by inspiring leaders throughout our communities to take action on climate change, public health, and environmental justice while educating, developing, and empowering a diverse talent pipeline through our training, mentorship, and direct-to-community programs. We connect by merging interdisciplinary perspectives and collaborations to create positive systemic change. We advocate through promoting innovative, impactful policy solutions addressing the most urgent environmental and social challenges of our time.(www.usgbc-ca.org)
