Award Recipients to Be Honored during Building Innovation 2018

“Welcome to the 2017 Beyond Green™ Awards jury,” said Institute President Henry L. Green, Hon. AIA. “This year’s jury has a diverse range of experience in achieving high performance in a variety of building types. I thank them for participating on the jury and look forward to seeing who they select to receive Beyond Green™ Awards in January.”

The Beyond Green™ High-Performance Building and Community Awards recognize those buildings, initiatives and innovations that are influencing, informing and inspiring the high-performance planning, design, construction and operations processes. The jury is responsible for selecting those projects and activities that best exemplify the eight design objectives of high performance from all of the entries submitted to the Institute by the extended November 15 deadline.

Deane M. Evans, FAIA, is director of the Center for Building Knowledge (CBK) at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. CBK is a multi-disciplinary research and technical assistance center focused on improving the performance of buildings and communities. A registered architect, Evans has over 30 years of experience in both the private and public sectors in creating and disseminating information on high-performance buildings; including jobs as: senior principal at Steven Winter Associates, a building systems consulting firm; vice president for research at the American Institute of Architects in Washington, D.C.; and the founding director of the Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing (PATH) program at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. Evans helped initiate the Beyond Green™ Awards Program when he served as vice-chair of the Sustainable Buildings Industry Council.

Justin J. Zeulner, executive director and co-founder of the Green Sports Alliance, is one of the principal leaders of the sports greening movement. Zeulner has helped guide the Green Sports Alliance in reaching critical mass and major influence within the global sports industry. Prior to joining the Green Sports Alliance, Zeulner was a senior program developer at Vulcan, Inc., the philanthropic and innovation company founded by Paul G. Allen. In this role, he was responsible for public engagement and campaign development around conservation and climate change. Prior to that, he served as senior director for sustainability and public affairs for the Portland Trail Blazers. Among his accomplishments there, he was directly involved in economic development, government relations and environmental initiatives that led to the Trail Blazers assuming a leadership role in the sports greening movement and the Moda Center achieving LEED Gold status, the first LEED Gold existing building in professional sports in the world. A graduate of the University of Oregon with a Master’s degree in Business Administration, Zeulner is a native of Portland, Oregon.

Bill Updike is a principal with Integral Group. He focuses on the company’s sustainable consulting practice as well as assisting with business development for their deep green engineering practice. Prior to joining Integral Group, Updike served as the chief of the Green Building and Climate Branch in the District of Columbia’s Department of Energy and Environment, where he was responsible for policies and programs related to green building, climate change and other built environment sustainability planning for the city. Prior to joining the department, he worked as a project manager for a renewable energy company, as a green building construction manager for a design/build firm and as an outside sales representative for a green building supply company. In the early part of his career, Updike worked as an environmental journalist for two national magazines. He received one of the inaugural BOLD Awards at Greenbuild in 2015 and a Living Building Challenge Hero Award from the International Living Future Institute, also in 2015. Updike holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame and a master’s degree from the University of Arizona. 

Evans, Zeulner and Updike will select the winners of the 2017 Beyond Green™ Awards from all of the entries submitted. The 2017 award categories include: High-Performance Buildings; High-Performance Attributes and Systems; High-Performance Initiatives; and Innovations for High-Performance Buildings and Communities.

In a change of venue, the Institute will recognize the 2017 award winners on Wednesday, January 10, 2018, during its Annual Awards Banquet. As part of the awards presentation, the Beyond Green™ High-Performance Building and Community Award winners have the opportunity to present their projects and highlight the challenges and opportunities they faced while delivering high-performance buildings.