Rick Fedrizzi expresses appreciation to many who have helped him lead USGBC over the years.
It’s been two weeks since my final Greenbuild has come and gone. And now my last day at USGBC is coming to a close. But there are a few thoughts I want to leave with you, a few people I want to acknowledge, for helping make this the ride of my life.
David Gottfried
When I presented David Gottfried with his USGBC® Leadership Award at Greenbuild, something gnawed at me at the time and kept gnawing at me the remainder of the day. And I realized: Yes, David richly deserved a Leadership Award. And yes, he has remained, even in absentia, one of the pillars upon which USGBC continues to grow. But what was bothering me is that we have a lot of new, young and eager keepers of this flame of ours, and very few of them have ever met David Gottfried, much less been exposed to the story of his seminal role in the creation of USGBC.
David is a person who’s simply wired differently from most others. His sense of right and wrong is like forged steel. His understanding of a holistic approach to problem solving, creating and human wellness is something special. And his compassion for his fellow humans and future generations is a life force at which I stand transfixed, in some childlike combination of reverence and awe.
Since the beginning, David has been the soul and conscience of the green building movement. No matter where I went during my two-decade run as head of USGBC, and no matter what the circumstance, David, his thoughts and his words were never far from me. And as you slowly relegate Rick Fedrizzi and his tenure to the pages of your memory, I ask only that you do so with David Gottfried where he belongs: by my side and in my heart. Because that’s where he’s been the entire time.
Cathy Fedrizzi
Speaking of heart and soul, I want to take another brief moment here to thank my wife and best friend, Cathy, for all her support, faith and deep understanding throughout my days at USGBC—especially during its early years, when nothing was a given and nothing, and I mean nothing, seemed certain.
And as happy as I’ve been watching both USGBC, GBCI® and Greenbuild grow over the years, that happiness pales in comparison to the happiness I’ve felt knowing that Cathy has been by my side the whole time, pushing me forward when I needed a push, offering me a shoulder when I needed to vent, and inspiring me to reach beyond my grasp whenever things seemed the darkest.
Volunteers
When we started down this path 23 years ago, I had not one clue just how much the kindness of strangers would come to mean. These folks weren’t really strangers, of course. They were volunteers I hadn’t yet met, people who saw our vision and wanted to be part of it, people who raised their hands and said “How can I help?”
How quickly those people dug in, self-organized, became experts, advanced our ideas and embraced our cause. Boards, chapters, committees, councils, individuals and teams by the thousands are how we took our seed of an idea and made it into a movement. Every minute of volunteer time invested in our work has had a huge return on impact that will never be adequately measured.
Then came our international partners, now more than 100 green building councils working together in the World Green Building Council. Overnight, our work became global. To every one of you, I extend my sincere gratitude for your time, your expertise, your friendship and yes, your kindness.
Our team
Sometime during Greenbuild, I read on Twitter a quote that stuck with me all week: "A team isn’t a group of individuals that work together. A team is a group of people who trust each other."
That pretty much sums up the incredible group of 263 people assembled under the USGBC and GBCI banners, and each and every one of them brings their best self to the table every day. Sebastian Junger talked about the power of tribe, about what it’s like to be part of a supportive community with a shared vision and common purpose. And that actually makes us more than a team; it makes us a family. To each of them, and to all our alumni who’ve gone on to carry out our mission in their new lives, I say a heartfelt thank you. You’ve touched my heart in unique ways, and I’ll carry you with me wherever I go.
Mahesh Ramanujam
In all candor, I wasn’t sure what to expect going into my final Greenbuild. I was sure there would be some level of sadness and perhaps even an aching sense of loss. But all that was tempered by an almost crackling sense of excitement over the challenges and opportunities that wait for me next month at the International WELL Building Institute.
But one feeling that I had at Greenbuild truly surprised me. As I watched my dear friend, colleague and successor Mahesh Ramanujam deliver his extraordinary closing plenary speech, I was suddenly filled with an incredible sense of closure.
Mahesh’s speech was not just another garden-variety address to a crowd antsy to get on with the weekend or to make its way home. It was passionate. It was thoughtful. It was visionary. And it was brilliant. It was, in other words, everything that Mahesh is.
And in that moment, I suddenly felt a remarkable sense of calm and completion. "USGBC has been my baby," I thought. "I helped it take its first steps as a toddler and helped it navigate its teenage years. But now my baby has grown, and it is ready to not only leave the nest, but to soar."
And as I watched Mahesh speak, and as I listened to his words, my heart became filled with joy. Because it was crystal clear that not only will Mahesh Ramanujam be a great leader for this organization, he is the perfect one.
Best of luck, Mahesh. You are my brother from another mother, and I can’t wait to watch from a slight distance as you and USGBC and GBCI soar to even greater heights and do for cities, states and even countries what together we’ve managed to do for buildings.
Building and being
Speaking of buildings, it’s ironic that so many people’s takeaway from my final official address to Greenbuild was not any of the thoughts or ideas that I labored over for weeks. It was not of the images I shared or the energy I tried to communicate.
It was a slip of my tongue. At one point, rather than using the commonplace expression I intended, I said: ”And so I say this with every fiber of my building...I mean being.”
It was perhaps the most Freudian slip I’ve ever committed, and one that could have never been scripted—because, frankly, I’m not that good an actor. But as I look back at Greenbuild 2016, if not my entire time at USGBC, it remains a moment so rich in irony and poignancy that I’m not sure, for all the public speaking I’ve done during my run, I have ever uttered truer or more revealing words.
For some time now, I have grown more and more committed to an extension of our movement, and I find myself excited to get on with it. My new focus will still be on sustainable buildings and communities. But it will deal more directly with the human element of those things and will focus on how human health and wellness might be enhanced by a more prudent use of resources and a more enlightened understanding of our living, working, educational and recreational environments.
Same cause, you see—just a slightly different perspective.
But here’s the rub. Although I may have passed the torch to Mahesh, that torch has grown too unwieldy for any one person to carry. That’s where you come in. You—and I mean every last one of you—must help him carry the torch we all helped ignite so many years ago, just as you have always helped me.
When we gathered a couple of weeks ago in the City of Angels, I knew we couldn’t have picked a more poignant place in which to pass the torch, or a place more profound and moving, than a conference full of angels. Because that’s what you are, my friends: angels in the cause of sustainability. And our movement would not be here without you.
So as I step away, I do so with no fear or trepidation, no doubt or regret. There is, instead, an incredible sense of confidence that this raging flame of ours will be held high and shine even brighter in the generations to come.
Thank you for everything you’ve done for me and everything you’ve given me. It is a debt I will truly never be able to repay. I love you all, and will cherish my memories of you—of us—forever. Godspeed.