Peer networks that allow knowledge sharing and collaboration between sustainability professionals
The Sustainable Design Leaders network and Summit events started over 10 years ago, when a group of sustainable designers realized that the struggles they faced and the goals they strove toward were shared by many other architects in sustainability roles. These designers decided to come together and create an event where sustainability leaders could collaborate, share advice and challenges, and figure out how to move the industry forward.
Since then, the Sustainable Design Leaders network has grown organically into a diverse community of architects in various sized firms, as well as sustainable construction leaders and sustainability consultants.
As anyone who has participated in a Summit knows, this is a special community. A community where people share ideas and best practices, where they support one another and feel comfortable bringing up struggles and roadblocks they face. The culture of safe space allows for unparalleled sharing.
Now that the network has grown to include many different types of professionals in the sustainability space, we will be organizing participants into peer groups in order to maintain this unique culture of support and sharing. We will also continue to provide a forum for the entire network to talk to one another.
Starting in September 2018, in order to participate in online forums and be invited to Summits, each participant will be charged an annual membership fee of $325 per person.
We will be organizing network participants into one of these peer groups:
- Sustainable Design Leaders at Large Firms (50+ employees)
- Sustainable Design Leaders at Small Firms (less than 50 employees)
- Sustainable Construction Leaders
- Sustainability Consultants
Each peer group will receive:
Private Discussion Forum
Your own online discussion forum to ask questions and get advice from peers on issues that affect your work.
Whole Network Discussion Forum
Access to the all-encompassing Green Gurus discussion forum that includes members of all the other peer groups.
In-Person Summit
Invitation to an annual in-person Summit for your professional peer group.
- The Summit is not a conference with outside speakers or a workshop—it’s a gathering of like-minded professionals facing similar issues and interested in sharing their successes and challenges with one other.
- The Summit agenda is created from a pre-event survey in which registrants list their “top-of-mind” topics.
In-Person Networking Events
- Invitation to Greenbuild Show + Tell networking event with all BG Communities
- Invitation to meet-ups at other events such as Living Future, AIA Convention
Resources & Lessons Learned from Summits
Access to Summit Documentation and shared resources with detailed notes, and priority access to Executive Report from each Summit
Custom Research
Each year we create a custom survey based on a question or need from your peer group—past examples include a salary survey.
How to participate:
Everyone eligible for one of the peer networks will have until the end of January 2019 to pay their membership fee. The membership fee will enable us at BuildingGreen to facilitate and support each community in a robust way, including everything from organizing regular regional leaders meetings, to hosting in-person meetups such as the GreenBuild Show + Tell, to conducting custom research and reporting.
Attending in-person Summits will require an additional registration fee.
We feel confident that this new Communities structure will enable BuildingGreen to maintain the unique qualities we all value about the Sustainable Design Leaders network, while also enhancing what the network has to offer.
By organizing professionals into peer groups, we will maintain safe space for learning from one another and ensure that conversations are relevant to the group participating. The network will grow stronger and more connected through additional in-person and online meet-ups, more forum functionality, new capabilities for research, and things yet unimagined!
Icon credits: Collaboration icon by Kidiladon from the Noun Project; beer icon by Freepik from www.flaticon.com.
