After serving as the CEO of the International Living Future Institute (ILFI) since 2016, Amanda Sturgeon, FAIA, announced that she will step down from her position in February. Under her leadership, the Seattle–based nonprofit has promoted green building practices around the world, creating standards such as the Living Building Challenge (LBC) and programs like the Living Community Challenge. Upon Sturgeon's departure, a transition team will lead ILFI while members of the ILFI board search for a new CEO.
Sturgeon joined ILFI in 2010, serving as vice president of the LCB until 2014 when she was appointed executive director of ILFI. She assumed her role as CEO two years later when the organization's founding CEO, Jason McLennan, transitioned to chair of the ILFI board of directors. In recent years, ILFI has grown into an international organization with 650 Living Building projects, and 27 affordable housing projects. In a letter emailed to the press, Sturgeon explained that she will leave ILFI “in a strong position and with programs ready to scale.”
“I will take what I have learned from leading this incredible, passionate community and continue to impact the world in new ways,” Sturgeon wrote in the same letter. “I believe this is the decade that counts for global climate change and life on Earth as we know it, and I know that I will continue to work alongside you as we envision and bring forth a Living Future for all.”
Before joining ILFI, Sturgeon was a founding board member of the Cascadia Green Building Council, a chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council. She also worked as the co-director of national sustainable design for the international firm Perkins+Will and as a sustainable building specialist for the city of Seattle.
