The U.S. Green Building Council's CEO Rick Fedrizzi, Hon. AIA, is stepping down from his role at the helm of the green-building organization sooner than anticipated to become the CEO and chairman of the International Well Building Institute (IWBI), the IWBI announced today. The IWBI administers the Well Building Standard, which monitors a building’s performance based on its impact on the health and well-being of its occupants. Fedrizzi announced his planned departure from the USGBC last summer. He will step into the role of IWBI chairman immediately and of CEO effective Nov. 4, 2016. At that point, Mahesh Ramanujam, the USGBC’s current chief operating officer, will take over for Fedrizzi as CEO. (Read ARCHITECT’s Q-and-A with Ramanujam on his new position, here.)
Fedrizzi co-founded the USGBC in 1993 and served as its volunteer founding chair until 2004, when he became its CEO. In 2009, he took over the third-party Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI), which provides credentialing and certification services for the USGBC’s LEED program as well as the IWBI's Well Building Standard. In addition to his work with the USGBC and the IWBI, Fedrizzi also serves on the board of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Bank of America’s National Community Advisory Council.
His latest move mirrors the IWBI's and USGBC's ongoing push to align the Well Building Standard with LEED. IWBI, a for-profit social enterprise, launched version No. 1 of the Well Building Standard in October 2014 and has since registered more than 200 projects in 21 countries, accounting for more than 45 million square feet of built space. The GBCI offers third-party certification for the Well Building Standard and administers an IWBI professional credential that aligns with LEED's professional credentials.
This post has been updated.
