Longtime environmental leader John Sibley III is joining Southface Energy Institute as a senior policy fellow, I learned today at the Sustainable Atlanta Roundtable. An Atlanta native and Yale-educated lawyer, Sibley has a long track record of playing at the highest levels in Georgia environmental politics and policy. He’s a former president of the Georgia…
I was shocked and saddened to learn via a touching e-mail that Marlin Gottschalk, director of the Georgia DNR Sustainability Division, has died. In my occasional interactions with him, I found Gottschalk to be a warm, knowledgeable man with a integrity and a sense of humor. He headed the state Environmental Protection Division air quality…
Suzanne Burnes, a veteran environmental program manager, will become the new leader of Sustainable Atlanta on June 1. The nonprofit — formed in 2007 to partner with the city of Atlanta on environmental policies and programs — has been without an executive director since its founding executive director Lynnette Young left last December. Burnes brings a…
Gov. Nathan Deal has appointed three new members to the State Licensing Board for Residential and General Contractors. The board was created in 2004 to regulate construction contractors. Here are Deal’s three appointees, with descriptions provided by the governor’s office: William “Bill” L. Duck Jr.: Duck is the building official and Director of Inspections and…
Portugese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura famously once said: There is no ecological architecture, no intelligent architecture, no fascist architecture, no sustainable architecture – there is only good and bad architecture. That shouldn’t be taken to mean that Souto de Moura — who today learned that he’s this year’s winner of architecture’s highest award, the…
I’m Not So Fed Up with the brand known as Sarah Susanka. But I’m pretty darned close. Susanka, as you no doubt know, is an architect-turned-writer-turned-motivational-speaker — the author of the “Not So Big House” book series. She was a “master speaker” earlier this week at the Greenprints Conference and Tradeshow in Atlanta. It was…
Death and taxes may be sure things. For growth industries though, lawsuits are just about as inevitable. Congratulations, green building professionals: You have hit the big time! Veteran environmental attorney Stephen O’Day warns that lawsuits over a whole range of liability issues related to green construction are only now beginning to pop up around the…
As I interviewed Mandy Mahoney and two of her colleagues yesterday about her impending departure from city government, a couple of updates on other Atlanta-centric stories tumbled my way and are worth mentioning: Sustainable Atlanta: It sounds as if the nonprofit set up during the Franklin administration to help the city with its sustainability efforts…
Mandy Mahoney not only wrote the blueprint for the Atlanta Mayor’s Sustainability Office. For three years, she’s been its director. Now, Mahoney’s leaving her city job to become director of management and strategy at the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance. Mahoney’s departure comes only five months after she helped Mayor Kasim Reed unveil an ambitious sustainability…
