William Browning, leading advocate for sustainable building and real estate development, to speak April 29
William Browning, an award-winning and nationally known strategist and advocate for sustainable building and real estate development, is the next Opus Distinguished Speaker at April 29 at University of St. Thomas’ Opus College of Business.
Browning is a founder and principal of Terrapin Bright Green, a Washington, D.C.-based strategic consulting firm that crafts high-performance environmental strategies for large-scale developments, corporations and governments.
His presentation, titled “New Directions in Green Development,” is free and open to the public from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 29, in the auditorium of Schulze Hall on St. Thomas’ downtown Minneapolis campus. A reception follows. To register, send e-mail to cobevents@stthomas.edu .
Early in his career, Browning helped build visionary thinker Buckminster Fuller’s last experimental structure based on advanced geometry systems. In 1991, Browning founded Green Development Services at Rocky Mountain Institute, an entrepreneurial, nonprofit “think and do tank” whose work advanced energy-efficient, environmentally responsive design. In more than 300 consulting projects at RMI, Browning worked on new towns, resorts, building renovations and high-profile demonstration projects, including the Sydney 2000 Olympic Village and others. He also has worked on energy efficiency improvements for the Pentagon and other U.S. Department of Defense facilities. In 1999 Green Development Services was awarded the President’s Council for Sustainability Development Renew America Prize. Browning remains a senior fellow at RMI.
Browning is a founding member of the U.S. Green Building Council board of directors and serves on its governing board. He also has served on boards or advisory roles for many other organizations, including the Nature Conservancy, Greening America, the American Institute of Architects, the Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education, RealEnergy, the Roaring Fork Conservancy and the American Society for Testing and Materials. He is a member of the Real Estate Advisory Council for the Trust for Public Land and an editorial adviser for Environmental Building News, Environmental Design + Construction magazine, and Green@Work, a corporate sustainability magazine.
Browning has a bachelor’s degree in environmental design from the University of Colorado and a master of science in real estate development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1998 he was named one of five people “Making a Difference” by Buildings magazine. In 2001 he was selected for honorary membership in the American Institute of Architects, and in 2004 he received the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership Award.
For more information about Browning’s visit or the Opus Distinguished Speaker series, call Joanna Nute in the Opus College of Business, (651) 962-4281.
