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For Immediate Release
Life Cycle Expert & Harvard Educator Joins International Living Future Institute as its Chief
Scientist Gregory Norris will work to support the development of key Living
Future Challenge Programs.
PORTLAND, Ore. — July XX, 2014 —The International Living Future Institute™ today announced the addition of Dr. Gregory Norris, an internationally acclaimed Life Cycle Analysis and ‘handprinting’ expert, to its team.
Norris is the co-director of the Sustainability and Health Initiative for NetPositive Enterprise within the Center for Health and the Global Environment at the Harvard School of Public Health. He has taught Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) at HSPH since the late 1990s, and also teaches a course in LCA every fall which is available via distance to students world-wide through Harvard's Extension School. He also is the founder of New Earth, a non-profit institute developing technologies that enable people across the globe to drive sustainable development “from the bottom up.” Its projects include Earthster, an open source platform for product-level sustainability assessment, Handprinter, which helps people take actions at home and work that more than compensate for their environmental and social “footprints,” and the Social Hot Spots Database, a transparent data source on supply chain impacts and opportunities for improving human rights, working conditions, community and other social impacts. “We are so very lucky to have Greg on board. He brings a rigor and expertise to our Challenge programs, including Living Product, Living Building and Living Community,” says Amanda Sturgeon, Executive Director of the International Living Future Institute. “Together, we aim to create sustainability solutions that move across industries and scales and better address the social and environmental crises humanity now faces.”
In 1996, Norris founded Sylvatica, an international life cycle assessment institute that has consulted on LCA to the United Nations, governments across the globe, Fortune 500 companies as well as smaller companies, industrial associations and non-profits. Norris and International Living Future Institute CEO Jason F. McLennan met shortly after Sylvatica was founded and worked together to create some of the first LCA tools used in the building industry. “I am very excited to have the opportunity to work with Greg again after our many successful collaborations of the past,” McLennan says. “He will help us deepen our technical reach in changing the design and construction industry.” Norris will remain in Boston and serve as the Institute’s Chief Scientist, helping provide additional technical depth to the recently announced Living Future Challenge.
######## About The International Living Future Institute: International Living Future Institute is an environmental NGO committed to catalyzing the transformation toward communities that are socially just, culturally rich and ecologically restorative. Composed of leading green building experts and thought-leaders, the Institute is premised on the belief that providing a compelling vision for the future is a fundamental requirement for reconciling humanity’s relationship with the natural world. It operates the Living Building Challenge, Cascadia Green Building Council, Ecotone Press and other critical leading-edge programs. The Living Building Challenge is the 2012 winner of the Buckminster Fuller Prize. For more information, press only: Amanda Sturgeon, 206.223.2028 ext. 24 [email protected] Gina Binole, GBM Communications, 503.234.5770 & [email protected]
