Mr. Nadav Malin, green building superhero, champion of spreading knowledge of sustainable design, and President of BuildingGreen Inc. has received AIA’s 2018 Honorary Membership. AIA recognizes the notable contributions and services of people outside of the architecture profession with Honorary Membership in the Institute.
For the past 25 years, Nadav Malin, Hon. AIA, has played a critical role in mainstreaming sustainable design into the practice of architecture. A mentor for the profession’s leaders, Malin shares his deep knowledge through writing and teaching, and informs architects with honest, evidence-based solutions.
Since the early 1990s, Malin has been a participant on and informal advisor to the AIA Committee on the Environment, co-authoring the seminal “AIA Environmental Resource Guide” and its subsequent iterations. He helped the committee formalize the COTE Top Ten Awards, improving the submission criteria and jurying process. By leveraging federal funding, Malin helped design and develop online submission forms for the awards that are integrated with the U.S. Department of Energy High Performance Federal Buildings Database. That effort resulted in greater publicity for award-winning projects through the websites of the department and its partner organizations.
Tapped by the U.S. Green Building Council to join the LEED Steering Committee, Malin chaired a technical advisory group overseeing the Materials and Resources category of the LEED Rating System. In that role, which he held for eight years, Malin helped resolve several contentious issues, including the place of PVC in LEED-certified buildings and the role of sustainable forestry certification programs.
In 2008 Malin and the colleagues at his firm, BuildingGreen, convened with sustainable design directors from 50 of the country’s leading architecture firms for two days of knowledge-sharing. It quickly became an annual summit described as “the best combination of professionalism, intimacy, and collaboration available anywhere,” the informal organization it nurtured—the Architecture and Design Sustainable Design Leader network—improving sustainable design at countless firms and influencing the industry as a whole.
During its formative years, Malin helped the AIA’s Materials Knowledge Working Group establish initial priorities and direction by facilitating a two-day workshop. He was lead author for the first-ever white paper on materials transparency and risk, which has since served as an invaluable resource for advancing professional ethics while managing liability risks. BuildingGreen, along with general counsels for four prominent firms, broadcasted the first webinar on the topic, and Malin later designed a workshop with input from legal counsel, professional liability insurance providers and brokers, and AIA staff.
Through his transformational and collaborative leadership, Malin has elevated the profession and continues to serve the AIA by positioning it at the forefront of human health.
Be the first to comment