All posts by David Gottfried

What’s your morning ritual?

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We’re a bit nuts in the Gottfried household in the morning, which doesn’t surprise many who know me or my wife, also known as Dr. Sara. She’s a doctor who practices functional medicine and a three time New York Times bestselling health author. And as you likely know, I’m a green building nerd, obsessed with not only LEED Platinum buildings, but those that have gone deeper into regeneration of energy, water, and our health.

How we wake up each morning has lasting impact. Do you race out of bed to the kitchen to get your morning caffeine, or do you meditate quietly for 30 minutes as you calm your sympathetic nervous system and lower your cortisol? Do you take the time to eat a nutritious breakfast, or consciously skip it as you rush out the door? And what measurements or supplementation, if any, do you perform or take each morning?

This blog shares the quirky inside scoop of our morning rituals – mostly health based, that help set us up for a fabulous day of energy, mental acuity, and athleticism. Most of them I like, a few are tolerable and one I hate… Continue reading →

Episode 47 Vince Sicilliano

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Can you imagine a bank where the mission is to promote well-being for people and the planet: An institution where money and banking can do good for the community and its employees can bring their values to work?

Well, that small bank actually exists in San Francisco and is called New Resource Bank. In full disclosure, I bank with them and have had several loans, including one that financed our previous highest rated LEED Platinum solar home.

Learn about New Resource Bank and its unique sustainability values and banking products in this week’s Regen360 iTunes podcast show with its President and CEO, Vince Sicilliano. Vince has an environmental and banking background and he’s passionate about their unique integration of values a full 360.

To banking with sustainability and our future!

David

What’s the benefit of your labor?

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On Monday we celebrated Labor Day. Since its first celebration in 1882 in New York City, the holiday has been dedicated to worker’s social and economic achievements that have helped advance the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.

This is my first of many blogs to come, and I’d like to reflect a bit on the nature of our labor and its relationship to transformation. I’ve also got a few announcements for you below, including a priority wait list sign up for my new forthcoming BuildMove pilot trainings.

I’ve experienced several epiphanies that not only changed my life but my relationship to labor. Since that first one in 2001, when I’d taken a hard look at who I’d become: fancy Armani suits, Ferragamo loafers and slicked back hair. I’d strayed far from my true nature and could no longer hear my calling. I realized that I could change my work in the real estate field to add greater value, meaning, and health. I no longer needed to solely work on maximizing profit but could embrace a newer definition to include people and planet – what we now refer to as the triple-bottom-line.
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Episode 46 Mahesh Ramanujam

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The statistics of the U.S. Green Building Council and the global movement that it helped spawn are almost beyond belief, especially for me as its founder and first CEO, going back to October 1992 when I set out to begin working on its start-up in San Francisco.

This week’s Regen360 iTunes podcast features an interview with Mahesh Ramaujam, USGBC’s new President and CEO. He took over late last year from Rick Fedrizzi, who now heads of the Well Building Standard.

In our conversation, we learn of the unprecedented stats of USGBC and about Mahesh’s agenda for continuing to make the organization a global leader and as he says, “relevant.” His three areas for continued excellence include:

  • driving consensus
  • innovative business strategies
  • authentic thought-leadership
  • the business case for a sustainable built environment

During our conversation, I got goose bumps when Mahesh quoted: “If you love something, set it free.” You’ll also learn more about that and how USGBC is now engaging the lowest 20% of buildings to go green.

To boosting triple-bottom-line profitability through our buildings and homes!

David Gottfried

Episode 45 Sander Paul van Tongeren

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I’ve long believed that if you want to boost global sustainability, then work on greening real estate – our buildings and homes. The impact is vast in terms of energy, water and materials consumption, and health of occupants and the planet.

GRESB is a nonprofit based in Amsterdam [and is a subsidiary of the GBCI] and is having huge success with its benchmark tool in assessing some of the world’s largest real estate portfolios. The membership organization has participants from 60 countries, including some of the world and US’s biggest pension fund investors, such as CALPERS.

Join me in this week’s Regen360 iTunes podcast show where I interview GRESB’s Co-Founder and Managing Director Sander Paul van Tongeren. We learn more about GRESB and its enormous initiative, organizational details, and annual growth, as well as what drives Sander Paul.

To the greening of real estate portfolios while boosting profit!

David

Episode 44 Joel Makower

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How we define a life well lived? It helps to interview someone who’s been at it for four decades and found their sweet spot for contribution and joy.

In this week’s Regen360 iTunes podcast show we hear from Joel Makower, the Chairman and Executive Editor of GreenBiz Group. They’re the producer of the VERGE conference and also GreenBiz forums and the State of Green Business report. Joel is a journalist by training and loves the convergence of sustainability with technology and innovation.

We discuss some of Joel’s insight into green business successes and his thoughts on the future, as well as reflecting on his active career and legacy.

To the greening of business!

David

Episode 43 Amory Lovins

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For most of my life, we’ve taken the wrong path and failed to take the sustainable road. Capitalism fought sustainability, viewing it as another form of regulation and increased costs and risks.

But to deny sustainability and its integration to all creation is to not only heighten risk but fail to reap huge financial rewards while boosting health for the planet and all living.

Amory Lovins helped us shift the energy paradigm in his 1976 Foreign Affairs article, Energy Strategy: The Road not Taken. His work sparked worldwide revolutions and billions of dollars of energy conservation and renewable power.

This week’s Regen360 iTunes podcast show features a conversation with Amory Lovins. His impact is just about second to none. Through his extensive library of publications, global keynotes and 35 years of leading the think tank Rocky Mountain Institute, he has helped us define and travel “the road not taken.”

Amory’s brilliance has been focussed on inventing a new triple-bottom-line economy, or as he co-authored, Natural Capitalism. He synthesizes complicated calculations the way we breathe oxygen. It seems each year he has invented another start up or ecological concept that will not only help save Earth, but add trillions of dollars of growth to the global economy. Instead of fighting capitalism like some NGOs, his organization harnesses its strength and innovation to create capital growth through enormous energy savings and integrative design.

I encourage you to tune in to this week’s Regen360 iTunes podcast show to hear Amory Lovins, one of the planet’s most important visionaries.

To building the road not taken together!

-David

Episode 42 Lewis Perkins

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What is cradle to cradle?

It’s a concept developed by William McDonough and Michael Braungart in their bestselling book written in 2010.

Out of the book’s traction, they invented a framework and then certifying standard for manufacturers to use for their products. Then they gifted it to a non-profit organization which is now working with 250 participating companies who are applying the certification to over 6000 products.

In this week’s Regen360 iTunes podcast show, learn about Cradle to Cradle and the good work its Innovation Institute is doing with my interview of its President, Lewis Perkins. Lewis has a deep background in sustainable products and is working collaboratively to grow their certification in the market while personally living a life of passion, purpose, and legacy.

Perhaps you’re running, working or thinking of starting up an organization with a goal of not only growth but sustainable or health transformation. A key component to market viralocity is inventing a credible standard with third party certification and training. This is what USGBC did with its LEED Green Building Rating System.

Regen360 podcast shows seek out credible transformation organizations and leaders and the interviews endeavor to reveal their secret sauce and tools for radical change [and benefit].

To radical transformation!

David