Most Influential: Jason McLennan

McLennan’s mission is idealistic yet simple: to change the way the world builds

Jason F. McLennan [ CEO, Cascadia Region Green Building Council ]

McLennan’s mission is idealistic yet simple: to change the way the world builds. Specifically, he wants all buildings to be zero-energy and so has issued a worldwide challenge to create such a building. McLennan, who earned his architecture degree from the University of Oregon and a master’s from the University of Kansas, got an early perspective on the environment in his nickel-mining hometown of Sudbury in Ontario, where harsh chemicals stripped the landscape of green. Soon after he came to Seattle in 2006 to head up the Cascadia Region Green Building Council, he launched “The Living Building Challenge.” A living building must generate its own energy, use only water falling on site, be free of toxic materials, be on non-virgin land and maximize access to fresh air and daylight. Now in its second full year, the program has generated worldwide buzz, emerging as a new movement in the architecture and engineering fields, and shining the spotlight on Seattle as one of the epicenters for green building. It’s also starting to generate results. In 2010, Cascadia will begin certifying the finished projects (including a private residence in Victoria, B.C.). Says McLennan: “We have all the technologies that we need now. The real challenge is to change people’s mindsets about what is possible—and this is possible.”