Meet The 2019 Award Winners
The 2019 Women in Sustainability Leadership Awards honored ten amazing, inspiring and determined Women. Meet them below!
Rebecca Boenigk
CEO, Neutral Posture
Rebecca Boenigk doesn’t back down. In 1997 her ergonomic seating company Neutral Posture became the first and only certified women-owned business to be traded on the NASDAQ before a family buyout of public shareholders in 2001 made Neutral Posture a privately held company again - a very proud moment for Rebecca. Today she continues to collect firsts, as she was also the first female president of BIFMA. Her husband of 31 years has been by her side the entire time, getting engaged just 7 weeks after their first date and married 8 weeks after that.
Eden Brukman
Department of the Environment, City and County of San Francisco
If you don’t know Eden Brukman, you should. She co-authored the Living Building Challenge and directed its evolution and global deployment, and served as the first Technical Director of the Health Product Declaration Collaborative, which quickly became one of the most widely recognized transparency tools in the industry. Today Eden serves as the Senior Green Building Coordinator for the San Francisco Department of the Environment, and she has mentored all over the world—including training volunteers in 19 countries as part of the International Living Future Institute’s Ambassador Network program. Fun fact, practicing Tai Chi with a sword is her preferred method of meditation and stress relief.
Dr. Lisa Dyson
Cofounder and CEO, Kiverdi
In 2011 Lisa Dyson founded Kiverdi, a biotech company with NASA-inspired technologies that amazingly transforms carbon dioxide into people- and planet-friendly nutrients and bio-based products. One of her biggest accomplishments is actually Air Protein, a commercial food company she founded as a spin-off of Kiverdi, and it was just announced they are making the world’s first air-based meat. Dr. Dyson lives in California and definitely takes advantage of the beautiful terrains and outdoors, going camping almost every Friday.
Genell W Ebbini
Assistant Professor, Indiana State University
Genell started her own sustainability design firm, enFusion2, to make a difference at home and abroad. In 2010 Genell actually moved to Jordan to manage an international team working on a proposed 200,000-square-meter USGBC LEED project. She has shared some of this overseas work with her students at the University of Minnesota, even taking them to Jordan as part of a study tour. Genell believes it is her job, as an educator, to plant the seed for change, which she does one day at a time empowering her designers to be the change agents we need for a more sustainable future. Being raised in Honolulu, we wonder if Genell also passes on her professional Hula skills to her students.
Maureen Eisbrenner
CEO & Founder, arbnco
Maureen Eisbrenner has founded not one, not two, but three companies in her career. As the current founder and CEO of building performance technology company arbnco, based in Glasgow Scotland, her work has helped to create a market-disrupting product that reduces carbon emissions and monitors indoor air quality with a myriad of solutions. The company’s efforts are already making visible change in the UK, and that work continues globally. However, her greatest source of pride is the people of arbnco and the culture they have created, constantly humbled by the incredible talent and dedication of her extraordinary team.
Arathi Gowda
Associate Director and Sustainability Team Leader, SOM
Arathi Gowda has jumped out of a plane, but she says the scariest thing she’s done is speak about sustainability to audiences who can’t see past the bottom line. She joined Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) in 2004 and leads weekly High-Performance Design meetings and other sustainability initiatives. She helped develop a web-based HPD portal that’s now used by SOM offices all over the world. Outside of SOM, she’s also been involved with the first Design-Build program in the Philippines and has been volunteering with an organization called Rebuilding Together Metro Chicago for the last 10 years doing amazing work locally and abroad.
Dr. Susan Klosterhaus
Vice President of Science & Certification, Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute
Susan leads the Cradle to Cradle Certified Products Program, oversees development of the Cradle to Cradle Certified Product Standard, and serves as the Chair of the Institute’s Standards Steering Committee.
Janice Lao
ESG Director, Helen of Troy
Janice Lau may be a scientist, but she’s committed to talking about sustainability in ways everyone understands. She spends a lot of time listening to colleagues all over the world to better understand how it is that they perceive sustainability; this helps to make sustainability a core part of the mission of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels’, where Janice worked as the director of corporate responsibility and sustainability. Somehow in between raising her kids and juggling an executive career, Janice finds time to freestyle rap! We will have to hear some of this at some point, Janice.
Sara O’Mara
Director of LEED / Environmental Services, Choate Construction Company
Sara O’Mara is a groundbreaking leader in sustainable construction within the Southeast. She is a LEED Fellow, Fitwel Ambassador and a WELL AP. Sara’s experience and knowledge in sustainable construction is immense. She has worked on 16+ million square feet of high-performance buildings, each of which sought third-party certification through such rating systems as LEED, WELL, Fitwel and Green Globes. These rating systems give her a variety of approaches and the ability to tailor solutions to every client’s needs. Sara always looks at new innovative marketplace solutions which provides owners with healthier building features while delivering maximum return on investment.
Jeannie Renne-Malone
Vice President of Global Sustainability, VF Corporation
Jeannie recently took on a new role as vice president of global sustainability for apparel and footwear company VF Corporation, but she’s long been shaking up industries to make them more sustainable. While at Prologis, Jeannie’s ongoing efforts to bridge environmental stewardship and social equity were very apparent, most recently focusing on the health and wellbeing of the people inside buildings and leading the process for the first WELL certified warehouse at Prologis. And looking to carry this work forward in her new position at VF as well. To demonstrate her determination even more, as newlyweds, her and her husband summited Mount Rainier, a 14 thousand foot mountain, one of the most challenging summits in the country.