Gail Vittori
Encyclopedia
Gail Vittori is Co-Director of the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems, a non-profit design firm established in 1975 dedicated to sustainable planning, design and demonstration where she has worked since 1979.
certified building, the redevelopment of Austin's 709 acres (2.9 km²) former Robert Mueller Municipal Airport
including piloting LEED for Neighborhood Development, the new Austin Federal Courthouse, and the first LEED-Platinum certified hospital in the world, Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas.
Beginning in 2000, Vittori led several national initiatives focused on greening the health care sector and advancing environmental health considerations in green building. Examples include collaborating on the development of the American Society of Healthcare Engineering’s (ASHE) Green Healthcare Construction Guidance Statement, and the Green Guide for Health Care, convened by the Center in 2002, a project of CMPBS and Health Care Without Harm. She currently serves as a Co-Coordinator of the Green Guide for Health Care and is Founding Chair of the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED for Healthcare core committee (2004–2008). Vittori was the 2009 Chair of the U.S. Green Building Council’s Board of Directors. In 2009, Secretary Janet Napolitano appointed Vittori to the Department of Homeland Security’s Sustainability and Efficiency Task Force.
Vittori has spearheaded emerging green and affordable housing initiatives, tools and resources, including directing a Hands Across America
program in 1989 that created a building materials exchange and cooperative homebuilding training program for colonias residents along the Texas Rio Grande Valley
; consulting to the DC Housing Authority to establish a green materials library and assessment process; being invited to participate on the 5-person core development team of Enterprise Community Foundation’s Green Communities Initiative in 2004; and, in 2008, spearheading a successful initiative to develop green building criteria for the Texas-based Meadows Foundation capital grant funding.
In 1989, Vittori proposed a conceptual framework for what evolved as the City of Austin’s Green Building Program, the only U.S. program recognized at the 1992 U.N. Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, and the first green building program in the world. Along with Pliny Fisk, she oversaw the program’s early stage development through 1992. Austin’s Green Builder Program influenced the formation of the U.S. Green Building Council and LEED, in addition to scores of policies throughout the U.S. and abroad. Additionally, from 1988 to 1998, she served on the City’s Solid Waste Advisory Commission, six of those years as founding chair, a committee formed in response to a successful initiative co-coordinated by Vittori to cancel a proposed waste-to-energy
municipal solid waste
incinerator. Her work on establishing pay as you throw
recycling residential programs, in addition to recycling programs for the City’s commercial and multi-family sectors, has led Austin to having one of the nation’s most successful recycling programs. Her work in this area continues with promoting zero waste by 2040, adopted by the Austin City Council in January 2009. Vittori is on the advisory boards of Natural Home magazine and Environmental Building News.
and has two children.
Work
Since 1993, Vittori has coordinated the Center's Sustainable Design in Public Buildings Program, including serving as a sustainable design consultant for the Pentagon Renovation Program’s Commissioning Team from 1999 to 2006, numerous City of Austin design projects including Texas’s first public sector LEEDLeadership in Energy and Environmental Design
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design consists of a suite of rating systems for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings, homes and neighborhoods....
certified building, the redevelopment of Austin's 709 acres (2.9 km²) former Robert Mueller Municipal Airport
Robert Mueller Municipal Airport
Robert Mueller Municipal Airport served the Austin, Texas, United States, area until it was replaced by the Austin Bergstrom International Airport and subsequently closed in 1999...
including piloting LEED for Neighborhood Development, the new Austin Federal Courthouse, and the first LEED-Platinum certified hospital in the world, Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas.
Beginning in 2000, Vittori led several national initiatives focused on greening the health care sector and advancing environmental health considerations in green building. Examples include collaborating on the development of the American Society of Healthcare Engineering’s (ASHE) Green Healthcare Construction Guidance Statement, and the Green Guide for Health Care, convened by the Center in 2002, a project of CMPBS and Health Care Without Harm. She currently serves as a Co-Coordinator of the Green Guide for Health Care and is Founding Chair of the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED for Healthcare core committee (2004–2008). Vittori was the 2009 Chair of the U.S. Green Building Council’s Board of Directors. In 2009, Secretary Janet Napolitano appointed Vittori to the Department of Homeland Security’s Sustainability and Efficiency Task Force.
Vittori has spearheaded emerging green and affordable housing initiatives, tools and resources, including directing a Hands Across America
Hands Across America
Hands Across America was a benefit event and publicity campaign staged on Sunday May 25, 1986 in which approximately 6.5 million people held hands in a human chain for fifteen minutes along a path across the continental United States...
program in 1989 that created a building materials exchange and cooperative homebuilding training program for colonias residents along the Texas Rio Grande Valley
Rio Grande Valley
The Rio Grande Valley or the Lower Rio Grande Valley, informally called The Valley, is an area located in the southernmost tip of South Texas...
; consulting to the DC Housing Authority to establish a green materials library and assessment process; being invited to participate on the 5-person core development team of Enterprise Community Foundation’s Green Communities Initiative in 2004; and, in 2008, spearheading a successful initiative to develop green building criteria for the Texas-based Meadows Foundation capital grant funding.
In 1989, Vittori proposed a conceptual framework for what evolved as the City of Austin’s Green Building Program, the only U.S. program recognized at the 1992 U.N. Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, and the first green building program in the world. Along with Pliny Fisk, she oversaw the program’s early stage development through 1992. Austin’s Green Builder Program influenced the formation of the U.S. Green Building Council and LEED, in addition to scores of policies throughout the U.S. and abroad. Additionally, from 1988 to 1998, she served on the City’s Solid Waste Advisory Commission, six of those years as founding chair, a committee formed in response to a successful initiative co-coordinated by Vittori to cancel a proposed waste-to-energy
Waste-to-energy
Waste-to-energy or energy-from-waste is the process of creating energy in the form of electricity or heat from the incineration of waste source. WtE is a form of energy recovery...
municipal solid waste
Municipal solid waste
Municipal solid waste , commonly known as trash or garbage , refuse or rubbish is a waste type consisting of everyday items we consume and discard. It predominantly includes food wastes, yard wastes, containers and product packaging, and other miscellaneous inorganic wastes from residential,...
incinerator. Her work on establishing pay as you throw
Pay as you throw
Pay as you throw is a usage-pricing model for disposing of municipal solid waste. Users are charged a rate based on how much waste they present for collection to the municipality or local authority.A variety of models exist depending on the region and municipality...
recycling residential programs, in addition to recycling programs for the City’s commercial and multi-family sectors, has led Austin to having one of the nation’s most successful recycling programs. Her work in this area continues with promoting zero waste by 2040, adopted by the Austin City Council in January 2009. Vittori is on the advisory boards of Natural Home magazine and Environmental Building News.
Books and Selected Media
- She is co-author, with Robin Guenther FAIA, of Sustainable Healthcare Architecture, published by Wiley and Sons in 2008 (ISBN 0471784044).
- Vittori was featured as an Innovator: Building a Greener World in TIME Magazine in March 2007. and, with Pliny Fisk III, in Texas Monthly’s 35th year anniversary issue (February 2008) in the article ‘35 People Who Will Shape Our Future’.
Education and personal life
Vittori was a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University Graduate School of Design from 1998 to 1999, and attended the University of Massachusetts at Amherst where she studied economics. She is married to Pliny Fisk IIIPliny Fisk III
Pliny Fisk III is a co-founder and co-director of the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems , a sustainable design and planning 501c3 non-profit established in 1975...
and has two children.