All 2011 LEED Fellows

Biography

As a consultant, educator, advocate and design architect, Jim Weiner has been privileged to take part in the international movement toward sustainability and the USGBC for several decades. As part of the first cohort of LEED Faculty and now as Faculty Mentor, he is helping create the next generation of educators who will teach about sustainability and LEED around the world. Education, advocacy and demonstration projects have been the focal points of his career. Early in the evolution of LEED, Jim designed public libraries funded by a state bond program that showed the potential of benchmarking sustainability goals. Their success inspired city and state governments to use LEED for other publicly funded programs. The Lake View Terrace library he designed with FDAE was certified LEED Platinum and won a national AIA/COTE Top Ten Award.

Jim was the Founding Co-Chair of the USGBC|Los Angeles, Vice-Chair of the USGBC's Professional Education Committee, and a member of the Education Core Committee of the USGBC. He served on the board of the Sustainable Policies Institute and of AIA-LA. He also served on the on the working group that designed the city of Los Angeles Sustainable Building Policy, and was a member the Energy Efficiency Program Advisory Group for Southern California Investor-Owned Utilities. He founded one of the first sustainable design studios and LEED consultancies integrated with a major architecture and engineering firm, and has both designed and consulted on LEED Platinum projects. He often conducts training sessions at Greenbuild and was an original Instigator of the Greenbuild Slam.

As the President of the Architectural Foundation of Los Angeles, he founded the Design Green Awards, one of the first programs to honor excellence in architectural design among LEED Certified projects. The most recent Design Green Jury was held in Copenhagen hosted by the Bjarke Ingels Group. He travels abroad frequently to teach, to conduct research, make conference presentations and to serve on international juries. In Japan, where he has presented at several conferences including the 2005 World Sustainable Building Conference, he collaborates with a local Faculty colleague to initiate some of the first LEED projects in that country.

Jim studied the fine arts, environmental science, and economics at Pitzer College, and Politics and Values at George Washington University. After a summer program in design at RISD, he earned his Masters in Architecture from Rice University. His approach to projects and to creating policy is inspired by his experience as a student and artist, as an educator and designer, and as an advocate. In regard to LEED, the process is more important than the points. His current practice, Collaborative Project Consulting, works with a wide range of clients and partners, offering a diverse array of innovative and comprehensive services. The firm works with governments and non-profits, architects and engineers, corporations, major utilities, and colleges and universities. Collaborative’s focus is to inspire, support and nurture the sustainability champions on every design, construction and policy team.

Work