The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the leading authority on green building, announced six recipients of its 2025 USGBC Leadership Awards. The annual awards recognize organizations and individuals whose exemplary work has been influential in the expansion of sustainable, high-performing buildings and communities. 

The USGBC Leadership Awards honor industry trailblazers who have been at the forefront of USGBC’s movement to transform the built environment and lead the way in making best practices standard across the building industry. The 2025 recipients have a track record of leadership in driving innovation, education, and performance to scale green building and accelerate market transformation. 

“This year’s awardees are a testament to leadership with vision and purpose. They represent the very best of what our movement can achieve,” said Peter Templeton, president and CEO of USGBC. “As we confront the climate challenges ahead, their relentless commitment to sustainable building is helping advance our industry and inspire others to take meaningful steps toward a more sustainable and resilient future.”

This year, USGBC has introduced a new award – the inaugural Emerging Leader award – to recognize and elevate a new wave of changemakers who are making a meaningful impact today while shaping the future of the green building movement. It will be given to an individual with up to 10 years of professional experience who has demonstrated early leadership in their field. 

The Emerging Leader recipient will be announced during the USGBC Leadership Awards Celebration on Wednesday, Nov. 5, in conjunction with the annual Greenbuild International Conference & Expo, the largest gathering of green building industry leaders and experts. The winner will be recognized on the main stage along with the other awardees. The evening gala is open to 2025 Greenbuild conference attendees. 

Leadership Award for Organizational Excellence 

The Leadership Award for Organizational Excellence is given to outstanding organizations whose vision, leadership and commitment have significantly advanced the green building industry. This year’s recipients are:

• Catalyst Partners, a collaborative team of credentialed professionals committed to high-performance and regenerative design protocols for buildings, interiors, landscapes, and products, has been a local and national leader in sustainability and an engaged member of the USGBC community for decades. The company’s work supporting high-performance buildings – including on more than 100 LEED-certified projects – positively impacts communities and proves the business case for sustainably designed and operated buildings. Additionally, Catalyst team members have served in key volunteer leadership roles, contributing to the evolution of standards and the adoption of green building practices across the industry. 
• Arup, a global built environment consultancy providing advisory and technical expertise across more than 150 disciplines, has led the way in making positive connections between the built and natural worlds, advancing design and engineering solutions that benefit both human and environmental well-being. Its pioneering work on decarbonization, resilience, biodiversity, circularity, and health has transformed industry practice by embedding sustainability as a core principle of world-class buildings.
• Cindy Jacobs, Jean Lupinacci, Jon Passe, and Michael Zatz are former civil servants and leaders at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR commercial, residential, and industrial programs. They were instrumental in creating the foundation for transformative energy and emissions reductions across the industry. Today, ENERGY STAR tools are used to measure and optimize the energy performance of more than one quarter of all U.S. commercial space, and hundreds of thousands of homes are being built to the ENERGY STAR standard. The ENERGY STAR program and its partners have collectively prevented 4 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions and saved Americans more than $500 billion in energy costs.  

The Kate Hurst USGBC Leadership Award 

The Kate Hurst USGBC Leadership Award is presented to an outstanding female leader who has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to sustainability in the built environment. Throughout her 15-year career at USGBC, Kate worked tirelessly to support the leaders in the green building community and made the Greenbuild platform a global experience. This year’s recipient is:

• Grace Kwok with Allied Environmental Consultants is a green building practitioner, educator, and advocate whose work has enabled organizations across Asia and beyond to meet their sustainability goals. Her passion, dedication, and lasting commitment to sustainability are exemplary and have inspired many professionals across the industry to follow her lead in working to make a positive impact in their organizations and communities. 

Malcolm Lewis IMPACT! Award 

The Malcolm Lewis IMPACT! Award was created in honor of Malcolm Lewis' significant contributions to the success of the LEED rating system and his work as a member of the LEED Steering Committee, chair of the Technical Scientific Advisory Committee, and LEED Technical Committees. The award celebrates volunteer efforts from across the U.S. that advance green buildings and communities. As part of the award, USGBC will make a $10,000 donation to support the continued impact of volunteer efforts. The winner of this year’s Malcom Lewis IMPACT! Award is: 

• The LEED v5 committees have contributed thousands of hours volunteering for the Steering Committee, Consensus Committees, Technical Advisory Groups, and working groups, which drove LEED v5 development from concept to reality. Their collective vision and world-class expertise raised the bar for green building leadership, uniting proven best practices with innovative approaches that will shape the next era of impact.