Green Business Certification Inc. Canada (GBCI Canada) has announced the five board members from Canada and the U.S. who will provide green building leadership and expertise to the new joint venture between GBCI and the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC).

Image courtesy of GBCI Canada

GBCI Canada was created to accelerate growth in the adaptation of green building practices in Canada. Its core purpose, according to a CaGBC news release, is to ramp up the delivery of certification and credentialing services for a range of existing and new products through state-of-the-art delivery platforms.

GBCI Canada’s green building product offering includes the LEED green building rating systems, WELL, Parksmart, TRUE and the Investor Confidence Project (ICP).

The new GBCI Canada’s Board Members are:

1. Brian Denney, former CEO of Toronto and Region and Conservation Authority (TRCA) and former CaGBC National Board member.   In this role, a position he held for more than a decade he transformed Toronto with the development of waterfront parks, extensive shoreline protection works, flood protection and erosion control projects, land acquisition and conservation park development.

2. Lachlan MacQuarrie, vice-president, Real Estate Management, Oxford Properties Group, has more than 18 years of real estate experience, primarily focused on investments, development and asset management. He leads the National Programs team at Oxford Properties, focusing on the delivery of best-in-class efficiency, expertise and governance across all asset classes within Oxford.

3. Taryn Holowka, senior VP of Marketing, Communications and Advocacy, U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), heads up all global marketing, communications and public affairs efforts for USGBC and its LEED green building program. She is also responsible for the marketing and communications of a variety of other programs at GBCI including EDGE, Parksmart, PEER, SITES and TRUE.

4. Peter Papagiannis, COO, Brookfield Global Integrated Solutions (BGIS) and former CaGBC National Board member, is responsible for the delivery of facility management services across BGIS globally, including supporting service teams covering quality, health and safety, risk management, environmental management and strategic sourcing.

5. Jonathan Westeinde is the founder and CEO of Windmill Development Group, a visionary real estate development company dedicated to transforming conventional development practices using the triple bottom line approach of people + planet + profits. In his role, Westeinde is specifically interested in creating alternative financing vehicles to embed sustainability into projects.

For more information on GBCI Canada’s programs and services, visit www.gbcicanada.ca.