Chief of Engineering at USGBC: Brendan Owen

<p><strong>Brendan Owen</strong> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">oversees technical development and integration of rating systems at USGBC. In this role Brendan collaborates with teams developing LEED, PEER and other rating systems and led the team that established the overarching system goals for LEED v4. He is currently working to integrate this thinking into the other programs USGBC collaborates with.  Brendan is a member of the integration committee working to align Standard 189.1, the IgCC and LEED. He is a board member of the New Buildings Institute and is deputy director of the center for cycling technology at USGBC. Additionally, Brendan is a board member of the foundation USGBC that is partnering to build the William Jefferson Clinton Children’s Center in Port au Prince, Haiti.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Brendan is a proud Boilermaker, a licensed Professional Engineer and was honored as a LEED Fellow in 2012.</span></p> <p> </p> <h3><strong>Brendan Owen - Spark of Interest</strong></h3> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Brendan</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">was born in Alabama and his father was in the Coast Guard.  He bounced around from mostly Great Lakes and Gulf Coast states throughout his childhood. Brendan ended up at Purdue University largely because of the strength of the engineering program. He had little affiliation to the Purdue prior to ending up there.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Brendan never considered sustainability a conscious choice, but part of his dad’s job in the coast guard was environmental protection under sort of a marine safety heading and a lot of times his dad would end up doing response activities to oil spills or any other type of a disaster at sea.  It was easy for Brendan to sort of understand the environmental ramifications of that type of activity and the responses that were necessary.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">"</span></em><em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">I think if