Christine Ervin, a nationally respected leader and spokesperson on market-based strategies for green buildings, clean energy and climate change is the President of Christine Ervin/Company, which focuses on sustainable market transformation. Her career as an environmental leader spans executive positions across national, state and nonprofit sectors. As the President and CEO of the U.S. Green Building Council, Ervin led its growth from 200 members and three staff in 1999 to become a highly influential coalition of 4,500 companies and organizations, 50 staff and 70 local chapters and affiliates. During her five-year tenure, the Council’s LEED® green building rating system became the defacto national standard for certified green buildings and professional accreditation. She played the lead role in launching the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo, which most recently drew 7,500 attendees. Ervin was Assistant Secretary of Energy for the nation’s $1 billion portfolio of clean energy technologies. The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, with its 700 staff, ten regional offices and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, focuses on private/public partnerships to develop and commercialize new technologies for transportation, buildings and major industries. Over her four-year tenure, she led initiatives to launch the EPA-DOE Energy Star partnership; a national center on sustainable communities; overhaul of the national appliance standards program, and several voluntary market-based programs including Million Solar Roofs and private sector financing initiatives for energy retrofits. In 1991, Ervin was appointed by Governor Barbara Roberts to direct the Oregon Department of Energy and to lead a state task force on livable communities. Ervin’s served as a project manager at the World Wildlife Fund/The Conservation Foundation. Key projects included an evaluation of eco-labeling programs, an initiative to develop common protocols for product life cycle assessments, and co-direction of an EPA project to develop consensus recommendations on eliminating waste at the source. Ervin received her graduate degrees in physical/water resources geography at Oregon State University and studied post-graduate economics at the Universities of Missouri and Maryland.