zBlog

I am quickly finding I really enjoy doing these zHomepeople posts, because I learn a lot about people that I’ve been working with for a long time.  Such is the case with this post.

Mayor Ava Frisinger has a long standing commitment and orientation to the environment, in her words “the relationship of people and ecology”.  She was raised in rural Michigan, where the local farming community, and its rootedness to the Earth, helped form her thinking about human/environmental connections.  The Michigan wildlands – seen via canoe, hikes, and birding outings – also formed an early environmental ethic.  A major in English literature and an equal emphasis on biological sciences reflected these connections, and served to articulate and strengthen them. 

In 1967, Mayor Frisinger moved to Issaquah.  The City then had 4,000 residents, compared to the current 27,000.  The Mayor found Washington “unspoiled”, and felt even then a strong commitment to protecting that heritage.  In 1982, she was appointed to the Planning Commission, and sat on the City Council from 1986 to 1994, and also in 1996 and 1997.  In 1998, she was elected Mayor, a role she has served in to this day. 

Mayor Frisinger is known regionally as an innovator in sustainability and the environment.  She was an early advocate of the Issaquah Highlands and Talus urban villages, which were a new regional paradigm for contained, livable, walkable communities as an alternative to suburban sprawl.  Work with the Planning Accreditation Board and the Global Action Plan Eco Team program in the mid 90s gave her an exposure to sustainability that resonated with her already established values.  A sustainability symposium in Canada further heightened her interest, leading to establishment of the City’s Resource Conservation Office. 

zHome is lucky to count the Mayor as one of its strong supporters.  She has made the project a high priority, and has helped move it forward during its long and winding path.  But it will be just one part of the larger legacy she will leave the City. 

When I walked into Aaron’s office today to work on a grant application to the Department of Ecology, I noticed a framed chart showing his personality type – RED. I wasn’t sure if this was a warning, or simply informational, but it is right on. (If I remember right, red means assertive, Promethean, volatile, and generative).

Aaron is the Executive Director of Built Green. He was part of the core group that came together in early 2006 to shape and launch the project (that initial group included David Fujimoto and I from the City of Issaquah, Aaron and Koben Calhoun from Built Green, and Patti Southard and Katie Spataro from King County). From the start Aaron has been filled with a passion for what the project can be and mean in advancing ultra sustainable housing, but at the same time his passion is balanced with pragmatism and realism. He is quick on his feet, and is a very direct communicator (a couple of days ago, after Aaron shared some thoughts with Doug Howland, I asked Doug if those thoughts were consistent with what I had said, and Doug said yes, except that I had taken five minutes longer to say the same thing).

When he is not helping us move our project along, Aaron is focused on running the Built Green program. Built Green of King/Snohomish Counties is one of the largest and most successful green building programs in the country. Aaron manages the Executive Committee, certifies thousands of units a year, runs a major regional conference, and acts as one of the leading spokespeople for green building in the region. He manages this with a steadiness and verve that are the envy of many. We are lucky to have Aaron as part of our core team moving this project forward.

The first time I met Doug Howland, I was sitting in his office on Aurora Avenue in Shoreline – a cozy, camp-like double A frame (I actually quite like it) that will be soon replaced by an ultra sustainable, pull-out-the-green-stops office building.  He tossed a German stainless steel wire mesh catalogue in front of me and said, “This stuff is COOL!”  Our conversation branched out from there – into nuclear power plants, weird weather, inside politics in the computer industry, and the best way to caulk a joint between hardiboard and aluminum channels. 

Doug is the President of Howland Homes.  He came to Howland Homes from a very interesting and varied career – Senior Director in the Sun MicroSystems marketing group, Senior Manager at KPMG, and Senior Project Manager at Pacific Gas and Electric, where he troubleshot problems with nuclear power plants!  He is also a registered mechanical engineer.  So it comes probably as no surprise that he has an incredible natural curiousity about just about everything.

But when I was sitting down to write this, the first thing that I thought of about Doug are his values.  He clearly has a  powerfully visceral desire to do something about our environmental issues – like climate change – and not just wave his hands, but sit up, figure it out, and fix it.  He also has a heart to respond to those in need – which was immediately evidenced by his desire to donate one of the ten zHome units as an affordable housing unit.  So it was no surprise to me when at a recent community meeting Connie Marsh, an Issaquah resident and vintage clothing shop owner, described Doug as a “poet engineer”. 

It is a great pleasure to introduce Doug to you.  He is a terrific partner to be building this project with!