Robert Watson is one of the pioneers of the modern Green Building Movement. He founded the LEED Green Building Rating System of the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) in 1994 and was its Founding Chairman through 2005. Mr. Watson is the Chairman, CEO and Chief Scientist of The EcoTech International Group (ETI) and its subsidiaries American SinoTech and EcoTech India, which he launched in 2007 to meet the demand for green building technologies and services in China, India and the United States.
Former Director of the Green Building and International Energy Programs at the Natural Resources Defense Council, Mr. Watson has over twenty years experience on five continents improving the environmental performance of buildings, utilities and transportation through energy and building policy and program development, integrated design solutions, and clean building technologies. Mr. Watson was the only foreigner to have been honored by China's Ministry Of Construction (MOC) with its first Green Innovation Award in Beijing in 2005. In 2002, he was named as the first recipient of the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership Award For Lifetime Achievement for his work as the "Father of LEED." Watson’s work on green buildings in China and green technology in general has been featured several times by New York Times columnist, Thomas Friedman, and in numerous publications including Fortune Magazine and The Economist.
Quotes from the Video
"Nothing consumes more energy, nothing consumes more materials, nothing consumes more drinking water (than buildings), and human beings spend up to 90% of their time indoors, so if they're getting sick from their environment, in fact, they're getting sick from their indoor environment and not their outdoor environment."
"Even though the green building movement is almost 20 years old, it's like we're still in kindergarten ... as we've become much more sophisticated, we've learned about all of the challenges that we still face."
"Now we understand that markets and incentives and more business type issues are paramount to successfully delivering a green product to the market."
"People are beginning to think about a legacy and leaving behind something greater than themselves, and so, I think, the ability to say I am doing something for the good of the planet or for the good of the community is going to be a significant driver."
"The other thing, I think, that is going to be significantly driving this is the increase in resources costs: energy is going through the roof, water is going to be supremely expensive ..."
"As great as all the material and technical advances are, it's probably not going to be enough to get us to where we need to be to fully live in harmony with the planet, particularly with our population at its current levels. So we're going to have to cultivate desires that are not quite as high as they used to be. So, if we cultivate simple desires, we'll be wealthy even if we have fewer things."