Tom Lent, a senior advisor for the Healthy Building Network with a long history with the green building organization, has announced his retirement at the end of the year after 18 years as Healthy Building Network’s Policy Director.
"In our very first year, Tom worked side by side with HBN founder Bill Walsh to create the programs, tools, policies, and the spirit that is HBN," the organization said. "Tom has served on virtually every significant advisory body in the green building industry, influencing the evolution of building rating systems including LEED, Living Building Challenge, and Green Communities Guidelines; product certifications including Cradle to Cradle and Living Product Challenge; and the Green Screen chemical hazard assessments."
"It has been quite an adventure and an honor to work with the incredible array of brilliant researchers, engineers, and strategists who have made HBN so effective," said Lent. "That effectiveness also rests with an amazing ecosystem of people, including you. We’ve made some impressive progress in transforming the building industry. Arsenic is out of most pressure-treated wood. Formaldehyde is gone from residential fiberglass insulation, and emissions are way down from composite wood. Phthalates are disappearing from products. And the list goes on. More broadly, the industry is learning a lot about what is in the products with which we build our environments and how to produce inherently safer materials."
