Art Castle Wins Hummingbird Award

We are pleased to announce that Art Castle has been chosen as the first recipient of the O’Brien & Company Hummingbird Award outside the company!  We have been making this award internally for nearly a year to staff members who have contributed through their creative energy to the company’s mission of sustainability, and feel strongly that Art’s hummingbird efforts must be recognized.

Like the hummingbird, which is a tireless messenger and pollinator, Art has energetically and significantly spread the nectar of green building and green development throughout our region (and beyond). Just a few of the high points:

• Development of the first industry-based and voluntary green building rating program (now Built Green). This program was the model for dozens of other Built Green programs around the country. In Washington alone, over 20,000 homes have been certified using Built Green checklists, all starting with your courageous and practical leadership.
• Funding, development and maintenance of a LID demonstration project at the Kitsap HBA headquarters.
• Funding and management of a uniquely collaborative development of guidelines for LID implementation in Kitsap County, which has led to a unanimous (and therefore historic) agreement on policy among all four cities and Kitsap County. We anticipate this process and the guidelines will also serve as a model and or basis for other communities.

The hummingbird is a symbol of accomplishing that which seems impossible. Anyone familiar with what Art does and the way he works knows he makes the impossible seem like a perfectly logical expectation. Art brings people together who would not ordinarily mix to create solutions that would not be achieved otherwise.

Congratulations Art Castle! And thank you for your contributions to sustainability in our region.