Description of Individual or organization
GoodWork Coworking, is the brainchild of Amy King, a Dallas-based creative consultant and LEED Green Associate, and Steve Kinder, founder of LOFTwall. It is set to open later this year in Dallas.
Leadership (Nominee demonstrates leadership through example, knowledge, attitude)
Amy is an outstanding community leader who has dedicated her career to furthering the national conversation to advance a greener built environment, resiliency, and triple bottom line business. Some of her key achievements include:
• Started USGBC Leadership Institute for USGBC staff – programmed over 80 leadership development sessions
• Supervised first USGBC national staff person placed in New Orleans, LA post-Katrina to support the Recovery School District in major green schools initiative and community advancement and adoption of sustainability initiatives in the Lower Ninth Ward.
• Oversaw the first USGBC Natural Talent Design Competition that was design-build, cultivated partnership with Salvation Army of Greater New Orleans and the Broadmoor Development Corporation, and a nationally prestigious jury to review and select six projects (3 student, 3 young professional) to be built in the recovering post-Katrina Broadmoor neighborhood. The designs were for LEED Platinum, 800 square feet affordable homes. All homes are now occupied.
• Served on the Historic Green board of directors, a Kansas City and New Orleans-based non-profit committed to rebuilding economically depressed or disaster-affected historic neighborhoods using a blend of green building techniques and historic preservation.
• Served on Advisory Committee for 8 years for the national Envrionmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital
• Led the American Film Institute to green their documentary festival SILVERDOCS (now AFI Docs) in partnership with Discovery Channel, resulting in the festival being the first carbon-neutral documentary festival in North America. Discovery Channel proudly leveraged this achievement as one of their first corporate environmental efforts.
• Participated in a global consortium of documentary filmmakers seeking to green the documentary film industry, and influence the film industry at large.
• Worked to ensure the continued growth and development of the USGBC chapter network and its leadership by producing a robust leadership development program, award, grant and partnership opportunities, high-level coaching and ongoing Web and on-site training programs for chapters in various stages of development. Her job was also to ensure that the Chapter Leader Development Program effectively addressed the diverse needs of USGBC's chapter leaders.
Environmental Impact (Nominee demonstrates a positive impact on the local environment via policy change, product offering, significant volunteer contribution or other achievement)
Amy walks the walk in her personal life by living sustainablly in her Energy Star Certified Home, tending to backyard chickens, composting and helping her fiancé Gary Olp with the beehives. You can find her dumpster diving if people forget to recycle at an event and bringing her glass water bottle wherever she goes.
Amy has served as an advisor to GreenSource DFW for the last 5 years. She speaks regularly to the entrepreneurial and business communities in DFW and beyond about Naked Brands – the push for transparent brands seeking to do better for their stakeholders and the planet. Speaking engagements include DCCCD Sustainability Summit, The Grove Dallas Sustainability Events, Conscious Company’s Sum + Substance, GreenBuild Conference – delivered TED/ Moth Radio style talk to 300 people on personal sustainability and the sustainability movement.
Community Impact (Nominee demonstrates commitment to DFW green community through involvement with causes, business ventures or organizations)
Amy is opening a new coworking community in South Dallas, GoodWork that will be a living lab for workplace wellness, responsible companies, and green building / sustainability practices. Her passion and vision for this community is inspiring. She believes that this is a more direct way to influence the startup and broader business community and to not only positively impact their health, but inspire and educate them to build responsible companies. The building, 1808 is pursuing LEED Gold certification, pursuing a grant for a solar array, and also evaluating the WELL building standard.
Additionally, Amy has supported several large green building projects pursuing LEED Certification in first year of residence in Dallas – including Forest Park Medical Center, BBVA Compass Houston and McClennan Community College buildings, and High Pointe Tennis Center at Baylor University.
Amy continues to work with branding clients to be more intentional about focusing on the triple bottom line. Her clients include LOFTwall, Brand Capital Partners, Workplace Transformation Facilitation. She maintains a strong social media presence celebrating and promoting sustainability and triple bottom line in DFW and beyond (@goodworkus @nestedallas)
Other reasons for your nomination
Other Accomplishments:
• Cultivated a collaborative and transparent partnership between the USGBC national office and chapters.
• Improved communication and brand messaging alignment between local organizations and national office.
• Led diversity and inclusion working group to conduct research and develop strategy around volunteer community engagement and inclusion across the US.
• Developed partnerships with the Salvation Army, Girls Scouts of the USA and Architecture for Humanity to promote green schools and sustainable communities.
