4 August 2009 | Posted inFeatured, Sustainable Design
The Green Workplace Book Launches!
Roughly two years ago (Thanksgiving 2007) I started a blog called TheGreenWorkplace. Not long after, several other HOK folks were blogging along with me, including Jodi Williams, Anica Landreneau and Emma Wharton, three talented bloggers for Life at HOK. After just a few months and lots of web traffic, we knew we had something. In January of 2007 we decided to make it a book, and after writing a few chapters and hiring an agent (Lauren Abramo), we landed a book deal with a great publisher, Palgrave Macmillan. Special credit goes to the HOK Advance Strategies team in DC for helping write and research: Jodi Williams, Todd Pedersen, Edmund Velasco, Daphne Kiplinger and Claire Whitehill. There are many, many others at HOK and outside of HOK that deserve thanks as well and are mentioned in the book’s Acknowledgements. HOK has given us a great deal of support and encouragement across the board… not every firm would do that.
So after writing and re-writing (I’m pretty sure we wrote this puppy three times over) and lots of copy editing, we created a book that is, we hope, worthy of reading. It hits bookshelves today. It shares findings from 30+ interviews with executives (Fortune 500 companies, government agencies and smaller organizations) and how they are greening their organization, not just their buildings. It touches on organizational roles and reponsiblities, new technologies, operational strategies, the evolving nature of work and how to change human behavior (debatably the hardest change to make of all). It shows, step by step, how to begin changing the culture of the organization.
Though HOK has written several books about green design, this book is about greening everything else. We’re really excited to provide a useful tool to our clients (and others) demonstrating that even though they are not building a new LEED Platinum building, they can still make a difference. This book shows organizations and individuals how to do the right thing by the environment despite the current economic climate or other political factors.
We hope you enjoy it and look forward to the feedback! Happy reading.
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i wish there was a “like” button on life@hok. way to go leigh!!
Leigh, congratulations on what was tons of work and countless hours of thought. And also keeping it in the ’spirit of Leigh’ is probably an even more difficult task.
This is awesome Leigh! Two green thumbs up
This will be a great tool for all of us. Congrats Leigh !
Congratulations Leigh on the arrival of this game-changing day. You are applauded by all of us for having the vision, summoning the courage, sustaining the energy and building a team of folks around you to make this highly significant contribution to the discussion about how we develop sustainable habits at work. I hope that all the recognition you deserve comes flooding in! I, for one, am in awe.
Thanks everybody! That means so much. I’m so lucky to have colleagues like you.