Letter from the Chair of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

Vicki Worden
CEO

Sincerely,

Sumayyah Theron
Chair | Board of Directors

One of the great honors of being involved with the Green Building Initiative (GBI) is the opportunity to learn, collaborate, and grow alongside our extraordinary volunteer leaders. In 2025, Board Chair Alison Hoagland, Principal at Mackenzie, guided GBI through a year of significant growth in both impact and influence. Her leadership was marked by insight, passion, and a steadfast commitment to advancing sustainability in the built environment. We extend our sincere gratitude for her dedication and service.

The past year unfolded against a backdrop of rapid economic and policy change. New national administrations in the United States, Canada, and other countries, shifting regulatory priorities, and evolving market expectations influenced the broader landscape in which we operate. Throughout these changes, GBI remained focused on supporting our members and stakeholders as they navigate what many describe as one of the most significant industrial transformations in modern history.

A defining theme of 2025 was the rapid growth of digital infrastructure. As demand for artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and data processing accelerates, the sustainability of data centers has become a critical issue for communities, utilities, and policymakers. GBI expanded its engagement with this sector through events, strategic relationships, and certification programs that help data center owners improve sustainability, resilience, and operational performance.

In May, GBI hosted its second annual Better Buildings: Data Center Seminar, bringing together leaders across the digital infrastructure ecosystem. The event demonstrated the growing commitment within the industry to incorporate sustainability strategies into mission-critical facilities. Many organizations are increasingly turning to Green Globes® certification to validate progress toward sustainability, health, and resilience goals while demonstrating accountability to their stakeholders and communities.

Education and collaboration remained central to GBI’s mission throughout the year. In 2025, GBI leaders and staff participated in more than 65 events across multiple sectors, sharing expertise on topics including decarbonization, material transparency, renewable energy, resilience, embodied carbon, and net zero strategies. These engagements help advance practical solutions that improve building performance while strengthening industry collaboration.

GBI also expanded its government engagement efforts, meeting with policymakers and agency staff from Atlantic Canada to Sacramento. This education plays an important role in advancing our vision of sustainable, healthy, and resilient buildings for all.

Equally encouraging was the continued growth of our membership community, which experienced its strongest single-year increase in the last decade. This momentum signals that the market increasingly turns to GBI as a trusted source of knowledge, connections, and resources that help individuals and organizations elevate their impact.

We look forward to continuing this progress together in 2026. Thank you to our community for investing your time, expertise, and resources in GBI’s mission. Your commitment enables us to deliver meaningful and lasting impact across the built environment.

Letter from the CEO

GBI’s 20th anniversary was its highest impact year with 598 buildings assessed, adding to an all-time assessment total that is approaching one billion square feet. 

Exponentially increasing our positive impact. We believe that every building we touch has a team attached to it who learn from that project, from our staff, from the application of our standards, and from our expert assessors. So GBI’s actual impact on the global built environment is exponentially greater — and more positive — than mere numerals
can show.

Globally minded evangelists. Tim Thiel, Chair of the GBI Board in 2024, helped me kick off GBI’s most globally focused year yet with a joint presentation on our Journey to Net Zero program at MIPIM, the world’s leading real estate event. At that event, we met thousands of people collaborating to improve the built environment and discussed circularity, decarbonization, and data-driven approaches to evaluating our existing building stock. Tim spoke at more events than any previous GBI Chair, including the Construction Specifications Institute’s and New Buildings Institute’s annual meetings. We are grateful for his incredible leadership and evangelism of our vision for sustainable, healthy, and resilient buildings for all.

Our global expansion year continued with Board member, now Chair Elect, Sumayyah Theron joining me for GBI’s first international trade mission to the United Arab Emirates, where GBI certified more than one million square feet of space in Dubai.

Advocating for continuity of focus on sustainability impact. As I travel this year with our 2025 Chair, Alison Hoagland, we are both committed to continued advocacy on behalf of our mission and vision. It has never been more important to discuss resilience, efficiency, and human wellness and their close connection to the built environment, where we spend more than 90% of our days. With every conversation, we aim to reinforce that billions of people are relying on our diligence today to protect them as they live, work, heal, and learn within our global built environment tomorrow.

Vicki Worden
CEO