Penelope A. "Penny" Gross, Fairfax Board of Supervisors for the Mason District
PENNY GROSS has been a long-term leader in Fairfax County, Virginia, and beyond in promoting environmentally sustainable solutions. Regionally, she brings a passion to improving our environment by representing Fairfax County on the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments' (MWCOG) Climate, Energy and Environment Policy Committee (CEEPC). She is also Chairman of the Potomac Watershed Roundtable; Chairman of the Local Government Advisory Committee to the Chesapeake Executive Council, and Vice Chair of the National Association of Counties' Energy and Land Use Committee, among many others.
Penny Gross is the key voice on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors developing the Board's Environmental Agenda, a 20-year vision that recognizes "no matter what income, age, gender, ethnicity, or address, everyone has a need and right to breathe clean air, to drink clean water, and to live and work in clean surroundings."
Just a few recent achievements include leading the effort for the Bailey's Upper Elementary School, which won the 2014 NAIOP Award for Excellence for Best Building Re-Positioning/Adaptive ReUse and acquiring more parkland for the County. She has ensured energy and sustainability are included in community renewal plans from Seven Corners to Tysons. She has been a leader providing that Fairfax County buildings meet LEED Silver and higher standards, and that the County has a rigorous green building standard for private development. Ms. Gross, as MWCOG's CEEPC Chair, is leading the development of the 2017-20 Climate and Energy Action Plan for Metropolitan Washington.
Ms. Gross' leadership has helped bridge the gulf that often exists between energy and environmental advocates and the business community to bring about real change. She tirelessly brings a pragmatic approach to many issues from energy and climate, to water quality, to ensuring that our students have the resources and skills to succeed in the 21st century economy. Ms. Gross also has an interesting back story, from growing up in a household in Oregon that used a wood stove in the kitchen as its heating source to being a national leader in environmental management and local governance.
Ms. Gross is a founding member of the Friends of Mason District Park and continues to be an active member and officer. Ms. Gross is a founding member and officer of the National Capital Chapter of the University of Oregon Alumni Association.
Albert Nunez, Vice President of Capital Sun Group
ALBERT NUNEZ is a solar engineer and clean energy activist who has been installing integrated solar electric and solar water heating systems in the Washington, DC area for close to 40 years. Albert has tutored multiple generations of designers and engineers on these systems and designed and implemented a variety of the specific, cost-effective, and innovative ways of doing so. His clients range from individual homeowners to the US Army. Albert manages to educate everyone around him and challenges them to do better with a cajoling twinkle in his eye.
Whether through the Capital Sun Group, or his other affiliations, Albert has likely personally installed more Kilovolts of solar power from North Carolina to Philadelphia than any other individual. He has also done a significant amount of strategic consulting for national & regional public policy organizations on the environmental and greenhouse gas implications of burning hydrocarbons. He has always been passionate in doing this, even in the not-so-distant past when solar power was not very much in fashion, politically or economically. In his few hours not up on roofs doing installations or convincing Federal Agencies to get with the program, Albert leads tours of commercial and residential installations as well as the factories where solar assemblies are fabricated. These tours have served to educate both the public and design and construction professionals.
Mr. Nunez has been instrumental on solar projects at numerous federal facilities.
He holds a B.A. in Geography with Chemistry minor from the University of Denver, Denver, Colorado. He also attended The Practical Design and Economics Center for Management and Technical Programs; University of Colorado where he studied Solar Heating and Cooling Systems. He is a life member of the Association of Energy Engineers - Certified Energy Manager, for the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission - Chair of the Customer Advisory Board, and Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Advisory Board Member.
Gen X GENERATION AWARDEE:
Dave McCarthy, Founder/Director, Potential Energy DC & Founder/Managing Partner, Spore 1, LLC
DAVE MCCARTHY is the Director of Potential Energy DC (PEDC), a non-profit 501(c)(3) operating in Tysons Corner, VA and Spore 1, LLC - a funding platform for the early stage energy+ companies. PEDC is the only DC-area incubator fully devoted to developing energy, efficiency, and sustainability (energy+) companies.
By bringing together solutions-focused entrepreneurs, funding sources, and policy experts, PEDC fills a unique void for early stage energy+ companies in the DC market. At the end of 2015, there were 16 incubator member companies. Dave is also the Managing Partner at Spore 1 - pooling capital and finding grade A deal flow. Spore 1 fills a void for early stage funding needs in the energy+ industry, particular to, but not limited to the DC region.
After successful startups at RunFast.net (online multimedia training) and WindRose Media (webcasting technology and original content development), Dave is now sitting on the other side of the deal table and following his true industry passion: energy. Dave attended the University of Virginia where he studied chemical and nuclear engineering and finished with Systems Engineering major with a computer science minor. Dave spent ten years at Arthur Andersen / Andersen Consulting where he led engagements for clients such as American Express, GE Capital, and GE Corporate Audit Staff, Ex-Im Bank and Freddie Mac.
Nofar Hamrany, Environmental Leader at New York University Campuses in DC and Shanghai
NOFAR HAMRANY is a UN-recognized and award-winning environmental leader for founding a student movement at New York University. Ms. Hamrany is a female Yemenite-Israeli student at New York University's campus in Shanghai, China, doing a semester in NYU Washington, DC.
At NYU Shanghai, Ms. Hamrany founded the first urban farm project on campus. With the support of NYU Office of Sustainability and their first Green Grant for NYU Shanghai, She was able to not only create a place for agriculture experimenting, but also an educational one for different departments, such as the solar energy projects she inspired students of Solar Solutions course to design and execute in the new urban farm. This project provides NYU Shanghai students the opportunity to experiment with clean energy and sustainable solutions and learn from their environment.
In China, Ms. Hamrany's collaboration with green organizations in Shanghai and international ones sparked the passion in other individuals, businesses and organizations to promote sustainability and live by it. By organizing events with organization as NRDC, Roots & Shoots, The University of Maryland, TOMS, Duke Kunshan, and East China Normal University, she exposes others to sustainability in different fields and their opportunities in them. Moreover, the monthly Farmers' Market she founded at NYU Shanghai's campus provides community members the option to buy healthy products and learn about the benefits of sustainable agriculture for the environment and themselves.
Ms. Hamrany started a tradition in NYU Shanghai in 2015 and made it a global one. GoGreen Week became officially an NYU tradition and happened simultaneously in NYU campuses around the world in 2016. At NYU Shanghai, in collaboration with Animal Right & Herbivores Society, Green Shanghai and Nofar organized 13 events, including film screenings, talks by PETA, a reusable art workshop, a sustainable diet session, a media-covered trash-fashion show, and two challenges that reduced the consumption of meat by community members and the usage of electricity in the residence hall. Furthermore, she organized the first NYU Shanghai's Sustainable Development Conference that hosted 15 notable speakers and 150 guests from Shanghai. The conference and GoGreen Week exposed the larger public in Shanghai to environmental issues and their sustainable solution in different perspectives, and was covered by the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI). For promoting sustainability in the global network of New York University, Nofar won the President's Service Award of New York University in 2016 - awarded yearly for less than 100 outstanding NYU students, among over 50,000 students, for their promotion of learning, leadership, and quality of student life at NYU.
Nofar is currently studying at NYU's campus in Washington, DC, where she was appointed to be the sustainability director and is organizing events for raising awareness of sustainability on campus. Simultaneously, she works on spreading GoGreen Week to other universities and organizations around the world, and on the first Environmental Film Festival in Shanghai, China that will take place in 2017.