For outstanding service to NESEA …

Since 1993, the annual Distinguished Service Award has recognized a NESEA member who has made a significant contribution to the organization and to the practice of sustainability.

The Distinguished Service Award…

• Recognizes a significant contribution of time and service to NESEA and its mission by a living member of the organization over a period of time.
• Recognizes a range of contributions and character of service (including leadership, volunteerism, unsung heroes, staff, visionaries, etc.) and in so doing reveals that range as an example to the community.
• Acknowledges the diversity of the community.
• Acknowledges the legacy of service to the community.
• Encourages continued service in the role of organizational elder and steward of the community’s institutional memory.
• Provides a ritual of recognition celebrating the caliber and character of those whose service is exemplary.
• Maintains a record of that service over time.
• Connects these leaders as a group that continues to offer service to NESEA.

Anyone in the NESEA community can nominate someone. All the previous award recipients vote on the nominees after deliberation via an online forum. The award is announced in March at the BuildingEnergy conference and trade show.

Thank you, Fred Unger!

The 2012 recipient is Fred Unger, a longtime NESEA member who for many years has been doing outstanding work to further our mission.

Fred is president of Heartwood Group, a company that develops environmentally responsible real estate projects, as well as providing consulting and development services in the renewable energy and building industries.

A transforming presence on the Board of Directors

From Bruce Coldham, FAIA, former NESEA board chair and 2000 DSA winner:

As a NESEA board member from 2001 through 2006, the BuildingEnergy Conference Chair in 2003, and NESEA treasurer in 2006, the energy and leadership Fred provided were critical to NESEA’s financial success and sustainability.”

“Where would we be without Fred goading us forward?”

From Jamie Wolf, 2004 DSA winner:

Fred and I have conspired on many earnest but ultimately unsuccessful projects over the years. In the nineties we created a business track and workshop that nobody came to. When Fred chaired the ’03 conference he invited me to create NESEA Night, which I overdid and had to conclude halfway through as the room emptied – complete with a collaboratively built amadinda, group drumming, and a multimedia tribute to everything NESEA was, is, and could be. At least it was unforgettable.

More recently we strived, hopelessly it turned out, to salvage the last iteration of NESEA’s website. Oh well.

Fred was also a critical partner in one of the most successful initiatives I’ve taken part in, the transition from the college and hotel based conferences to the (then ambitious notion) Building Energy Conference at the World Trade Center that now identifies the core of NESEA’s brand. As with most things Fred proposes, it was contrary to and impatient with the status quo at NESEA. It was a sort of insurrection. It also proved Fred right and NESEA is supremely better for his commitment.

In every case, those that failed and those that led to success, Fred has been an adamant believer in and advocate for a premise that is bedrock for both of us. The NESEA community, and the ethos expressed by the living practices of those who proudly identify themselves as its members, is the heart, soul, and promise of a sustainable future for the Northeast.

Indeed, where would we be without Fred goading us forward?”