Greg Mella is a principal at SmithGroup’s Washington, DC office, directing their firm-wide sustainability initiatives. Mella became immersed in sustainable design in 1998 as project architect for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s headquarters, the first recipient of a LEED Platinum rating. Mella is a frequent speaker on sustainable design, having presented at Greenbuild in 2010, 2009 and in 2003. He has presented the COTE Top Ten Green Buildings at the EcoBuild conference in Washington, DC every year since 2005, and has presented sustainability topics at national conferences including, CSI, SCUP, AASHE, and Lab21. He was featured on NPR’s Diane Rehm Show, discussing green architecture, and has written articles on green design for Contract magazine, EcoStructure, and the Washington Business Journal. He is currently a member of the AIA's Committee on the Environment Advisory Group and the AIA’s 2030 Commitment Program Steering Committee. In this role, he is helping to shape the 2030 Commitment program, creating the recording mechanisms for signatories