John Shurtz, President of Green
Builders of Marin, has been a building professional for over thirty years,
and a licensed contractor in California since 1986. For the past
twenty years he and his company have remodeled homes and businesses in
Northern California, with offices in Marin County. John also serves
as a green building consultant to developers, architects, businesses and
homeowners.
Green Builders of Marin and John
Shurtz were nominated by California State Senator Carole Migden in
Resolution 1255 for the 2005 Green Entrepreneur Award for Northern
California, presented by SAFE-BIDCO, the State Assistance Fund for
Environmental, Business, Industry and Development, California Governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger and United States Congressman Mike Thompson.
Green Builders of Marin is
certified by the County of Marin as a Green Business and a Marin
Sustainable Partner.
Green Builders of Marin's
projects have been published in Sunset Magazine, Home Energy Magazine,
Yoga Journal, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Pacific Sun, Marin at Home,
North Bay Business Journal, the Novato Advance and the Marin Independent
Journal; their work has been featured in the Marin Designer Showcase and
on local, regional and national tours, including: the Sprint Home Tour of
the Sausalito Women's Club Preservation Society, the Northern California
Solar Home Tour and the U.S. Department of Energy National Solar Buildings
Tour, and the first Marin-Sonoma Green Home Tour.
John Shurtz graduated from
Humboldt State University with a B.A. degree in Spanish, and has been
multilingual for thirty-five years. He spent time working in a
lumber mill before picking up a hammer, and has in-depth experience of the
building industry from the bottom up.
John has also graduated from
various trainings and seminars such as the California Contractors State
License Board “Code of Ethics Seminar,” and Solar Depot’s “Solar
Electric Workshop for Contractors.”
He is a leader in the rapidly growing “green building” niche of
the industry, and is trained and experienced in the practices and products
that constitute a “green” construction project.
His employees are all involved in
ongoing green building training, on and off the jobsite.
Green Builders of Marin is a member of the United States Green Building
Council. John was a founding
member of the Redwood Empire Chapter of the USGBC, and served for two
years on the Board of Directors.
John
consulted with the Alameda Waste Management Authority to develop their
"Home Remodeling Green Building Guidelines," a model municipal
program in California that has since been adopted by Marin County Building
and Planning Departments.
John
has spoken on green building at the annual BIONEERS conference, at the
Novato Chamber of Commerce Leadership Training on Sustainability, at the
City Club in San Francisco, at the Builders' Roundtable in Marin, and at
the New Life Expo Sustainability Panel, and continues to represent the
building industry in the movement towards sustainability both locally and
nationally.
He worked with NARI (National Association of the Remodeling
Industry) and Alameda Waste Management Authority to develop NARI's
"Green Building" training and certification program. This
national pilot program has now had trainings in Oakland, Marin, San
Francisco and San Jose, California.
John is the Building Industry
Consultant to Rainforest Action Network, and was directly involved with
the boycott that influenced the world’s largest retailer of lumber, Home
Depot, in the landmark decision to stop selling wood from old growth
forests, and most recently in the campaign victory with Boise Cascade to
stop logging old growth, that will have major influences on logging
practices around the globe.
John
has worked for years with local youth organizations such as Next
Generation, environmental groups such as EPIC (Environmental Protection
Information Center) and Green Sangha, and regularly hosts events in his
"Green model home" to teach the benefits of green building and
sustainability.
