Charlie is proud to be one of the leaders in the green building industry. Today, Alyson Laura interviews Charlie Cichetti.  They are long-time friends and colleagues. She's a sustainability maven excited to put him in the hotseat and find out what green building means and how it matters to Charlie.   “You’re a risk taker, you started a business in an emerging industry.” - Alyson Laura “Calculated risk...the industry was still strong even during the recession.” - Charlie Cichetti Charlie and Alyson’s Backstory Charlie and Allison’s friendship began in the early 2000’s soon after college at Georgia Tech. Go Jackets!   At that time, there was not the opportunity to obtain a degree in sustainability. LEED wasn’t eve taught in the School of Architecture where Alyson was enrolled. Those early programs whether construction or architecture did not expose students to LEED since it was still in its infancy.   “LEED, we need to teach people, help them pass exams so they can navigate this crazy market of what is going on right now in the industry.” - Charlie Cichetti   Charlies says his attendance at GT was natural from his upbringing in the mountains of GA and coming from a small town. Hie family encouraged sustainability. His mom is from OR where the early adoption of recycling programs got its start. His start in sustainability has its roots in the resourcefulness of his parent. Focusing on LEED Upon graduation, Charlie worked for a very large general contractor, Batson-Cook Company. They built a lot of building across the Southeast. Charlie started as an estimator and then project management. After Batson-Cook, Charlie took a job with a real estate developer, Opus.   Charlie’s professional path could have gone two ways, focusing on LEED or BIM. Those were the hot topics in the mid-2000’s in the construction world.   When he took job with Opus, they were focused on LEED certification. This was Charlie’s start in LEED projects.   To hear more about Charlie, download and listen to Alyson Laura Interviews Charlie Cichetti!   Connect with Alyson Laura: email   Connect with Charlie Cichetti and GBES: Charlie on LinkedIn Green Building Educational Services GBES on Twitter Connect on LinkedIn Like on Facebook Google+ GBES Pinterest Pins GBES on Instagram   We hope you enjoyed Alyson Laura Interviews Charlie Cichetti. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a rating and review on iTunes. We have prepared more episodes for the upcoming weeks, so come by again next week! Thank you for tuning in to the Green Building Matters Podcast!