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Brendan Owens

Principal, Black Vest Strategy | Former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy, Installations and Environment + Department of Defense Chief Sustainability Officer

Brendan Owens is a Principal at Black Vest Strategy – a unique consultancy that specializes in integrative solutions to the most complicated and interconnected problems in the built environment.
Brendan’s influence on the built environment can be seen all over the world.

Immediately prior to his work at Black Vest, he served as the U.S. Senate confirmed Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy, Installations and Environment. In addition to this role he also served as the Chief Sustainability Officer and Chief housing officer for the U.S. Department of Defense. Brendan was the principal advisor to the Secretary of
Defense for all matters relating to operational and facility energy; installations real property planning, operations, and management; environmental protection, compliance, and restoration and; natural, historical and cultural resources. He was DoD’s principal leader overseeing design, construction and operations of 500,000+ buildings and structures and 26+ million acres of land under management across 535 installations as well as housing for 225,000 families and 2+ million Service Members world-wide.

Prior to DoD, Brendan had a 19 year career with U.S. Green Building Council where he was a key figure in the creation of the global green building industry. His oversight and leadership of the technical development of USGBC’s LEED green building rating system – the global benchmark for high performance green buildings – sparked a fundamental shift in the way buildings are designed, constructed and operated. Hundreds of thousands of buildings in over 150 countries have used LEED to guide and certify their performance.

Brendan is a licensed Professional Engineer and was honored as a LEED Fellow in 2012.

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