|
September 10, 2009
Sue Pascoe , Staff Writer
Two Pacific Palisades residents, attorney Richard Wittbrodt and commercial broker Jeff Pion, recently received their LEED accreditation.
LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is a 2006 nationwide program that was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council to provide standards for environmentally sustainable construction.
The program, which also targets 'green' operations and maintenance solutions, is targeted at architects and builders, rather than lawyers and brokers, but Wittbrodt and Pion felt the course will prove beneficial to both of them in their professions.
'I learned about the process and what it means,' said Wittbrodt, a managing partner at the firm Gibbs, Giden, Locher, Turner and Senet, which specializes in construction and real estate litigation. 'From a legal standpoint, when you have clients building, you can properly advise them through the process to reduce litigation.'
Wittbrodt, who was named a 2004 Southern California Super Lawyer, was joined by three colleagues in his firm in obtaining the accreditation. 'This is definitely where the industry is going,' he said.
Pion, an executive vice president of office and commercial properties at CB Richard Ellis, felt similarly. 'I wanted to be more knowledgeable for my clients,' he said, explaining that a lot of large companies like Microsoft and Google want LEED-certified buildings. He noted that state government is also focusing money on more environmentally friendly office spaces.
'For me, it was a competitive advantage,' Pion said. 'The course has given me a better understanding of environmentally designed buildings.'
Pion, who was selected to serve on the board of directors of CB Richard Ellis following its acquisition of Insigna/ESG, added another more personal reason for taking the course: 'We're saving energy by reducing the carbon footprint.'
'It's the right thing to do,' Wittbrodt said. 'To leave the earth better than we found it.'
The test is thorough and detailed, and for two men not familiar with designing and building, it seemed complicated.
'It wasn't quite as hard as the bar exam, but almost,' Wittbrodt said. 'It was a half-day exam, with 80 questions covering a myriad of rules and regulations and how the certification process works.'
Pion added, 'It was challenging, and for me it was not intuitive.' He said that much of the exam was answering questions on how air conditioning works, toilets, drainage, solar panels and the construction materials required for an environmentally friendly building or home.
In preparation for taking the accreditation test, both men took a two-day course at UCLA about LEED, while also studying on their own. Pion spent the week before the exam studying three to four hours a day. 'I was sequestered in the Santa Monica library,' he said. 'Out of a possible score of 200, you had to have at least 170.'
Wittbrodt also spent numerous hours on the course material. 'Six weeks before I took the course, I spent every Saturday and half a day on Sunday studying,' he said.
Although the two men and their families now reside in the Palisades, they come from geographically disparate areas of the United States.
Pion grew up in Honolulu and was a high school classmate of President Obama. He attended UC Santa Barbara, where he earned a degree in economics, before moving to Los Angeles, where he met his wife, Suzy, who grew up in the Palisades. The couple married in 1988 and moved here in 2000. They have three sons: Chase, 16, Drew, 13, and Griffin, 11.
A native of Michigan, where he earned a bachelor's degree in accounting at the University of Michigan, Wittbrodt came to California in 1983. Two years later, he entered Pepperdine University Law School and graduated in 1988 with honors. He and his wife Amy have lived here since 1994, and also have three sons: Nicholas, 14, Jason, 12, and J.J., 10.
|
