Bureau of Education & Research

O'Brien & Company was founded in 1991 by Kathleen O'Brien to help the Puget Sound region build more sustainably' before sustainability was a buzzword. The firm has focused on increasing industry capacity to meet the challenges and opportunities of a changing world. As such, we bring a reality and sagacity to our work that is unique among green building consulting companies. In 1993, O'Brien & Company organized Building with Value ' the first conference on Green Building practices in the Pacific Northwest. Since then, we have been involved in the organization and design of numerous events in the Northwest, Hawaii and elsewhere. Principals and staff regularly present at regional and national professional conferences. In the late 90s, O'Brien & Company facilitated the development of the Build a Better Kitsap program, the first market-based green building program in the Northwest and the second industry-supported program in the nation at the time. Soon after, we played the same role for Built Green of King and Snohomish County, now one of the largest and most successful programs in the country with tens of thousands of homes certified Built Green. Since then many local, regional and national programs have sought our knowledge and experience to help them craft programs to transform the green building marketplace in their communities. The firm consulted directly on some of the first green demonstration projects in the area including the Bainbridge Island City Hall, Sakai Elementary School, Central Market Poulsbo and the PSE BuiltGreen Idea Home. As the LEED Rating System was developed we helped certify some of the regions first LEED projects such as Merrill Hall at the University of Washington and the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute's building in South Lake Union, Seattle ' the first Silver LEED Core and Shell project in the US. More recently, we provided LEED for Homes certification services to Ashworth Cottages, the first Platinum-certified cottage housing development in the US. In the last few years O'Brien & Company has grown rapidly to include a multi-disciplinary staff working on projects around the region, across the West, and in the Pacific Rim. In 2006 the firm added two new principals: Elizabeth A. D. Powers, who serves as the Principal in charge of commercial, institutional and large scale development projects ; and Alistair Jackson who heads the residential services team. Kathleen continues to manage the two other primary service areas of the firm which focus on the development of sustainability programs, plans and policies, and firm's education and training projects. She has also recently published her first book, the Northwest Green Home Primer, and is starting work on a sequel for the Southwest.