Rob Watson

Why you should book speaker Rob Watson:

• He is renowned in his craft. In the book Hot, Flat, and Crowded, author Thomas Friedman called Rob “one of the best environmental minds in America.” In 2019, Rob was named by Dartmouth Alumni Magazine as one of The 25 Most Influential Alumni in the college’s entire 250-year history.
• He is lively. A visionary who makes it real, his presentations are thought-provoking, dynamic, and engaging. Rob’s award-winning experience and insights make him an exciting and popular keynote speaker on a wide range of environmental, business, and futurist topics.
• He is an optimizer. Rob has spent three decades conceiving and implementing market transformation policies, programs, and projects on four continents that combine regulatory push with market pull to optimize environmental and economic outcomes.

World-renown sustainability expert, speaker Rob Watson, is a maverick leader and disruptive change agent who solves systemic problems through market transformation and first-of-a-kind solutions. Widely considered one of the founders of the global green building movement, Rob is best known as the “Founding Father of LEED.” Under his direction, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) became the most commonly used international standard by which green buildings are measured worldwide.

Speaker Rob Watson seeks to optimize energy and environmental benefits through the intersection of services and technologies across multiple sectors — from green buildings, and sustainable urban mobility to zero waste management. Rob’s influential work in green buildings, solid waste, and sustainable tourism has dramatically impacted multiple sectors, including energy efficiency and climate change, to make life better for all species on Earth.

As part of his market transformation approach, in 2016, Rob launched SWEEP, the Solid Waste Environmental Excellence Performance standard, a comprehensive sustainable materials management framework for municipal robust waste programs and private companies. From 2016 to 2018, Rob was recognized as an international Be Waste Wise Pioneer. Since 2007, he has been in a leadership role at four cleantech start-ups ranging from international and US-based green building services and technology companies to a zero-waste technology. Before this, as Senior Scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) for over 21 years as Director of the International Energy and Green Building programs.

Rob spent ten years promoting energy efficiency and utility energy-saving programs in Russia and the Former Soviet Union and another ten years in China on green buildings. His influential work in green buildings, energy efficiency, solid waste, clean technology, and sustainable tourism has led to the wholesale change in these sectors across the globe.

Rob has been honored with several national and international awards. In 2019, he was named by Dartmouth Alumni Magazine as one of The 25 Most Influential Alumni in the college’s 250-year history. He is also a 2019 Top 50 Construction Influencer, according to Building Connected, an International Be Waste Wise Pioneer since 2016, and a 2013 BRIT International Award of Excellence in Conservation recipient. For his leadership as the Founder of LEED, Watson was the recipient of the First Lifetime Achievement Award from the U.S. Green Building Council in 2002.

Rob has authored and been featured in numerous articles and publications worldwide and is a regular speaker and conference keynote. Mr. Watson has an A.B. from Dartmouth College, an MSc from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MBA from Columbia University. On a personal note, he is also a gardener, chef, and former world-class rower. Desiring to give back, Rob recently also joined the faculty of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) as an Adjunct Professor.