David Gottfried

Father of the Global Green Building Movement | Founder: USGBC & WorldGBC | CEO, Regen360 | Author, Regen360 (Oct 2026)

[David Gottfried @davidgottfried]

Four decades of movement-building. Four books.

This one took the most living, honesty, and invention to write.

It’s called Regen360: An Operating System for a Regenerative Earth.

Coming October 2026. https://t.co/BT0nHQYgu2 🌍

#climatechange #greenbuilding

[David Gottfried @davidgottfried]

"I'm Mr. Gottfried. My instructors are Mr. Ferguson and Mr. Lee." "And I'm sixty-six." The next oldest was fifteen.

When they came back, they told us we'd all passed. It ends my five years as a beginner.

(Full story is on my Substack: DavidAGottfried.)

[David Gottfried @davidgottfried]

There is no away. There is only home.

Code 5: If you harm nature, then you destroy home.

[David Gottfried @davidgottfried]

Regen360 hit #1 in Sustainable Development at Barnes & Noble last week.

I’m grateful to everyone who preordered, shared the work, listened to a podcast, or read these posts. And to everyone who’s been climbing this mountain with me for decades. Thank you.

[David Gottfried @davidgottfried]

Code 4: Presence = Power.

[David Gottfried @davidgottfried]

"My hair is soaking."

My mother’s hair was dry.

"We can call someone to help. But first we need to meet someone."

"Who?"

"A nurse."

She wasn't a nurse. She was there to assess my mother for memory care.

She passed. I don't know how we're going to tell her.

[David Gottfried @davidgottfried]

Code 3: Truth = Oxygen

[David Gottfried @davidgottfried]

Going through old boxes. Five on the floor, sixty-six years.

Loose in one of them was a button. I don't know when I got it. No date on it.

“Make your world a little cleaner.”

[Progress, Potential, And Possibilities @ProgressPotent1]

What if the problem isn't that we're not doing enough to save the planet 🌎🌳🌊🌤️🐼…

What if we're running the wrong operating system 🌐?

On this episode of @ProgressPotent1, I sit down with @davidgottfried who helped launch the modern green-building movement. He founded the U.S. Green Building Council - @USGBC, helped create the framework that became LEED, and helped build a global green-building movement spanning dozens of countries.

But after decades of watching sustainability advance, David began asking a much bigger question:

What if making individual buildings greener isn't enough because the system producing those buildings is still fundamentally extractive?

His new book, Regen360: An Operating System for a Regenerative Earth, proposes a radically different idea: what if we redesigned the incentives, measurements, feedback loops and definitions of wealth that govern civilization?

At the center is HOPE - Health on Planet Earth.

And then there's AI.

If AI simply accelerates our existing incentives - speed, scale, consumption and financial return - could we end up accelerating the very problems we're trying to solve?

Or could AI become a partner in regeneration?

David also gets surprisingly personal, exploring his own journey from builder, founder and CEO toward what he now calls personal regeneration - and ultimately, his idea of becoming a gardener whose job is to plant seeds that outlive him.

So the big question is:

Can we reprogram civilization before the system we're running becomes unsustainable?

Watch now - https://t.co/M1yBsoVB9g

#DavidGottfried #Regen360 #Regeneration #Sustainability #GreenBuilding #LEED #AI #ClimateChange #PlanetaryHealth #HOPE #FutureOfEarth #SystemsThinking

[Progress, Potential, And Possibilities @ProgressPotent1]

What if the problem isn't that we're not doing enough to save the planet 🌎🌳🌊🌤️🐼…

What if we're running the wrong operating system 🌐?

On this episode of @ProgressPotent1, I sit down with @davidgottfried who helped launch the modern green-building movement. He founded the U.S. Green Building Council - @USGBC, helped create the framework that became LEED, and helped build a global green-building movement spanning dozens of countries.

But after decades of watching sustainability advance, David began asking a much bigger question:

What if making individual buildings greener isn't enough because the system producing those buildings is still fundamentally extractive?

His new book, Regen360: An Operating System for a Regenerative Earth, proposes a radically different idea: what if we redesigned the incentives, measurements, feedback loops and definitions of wealth that govern civilization?

At the center is HOPE - Health on Planet Earth.

And then there's AI.

If AI simply accelerates our existing incentives - speed, scale, consumption and financial return - could we end up accelerating the very problems we're trying to solve?

Or could AI become a partner in regeneration?

David also gets surprisingly personal, exploring his own journey from builder, founder and CEO toward what he now calls personal regeneration - and ultimately, his idea of becoming a gardener whose job is to plant seeds that outlive him.

So the big question is:

Can we reprogram civilization before the system we're running becomes unsustainable?

#DavidGottfried #Regen360 #Regeneration #Sustainability #GreenBuilding #LEED #AI #ClimateChange #PlanetaryHealth #HOPE #FutureOfEarth #SystemsThinking

[David Gottfried @davidgottfried]

Code 2: Orientation to life = prerequisite for evolution.

[David Gottfried @davidgottfried]

For a year, my morning walk was a conversation with my AI—one topic at a time, saved as nuggets, with no book in mind. By the end there were more than two thousand pages.

Regen360 is out Oct 20. Preorder at Barnes & Noble Sept 9–11 for 25% off.

[David Gottfried @davidgottfried]

Code 1: If it destroys life, then it is false.

This is the first of fifteen codes. A new one every week. See them early on my Substack: DavidAGottfried. Preorder Regen360 wherever books are sold.

[Charlie Cichetti @CharlieCichetti]

Green building changed the world. What comes next?🌎

@davidgottfried, the “Father of Green Building,” joins us to discuss #Regen360 and a bold vision for an operating system for a #regenerativeEarth.

[Green Building Matters @buildingGBM]

The Father of #GreenBuilding Returns: @davidgottfried on #Regen360 and the Operating System for a #RegenerativeEarth...

[David Gottfried @davidgottfried]

I drive over the same spot twice a day and had never looked at the ground—hundreds of acorns ground to sawdust under my tires. Every one a whole tree: embryo, stored food, armor.

What have you walked past a thousand times and never actually looked at?

[David Gottfried @davidgottfried]

Regen360 book talk and signing — Sunday, November 1, 4:00 PM at Book Passage, Corte Madera.

Come. Bring someone who's been asking what comes next.

https://t.co/AXFyJD9DFU

[David Gottfried @davidgottfried]

Two strangers saw me when I needed something.

One sprayed water in my face on a brutal climb, and we "fought" smiling to the summit. One handed me a gel when I was dead last, and rode away.

I remember both, years later. I don't know either name.

It was never about the summit.

[David Gottfried @davidgottfried]

Regen360 launches October 20 at Greenbuild in New York. Check out the official book trailer: https://t.co/ADDJ2x3nSE

[David Gottfried @davidgottfried]

Walking near a house I built and sold, Juneau took the same turn up the hill toward our old house. She hasn't walked here in 3 years.

There's a scorecard for every green upgrade. All of it countable.

They can't count a 9-year-old dog taking the left turn without hesitating.

[David Gottfried @davidgottfried]

You have a divine greatness in you. We all have it. Honor it — not who you were told to be, but who you actually are. Take those first steps, however small, however untrained. That harmony, that music, that light is yours to put into the world.

Full convo: @podhealthclub