A few weeks ago, the DJC's Green Building Blog posted about a "rare job opening." It turns out that the city's Sustainable  Communities Planner, Lynne Barker,  is moving on to join the staff of ICLEI, the International Council of Local Environmental Initatives. While the work that ICLEI does is extraordinary, their gain is definitely our loss. Lynne was a dynamo locally, seemingly a ubiquitous presence at every sustainability event in the City. Not only that, but Lynne was at the beginning of a lot of exciting efforts in both the public and private sectors. To quote the DJC:

"In 1995, Barker created a sustainable building program for Sellen Construction Co. In 1996, she co-chaired the U.S. Green Building Council’s committee that helped launch LEED. She served on the USGBC board for six years, and co-founded the Cascadia Region Green Building Council."

As bad as Lynne's loss was for the City, on Thursday more sad news has trickled down through the grapevine. A conversation with Steve Moddemeyer, the principal author behind the Seattle Green Factor and the Sustainable Infrastructure Initiative (and one of my Top 10 favorite bureaucrats of all time), revealed that both he and Lucia Athens, at the City's Green Building Team will be leaving to join the staff of CollinsWoerman (way to go, CW, very smart!).

This is exciting news for every other city in the world that is concerned about sustainability, because these three were definitely on the cutting edge. These were the people who rode the upwelling of interest in sustainability and then transformed that interest into policy and programs. So now that they've joined the ranks of consultants I hope they'll be spreading the best lessons learned from Seattle around the globe. That's the good, but the downside is that we're losing a tremendous intellectual legacy at the City.

Into that void, a new generation must set foot. And if the legacy that these three have left at the City is any indication, the people who take over from them will have an unparalleled opportunity to shape City policy from the inside out. To Diane Sugimura, good luck and hire well!