CHPS Announces New Executive Director

Former Technical Committee Chair Returns to Head Green Schools Organization

For immediate release
Please contact: Ariel Dekovic, 415-970-6604, ariel@chps.net

July 2, 2009 (San Francisco, CA) – The Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) announced today the selection of a new Executive Director. William “Bill” Orr will join the staff of CHPS on July 13, 2009. Mr. Orr is most well-known to the CHPS community for serving as head of the CHPS technical committee for three years.

“We are very pleased and excited to welcome back Bill Orr into the CHPS organization,” said Chip Fox, chair of the CHPS board of directors. “Bill’s technical expertise and vision, combined with his passion for green building, will no doubt invigorate the high performance school community.”

Mr. Orr joins CHPS after working for the state of California for almost thirty years. For a majority of his thirty years in state government, Mr. Orr worked for the California Integrated Waste Management Board. In 2000, he began working in the recycling technologies branch, where he became the head of the CHPS technical committee. During that time, Mr. Orr led the development of the 2006 edition of the CHPS criteria for California. Mr. Orr is a registered Geologist in California.

Among Mr. Orr’s first goals will be to work with the CHPS Board of Directors and staff to develop and maintain its strategic plan, use it to build the annual program plan and budget, and follow it as the blueprint for the organization’s direction and growth.

In a letter to the CHPS community, Mr. Orr said, “We are at a critical point for life on this planet – for our species, for our country, for our communities, for our children, for our very future. Every child in our country deserves the opportunity to attend and realize the benefits of a high performance school.”

He continued, “However, with the recent economic downturn it is imperative that this paradigm shift be completed before the window of opportunity slams shut. CHPS is uniquely positioned to be part of the solution to our nation’s economic recovery.”

Charles Eley, who served as the executive director of CHPS since its incorporation in 2002, will continue to serve in an advisory capacity to the organization.
CHPS is a 501c(3) non-profit headquartered in San Francisco. For more information about CHPS, visit www.chps.net.

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The Collaborative for High Performance Schools created the nation’s first green building rating program developed especially for school learning environments. The mission of CHPS is to improve the quality of education for our nation’s schoolchildren by facilitating the design, construction and operation of a new generation of high performance schools: places of learning that are environmentally sustainable, healthy and comfortable.