Charlie Saville Named a Crain’s Chicago Business 2023 Notable Leader in Sustainability

FitzGerald is pleased to announce that Charlie Saville, Principal and Director of Sustainability, was recently named by Crain’s Chicago Business as one of their 2023 Notable Leaders in Sustainability. Charlie leads FitzGerald’s effort to fully integrate all facets of sustainability into our architecture and interiors work.

 When asked about the significance of this recognition, Mike DeRouin, FitzGerald’s president, had this to say: 

“Charlie drives our designs to do better tomorrow than we did today.  He focuses our teams to understand the myriad of requirements, pressures, and project goals—both internal and external—that must be accounted for during building design, construction, and operation.  He provides advice daily to project teams and is an invaluable resource for us and our clients.  And Charlie is always looking beyond the expected and standard sustainability obligations and goals to discover strategies that drive solutions to net-zero and carbon neutral development as well as real estate portfolio management.  We are very proud of his accomplishments and for being recognized by Crain’s Chicago Business as a Notable Leader in Sustainability.”

Charlie’s leadership enables FitzGerald to offer its clients unparalleled sustainability services as they navigate the regulatory requirements and financial viability of development, select the best possible building certification program(s), and make practical decisions necessary to design buildings for current and future performance. Internally, he serves as a mentor, advising project teams and providing firm-wide training that improves the sustainable design knowledge of all staff. He oversees the development of firm-wide standards for Energy and Green Code design documents and evaluates project design concepts to identify opportunities for sustainable design innovation, new product types, and new design approaches.

With over two decades of experience, Charlie provides sustainability and energy performance consulting services to a range of civic organizations. He serves as a technical subject matter expert for the General Services Administration (GSA), providing consulting on green building and health and wellbeing guiding principles, NETZERO energy initiatives, and carbon analysis and reporting. Similarly, he advises the Green Building Initiative (GBI), providing insight on program policy as well as energy and carbon analysis and reporting, and for the Park District of Oak Park and PCC Wellness on renewable energy systems.

Some of his notable achievements include his advocacy for the Green Globes program and the first Green Globes-certified buildings in Chicago; the first FITWEL-certified multifamily project in the Midwest; the first “Petal” certified Commercial Interior office project in the United States, participation on teams that have achieved the highest levels of certification including Three Globes and LEED Platinum, and the first-ever IWBI WELL & GBI Green Globes dual-certification (Building and Health/Wellness) project in the United States. In the past year, he led sustainability consulting for a suburban industrial retail warehouse, that with Charlie’s input was able to be a net positive carbon and energy project awarded Green Building Initiative’s Project of the Year. The project earned a Three Green Globes rating and features one of the Midwest’s largest photovoltaic systems, designed to offset 100% of the building’s energy. Charlie also facilitated the integration of ventless clothing dryers into ComEd’s Energy Conservation Measure (ECM) program by providing research proving that the switch supports greater energy efficiency within the multifamily housing industry.

Read the announcement in Crain’s Chicago Business:

Congratulations to Charlie!