FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 8, 2007 — LINC Housing Corporation (LINC) will honor three industry and community leaders at its “14th Annual Tribute to Affordable Housing Leaders” at a ceremony on October 11 at the Los Angeles River Center & Gardens. Each honoree has shown leadership in supporting new building and educational practices that lead to healthy, sustainable communities.
Nearly 300 development partners, lenders, city and regional leaders, and housing advocates are expected to gather to honor: Kelly Caffarelli, president, The Home Depot Foundation; Robert Hertzberg, former Speaker of the California Legislature; and Andy Lipkis, president, TreePeople.
“LINC’s focus during the past year has been to examine how our organization can make a positive impact on the environment by incorporating green and sustainable practices throughout all we do, and this includes honoring people at this year’s Tribute who have demonstrated leadership in these areas,” said Hunter L. Johnson, LINC’s president and CEO. “This year’s recipients understand the importance of ensuring we shift our culture to one that values the environment and is willing to take steps, both large and small, to ensure we’re all caring for our planet.”
Each recipient will receive the William F. McKenna Award, named after one of the founding board members of LINC and a long-time advocate for affordable housing.
ABOUT THE HONOREES
Kelly Caffarelli is president of The Home Depot Foundation, which provides charitable grants to organizations that build affordable, efficient and healthy homes while promoting sustainability. Earlier this year, under Caffarelli’s leadership, The Home Depot Foundation announced a 10-year, $100 million commitment to support efforts to make communities healthier and more stable. The funds are being invested to address two areas of vital concern: access to affordable, healthy homes for working families, and planting and preserving community trees in urban areas. In total, the pledge will support the development of 100,000 affordable, healthy homes, and the planting and preservation of more than 3 million community trees over the next decade.
Robert Hertzberg is the former Speaker of the California Legislature, twice unanimously elected on bipartisan vote in 2000 and 2002. He is currently a partner at Mayer Brown LLP, one of the 10 largest law firms in the United States. As a lawyer, businessman and community leader, Hertzberg has demonstrated a commitment to bringing people together and solving complex problems with innovative solutions. While in the legislature, addressing housing needs was one of his priorities. As speaker, he secured more than $500 million for low income housing in California. In 2002, Hertzberg co-founded Solar Integrated Technologies, which earned the 2005 Wall Street Journal Innovation Award in the Energy Sector. He is also chairman of G24 Innovations, which manufacturers a new type of lightweight and flexible solar cell that generates power in low, ambient and even indoor conditions.
Andy Lipkis is founder and president of TreePeople, a nonprofit organization that has been serving the Los Angeles area for more than three decades. TreePeople’s work focuses on helping nature heal cities. The organization offers sustainable solutions to urban ecosystem problems with a focus on training and supporting communities to plant and care for trees, educating school children and adults about the environment, and working with government agencies on critical water issues. For more than 30 years, Lipkis’ leadership has helped make Los Angeles a testing ground for visionary, community-based efforts including Los Angeles’ curb-side recycling program, the creation of the Urban Greening Initiative of the USDA Forest Service, and the completion of one of Los Angeles’ most sustainable buildings — the Center for Community Forestry Conference Center. Lipkis and TreePeople have been honored by numerous groups including the United Nations, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the Greenhouse Crisis Foundation.
