---
title: "Lessons From a Green Decade"
id: "61321"
type: "post"
slug: "lessons-from-a-green-decade"
published_at: "2023-07-19T16:14:33+00:00"
modified_at: "2026-07-11T18:07:20+00:00"
url: "https://associationsnow.com/2023/07/19/lessons-from-a-green-decade/"
markdown_url: "https://associationsnow.com/2023/07/19/lessons-from-a-green-decade.md"
excerpt: "More than 10 years of focus on sustainability has taught Gabriel Eckert how to build environmental issues into everything an association does."
taxonomy_category:
  - "Operations"
taxonomy_post_tag:
  - "Associations Now"
  - "Established CEO"
taxonomy_content_format:
  - "Article"
taxonomy_role:
  - "Association CEO / Executive Director"
taxonomy_persona:
  - "Executive Leadership"
---

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Part of the Deep Dive[Staff Smarts](https://associationsnow.com/deep-dives/new-roles/)
Not long after he became CEO of Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) of Georgia in 2006, Gabriel Eckert, FASAE, CAE, recognized that leading a small-staff association in the real estate world would require developing expertise in sustainability. Construction standards were changing and new green certifications like LEED were gaining traction. And members had plenty of questions on how they needed to respond.

“People were beginning to look at what’s good for the environment and also what’s good for the bottom line,” he said. “And we began to realize that those two things were intertwined, and in many cases exactly the same.”

BOMA Georgia has spent more than a decade dedicating attention to sustainability. But Eckert has learned that leading on sustainability means being both focused and fluid. Serving members has meant making regular adjustments to the kind of programming an association offers, as new trends emerge and new challenges demand attention.

[Mark Athitakis](https://associationsnow.com/author/mark-athitakis/)

Mark Athitakis, a contributing editor for Associations Now, has written on nonprofits, the arts, and leadership for a variety of publications. He is a coauthor of The Dumbest Moments in Business History and hopes you never qualify for the sequel.

[More articles by this author](https://associationsnow.com/author/mark-athitakis/)

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