Growing up on Maui, John Bendon spent most of his free time in the natural environment and felt a strong desire to protect the ‘aina around him. He followed that passion into his studies and parlayed it into a career that has positively impacted nearly every corner of the state. The more he learned, the more he became fascinated by the green building and energy efficiency movements. His desire to help Hawai‘i with these new, nature-friendly construction methods motivated Bendon to start his own green building wheelhouse. From teaching classes to local and international audiences, to the work he does at Green Building Hawaii, Bendon has led a number of firsts in the green building industry and he’s only picking up momentum along the way.

Bendon left Hawai‘i to seek higher education in fields that would ultimately allow him to minimize resource depletion. He earned an undergraduate degree in environmental studies from University of Colorado Boulder, then worked for a developer before heading to graduate school. In his first course in the University of Denver master’s degree program in Real Estate and Construction Management, Bendon’s “aha” moment came while writing a paper on green building. “I always knew I wanted to come back and do something good for Hawai‘i,” he says. “Working for the developer, I saw an incredible amount of waste being created during the building process. The phrase ‘green building’ was just starting to emerge, and a light bulb went off.”

Bendon returned to Maui and in 2007 founded Green Building Hawaii (GBH), a company that provides energy consulting and building performance testing services and guides projects through building certifications such as LEED, Energy Star and others. After becoming one of the first LEED-accredited professionals in the state, he facilitated the first LEED for New Construction rating on Maui with the Montessori School of Maui, the first LEED-certified home in the state and Hawai‘i’s first LEED for Existing Buildings resort, the Hyatt Regency Maui, which is the also the fourth of its kind in the world. In response to a heavy need for building performance and energy efficiency training, GBH co-created the first green-building classes for the University of Hawai‘i Maui College in 2010. “Once we hit a critical mass of people trained in Hawai‘i, we shifted back into consulting roles, and the folks we met through training ended up being our clients,” Bendon says.

With a team of two on Maui and two on O‘ahu, GBH still delivers cutting-edge efficiency and sustainability training to clients like the University of Hawai‘i and various corporate partners. Last year, they completed extensive energy auditing on all Kamehameha Schools campuses, totaling roughly three million square feet. Now Bendon is excited about the consulting work they’re doing with nonprofit affordable housing—assisting with projects for Catholic Charities Hawai‘i, Hawaii Housing Finance & Development Corporation and Coalition for Specialized Housing. “A lot of buildings have aging equipment, and the maintenance staff either don’t have the time or the training to realize the savings that are easily obtainable,” he says. “Since most of the housing projects require a green certification to qualify for various grants and funding, we’re helping them get certified and setting them up for lower operating costs down the road.”

One of his company’s major keys to success, says Bendon, is its ability to adapt as market conditions shift, combined with creative use of resources to achieve sustainable construction goals. For example, when Hyatt needed a LEED lighting retrofit, they created a college intern program that offered better pricing and manpower for the client and provided students with hands-on experience and college credit. “We make sure we’re staying one step ahead of what’s happening out there in terms of new opportunities,” Bendon says. “That piece of innovating and trying to be cutting edge keeps things interesting and provides a challenge, so we’re not doing the same things over and over.”

GBH just hired a new principal, Peter Stone, who will be taking over the management role for new projects so that Bendon can focus on high-level strategy. In addition to guiding two hotels through LEED certification, managing six different affordable housing projects, running commercial energy audits, performance testing for large home building companies and hosting ongoing training, Bendon’s constructing his own house and prepping it for LEED certification.

Moving forward, Bendon plans to continue to strive for excellence, both through his work with clients and by growing the employment opportunities in Hawai‘i’s dynamic green building industry. “The fact that we’re doing both is awesome and it means we’re already successful,” he says. “If we can continue to do this, then we’re on the right track.”