Charles Kibert

We regret to inform you that Charles Kibert died earlier this week, in a one-car road accident near his university. Charles was professor and Director of the Center for Construction and Environment at University of Florida in Gainesville. He was an active member of iiSBE in the 1990’s and was committed to sustainability issues.

The University of Florida College of Design, Construction and Planning posted a message on Tuesday mourning the loss of the professor. “Over more than three decades, Charles has provided leading edge research and instructional excellence to hundreds of Rinker students,” Rinker School Director Robert Cox wrote in the message. “His impact on us all will never be forgotten, nor will it fade. He was a class act that made everyone around him a better person.” A spokesperson for the Gainesville Police Department said it appears as though a medical incident caused the driver to swerve off the road and crash.

Dr. Kibert's death came 3 weeks after he was elected as Chair of the Board of Directors of GBI, the Green Building Initiative. A GBI announcement at the time stated that ...Dr. Kibert is a pioneer in the green community having published over 120 papers and books and edited several publications on construction, the environment, and related issues. He developed a widely used green building continuing education program for Florida contractors and subcontractors called “Build Green and Profit” and organized the first (regional) International Conference on Sustainable Construction in November 1994 along with several other green building conferences, including the iiSBE Net Zero Built Environment Symposium in 2014.

His old friends in iiSBE, including Vanessa Gomes (Brazil), Thomas Luetzkendorf (Germany), Norman Goijberg (Chile), Luis Bragança (Portugal) and Mark Gorgolewski (Canada) express their feelings of personal loss and deep regret over Dr. Kibert's untimely death.

N.L.