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In his 10 years as executive director of the Northwest Environmental Business Council, Robert Grott has seen the organization double its membership and expand its programs and conference topics. This year marks NEBC鈥檚 20th anniversary as well as the 10th year of its Energy Future Conference, which connects policy with practice and addresses the industry鈥檚 current challenges and opportunities.

鈥淲e鈥檙e always changing and looking for new ways to bring people together and one of our missions is to help with education and disseminate best practices,鈥� Grott said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e continually evolving and growing our educational activities, especially our conferences.鈥�

NEBC also serves as a regional leader in providing education and resources about stormwater management and redevelopment of brownfields. It is working with a large coalition to advocate for legislative and regulatory changes that encourage brownfield redevelopment.

鈥淲e鈥檙e looking for new tools for communities to use to facilitate that redevelopment. Last session we had this concept passed called land banking, where a municipality can take over contaminated sites without taking over the liability,鈥� he said.

Grott said one of the biggest changes he has seen over the last decade is NEBC鈥檚 use of technology. 鈥淲hen I started working here we were sending out event announcements by fax, and now we鈥檙e looking at how social media can be used to promote our programs and events.鈥�

The challenge that lies ahead is determining how different modes of communication are going to change people鈥檚 expectations, he added. While technology has many benefits, one of NEBC鈥檚 key roles is to foster connections between representatives from regulatory agencies, property developers and service providers such as the consultants and engineers who make up the organization鈥檚 membership.

鈥淥ne thing we鈥檝e kept consistent is our belief that interpersonal connections are so fundamental to what we do,鈥� Grott said. 鈥淭here are a lot of ways you can do technical content these days and we鈥檝e decided to stick with our core strength, which is bringing people together.鈥�

This year also marks Grott鈥檚 retirement as NEBC鈥檚 leader. He said he expects the transition to happen by mid-year and, while he does not plan to work full time, he would like to spend more time on personal pursuits and may do some consulting work.