Steve Bellone
President and Founder

Innovative measures on environment and energy deployed by Babylon Supervisor Steve Bellone have lead the way on Long Island while attracting regional and national attention. In 2006, the Town adopted one of the most comprehensive green building codes in the nation, requiring all new commercial and industrial construction over 4,000sf to be LEED-certified. Municipalities from Atlanta to Flagstaff to Vancouver requested copies of the code in crafting their own. That same year Babylon and Brookhaven required Energy Star standards for new home construction; eleven of thirteen Long Island municipalities have followed suit.

Considering that existing building stock constituted the vast majority of Babylon’s carbon footprint (residential-38%, commercial-26%), Supervisor Bellone crafted the Long Island Green Homes program which has completed 58 energy efficiency retrofits with 40 more houses in the queue awaiting completion. To finance the $2 million pilot, the Town expanded the definition of solid waste to include energy waste by dint of its carbon component thus enabling it to draw on the garbage reserve fund for the program. The Supervisor has been a featured speaker on Babylon’s Green Homes Program at the Good Jobs/Green Jobs National conference in Washington, DC where he was also queried about the distinct operational aspects of the program by senior energy committee staffers in both the Senate and House. Throughout the summer Supervisor Bellone will serve as a key presenter at the World Economic Forum, the Greentown Conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan and at a host of Green and Environmental conferences throughout the United States.

Supervisor Bellone kicked off Babylon’s pledge to the Sierra-club sponsored Mayors’ Climate Initiative by pledging to reduce its carbon footprint 12% by 2012. To this end Babylon has been purchasing 10% of its energy from wind and made of all of its passenger vehicles hybrids since 2005. The Town has also greatly expanded its parks program and transit-oriented design in its downtowns. The wholesale redevelopment of Wyandanch promises to bring comprehensive sustainability and social equity to one of the most economically challenged hamlets on Long Island. In 2009, Supervisor Bellone was honored as public figure of the year by the Long Island chapter of the US Green Building Council and as environmentalist of the year by the Sierra Club’s Long Island Group.

Arthur R. Desin, Jr.
Board Member

Art is a leader in the United States Green Building Council and holds the position Chairman of the Board for the Long Island Chapter. He joined the chapter in 2004 and assumed the responsibility of Membership Committee Chair. He has held numerous other chapter positions, including Sponsorship Chairperson, Program Chairperson, Board of Director and Vice Chair.

Art makes numerous presentations as a member of the chapters outreach team and meets with a large number of professional organizations promoting sustainable design. Art is currently studying for his LEED-CI accreditation.

He is the first Chairman from the USGBC-LI Chapter to be chosen as a Board of Director for the new Babylon Project. A not for profit foundation whose mission is to promote energy efficiency programs and retro-fits to the municipalities located throughout New York State, as well as develop a national campaign to mobilize municipalities and provide them with lobbying and legislative support.\

Art Desin is also the Director of Government Contract Sales for the Workplace Group, Long Island’s premier supplier of corporate office furniture systems.

George Hoffman
Board Member

George Hoffman is a career professional in government, communications and legislative affairs with over 30 years of experience in setting and managing policy agendas for federal, state and local government on Long Island. He served as Chief of Staff to two of Long Island’s prominent supervisors. In 2006 he established Great River Public Strategies, a consulting firm that specializes in government affairs. His expertise is in policy management and in developing strategies for communicating government policy to the public.

Mr. Hoffman has also worked for the federal government as District Director for a Long Island Congressman and in that capacity was responsible for setting up and managing the congressional policy staff, caseworkers and media relations.

As Chief of Staff of the second largest town on Long Island, Mr. Hoffman coordinated all of the town’s intergovernmental activities and managed the communications for policy development. Mr. Hoffman is a skilled policy negotiator with a record of building consensus to solve complex public policy problems. He was a key member of the environmental policy team that was successful in passing a $100 million environmental bond referendum, the largest open space protection bond initiative in the United States.

In the early 1990’s, Mr. Hoffman was Program Director for the Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association (GNYADA), one of the state’s largest automotive trade associations. He was responsible for managing the association’s legislative program, and recognized as an effective representative on behalf of the automobile dealer interests in the state capital.

Mr. Hoffman has extensive contacts in government, the media and with local business civic and community organizations across Long Island.

Rich Manning
Board Member

Rich is a Building Performance Contractor certified by the Building Performance Institute (BPI) in shell and heating, and performs energy audits for existing houses as well as upgrading them to reduce their energy cost by air sealing, insulation and replacing the heating systems. He has help developed the Long Island Green Homes program for the town of Babylon and is a board member for the Babylon project, a non-profit organization that helps municipalities develop a residential weatherization program similar to the LI Green Homes program. He is also a HERS rater and performs ratings on new construction buildings to Energy Star standards. He has been a home inspector for over 10 years and has inspected over 3000 residential and commercial buildings; and is also a New York State Building Code Enforcement Officer. He is a member of the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) who sits on the board of the local chapter, serves on the Education committee, and holds the LEED AP certification. He also performs moisture evaluations inspections on buildings. Rich has been an instructor for the Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES), a state run vocational school for the last 9 years; and an instructor for the American Real Estate School for 10 years. He is an expert witness, as well an arbitrator in the construction industry for the past 10 years.