Dr. Vatsal Bhatt works with the U.S. Green Building Council as the Vice President of LEED for Communities, where he helped conceptualize and make operational the LEED for Cities and Communities rating system, since 2016. For 20+ years, he has worked as an urban planner and energy economist. At the Brookhaven National Laboratory for 17 years, Dr. Bhatt worked on low-carbon urban development and energy systems analysis, including U.S. Department of Energy’s U.S.-India-China EcoCities Partnership and US Department of State’s US-China EcoPartnerships. He has worked on National Institute for Standards and Technology led efforts for developing “IoT Enabled Smart Cities Frameworks”, serves on the technical advisory group for the ISO’s technical committee 268 for sustainable cities, peer reviewed the Future of Housing Roadmap for XPRIZE, serving on the Board of Advisors for the Wellbeing City Award at New Cities Foundation, Planning 2050 and participates on APA Divisions Council on Smart Cities.

Roger Platt advances strategic partnerships for the US Green Building Council and GBCI. He is a former president of USGBC as well as the former head of global policy and advocacy. In addition to his role with strategic partnerships, Roger oversees USGBC's LEED for Cities and Communities initiative and supports business development in the New York City region. Before joining USGBC in 2009, Roger served for fifteen years as Senior Vice President and Counsel at the Real Estate Roundtable and before that as a senior land use associate with the Coblentz law firm in San Francisco. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the Urban Land Institute and the Center for Architecture in New York City and the Environmental Film Festival in Washington, DC. Roger is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of San Francisco School of Law and is admitted to practice law in California and the District of Columbia. He writes and speaks frequently on the intersection of markets and sustainability including guest lectures at Columbia, Georgetown, Princeton and Yale.