Gene Myers, owner and chief sustainability officer of Thrive Home Builders in Denver will deliver the 2024 Hankin Distinguished Lecture, hosted by the residential construction program and the Pennsylvania Housing Research Center, housed in Penn State’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. His talk, “A Homebuilder’s Journey to Carbon Neutral Construction,” will be held at 4 p.m. on Nov. 6 in Robb Hall at the Hintz Family Alumni Center at University Park. A reception will follow the event, both of which are free and open to the public.

Myers’ career in the residential construction industry has included a focus on energy efficiency and high-performance homes through his company, Thrive Home Builders. By virtue of its unprecedented 13 Grand Awards for Housing Innovation from the United States Department of Energy over 10 years, Thrive is among the nation’s best builders of energy efficient homes. Thrive is also among the nation’s leading healthy home builders as evidenced by numerous U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Indoor airPLUS Leader Awards and its designation as Leader of the Year in 2019. National recognition of Thrive also includes Builder of the Year by Professional Builder magazine and National Housing Quality Bronze and Silver Awards. Myers recently received the Energy & Environmental Building Alliance Legend Award for his lifetime achievement and was named Sustainability Superhero by Green Builder magazine. His current efforts include leading Thrive Home Builders to carbon neutrality.

The Hankin Distinguished Lecture series was established in 2006 to honor the late Bernard Hankin and his family for their continuous and dedicated support of the residential construction program at Penn State. It brings world-class speakers to Penn State to address students, faculty, industry members and the public with thought-provoking topics and education related to the housing industry.

The PHRC collaboratively engages with the residential construction industry to catalyze advancements in homebuilding through education, training, innovation, research and dissemination. The PHRC envisions a residential construction industry equipped with the knowledge, skills and technology to build better homes. Learn more at phrc.psu.edu.