Illinois Green Member to Bike 400 Miles for Climate

June 26, 2023

Longtime Illinois Green member and event speaker, Nate Kipnis, FAIA, LEED BD+C will be fundraising for Illinois Green by participating in the Climate Ride, a 400 mile bike ride from Burlington, VT to Bar Harbor, ME this September. Kipnis has previously participated in the Climate Ride in 2014 and 2018.



Nate has personally personally been involved with Illinois Green for nearly 10 years now, working with us to showcase examples of sustainable homes to the public. Through his Climate ride, his goal is to raise $5000 for Illinois Green. Your dollars will help support their vision to combat climate change in Illinois by making net zero buildings feasible, affordable, and so commonplace that every building in Illinois by 2050 is net zero.


A man and a woman holding a sign that says thank you
A man riding a bike next to a yellow sign
A group of people are riding bicycles down a road in the woods.
A group of people standing next to each other with bicycles

More about Nate

Nate Kipnis is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and principal of Kipnis Architecture + Planning (https://www.kipnisarch.com/), based in Evanston, Illinois and Boulder, Colorado. The firm was named ‘Best Chicago Residential Architect’ in 2019 and 2022 by Better Magazine and was a previous recipient of Illinois Green Alliance’s prestigious Emerald Award.



A founding member of the AIA’s 2030 Commitment Working Group in 2009, Mr. Kipnis served as national co-chair from 2018 to 2019. He was also on the AIA’s national Sustainability Leadership Group and the Committee on Climate Action and Design Excellence. He now serves at the national level on the Executive Committee of the AIA’s national Small Firm Exchange, hoping to get the word out on sustainability to the large number of the AIA’s smaller firms.


Nate was a founding board member of Citizens’ Greener Evanston (now Climate Action Evanston). He spearheaded the group’s Lake Michigan offshore wind farm concept from 2009 through 2013, which is now on the Department of Energy’s list of potential offshore wind sites.


Mr. Kipnis is the founder of NextHaus Alliance (https://nexthausalliance.com/), a new, premium design/build concept to provide ‘net zero’ sustainable. resilient and healthy homes.


A graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder, he received his Environmental Design degree in 1983. Mr. Kipnis obtained his Master of Architecture degree from Arizona State University, with emphasis in Energy Conscious Design in 1985.


‘Nate the Skate’ was a semi-professional skateboarder a long (long) time ago, but continues to skateboard, snowboard, ski and surf when the opportunity presents itself.

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