Sterling Laylock is a recognized resilient-economy strategist who develops human-centered, data-driven solutions connecting infrastructure, sustainable development, decarbonization, equity and innovation. His work focuses on ensuring that resilience and sustainability deliver measurable environmental, health and economic value across the built environment.

Sterling is Founder and CEO-designate of the Center for Global Resilience & Innovation (CGR-i), a public-benefit corporation; Executive Director-designate of the Resilience Impact Multiplier Institute (RIM-i); and Special Advisor to Integrating Green Technologies. He also leads standards intelligence and monitoring for the ASTM E3429 Property Resilience Assessment Taskforce through 2030.

Through CGR-i, Sterling advances energy-efficiency strategies that use indoor environmental quality as a catalyst for Scope 3 greenhouse-gas reporting, ESG performance and community resilience. This work is grounded in his peer-reviewed R:357 implementation framework.

His technical expertise includes deploying IoT measurement and verification systems at the intersection of air, water and building performance. As a prime consultant to the Miami-Dade FOG Control Program under a continuing U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sewer consent decree, he designed a pioneering system requiring IoT devices to prevent fats, oils, grease, food and trash from entering the county sewer system, significantly helping reduce sanitary-sewer overflows.

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, Sterling led Integrating Green Technologies’ collaboration with Cook County commissioners to secure unanimous passage of Resolution 25-2342, declaring indoor air and indoor environmental quality a public-health crisis. The resolution led Cook County to establish an ongoing intergovernmental agreement with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Champaign County Regional Planning Commission. His related work within the Illinois Climate Action Plan includes student-led research and applied projects focused on energy-efficient HVAC infection control.

Sterling’s recent work examines the relationship among energy efficiency, indoor environmental quality and occupant health. He is a contributor to the International Energy Agency’s Energy in Buildings and Communities Annex 101, which studies the indoor environmental impacts of residential building decarbonization.

Sterling also contributes to sustainability education and was one of 10 speakers selected for the Illinois Governor’s Office of Equity Peer-to-Peer Speaker Exchange in 2025. He previously served as Vice Chair of the U.S. Green Building Council’s Miami-Dade Chapter. His work reflects a principle shared by GNFZ: sustainability must move beyond good intentions to deliver practical, equitable and measurable results.