According to a host of female leaders in Seattle’s green building industry, the answer to the question “is one sex greener?” is categorically “no.”

It’s not a question of a greener gender, panelists at the ReGeneration Conference said yesterday. Instead it’s a question of balancing the male and female parts of your brain, self and work to create a better designed building.

Now take a breath those of you who are skeptical, this is rooted in experience, not self-help books.

Basically, panelists said the black and white, concrete, don’t fail way of living and designing isn’t working and especially won’t work with green building as sustainable design requires an integrative approach. Lucia Athens of the Seattle Green Building Team said, “I don’t feel that there is a greener gender but we do live in a time where things have gotten out of balance.”

For a fun diversion, see how male or female your brain is by clicking here.

Speakers did call out the differences between men and women. Anne Schopf of Mahlum in Seattle said, “As women, we may design more in experiences and places and I see the men designing more objects and thinking more about the technologies.”

Right, wrong? What do you think about Schopf’s observation? Another thing Schopf said struck me: as she progressed up the architecture career ladder, she had many great mentors but none of them were women.

Ladies, was this your experience also? Did you only have male mentors or were you mentored by woman? Are you mentoring young architects now? And are there any men out there that were mentored by women? What was your experience, either here in the Pacific Northwest or elsewhere?

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Want to be a critical member of Seattle’s green building team? Now’s your chance because the city of Seattle is looking for a new green building coordinator.

The person will “oversee and lead planning of market transformation strategies related to integration of City Green Building programs and awareness,” according to the job description.

But that’s not all. The person will also work a lot with the mayor’s office, be a spokesperson for the City Green Building Program, manage media relations and develop consultant contracts, among other activities. Whew!

If this person is you, you’ve got to have three years experience in one of a variety of fields that connects directly to planning and development.

Here’s the rub, I don’t know who you’re supposed to contact if you are interested. But you can always start with the DPD Green Building Web site here. Happy job hunting!