Airports may not be the “greenest” places on Earth, but Rosemarie S. Andolino is cleaning up one of the world's busiest. The 39-year-old executive director of Chicago's O'Hare Modernization Program helped fill an important gap in the green building movement by enlisting 45 public and private experts to create the first environmental rating system for large airports.

Tudor Hampton At O'Hare, environmental guidelines are expanding into airport infrastructure.

Contractors began using the system this year after breaking ground on the $6.6-billion O'Hare program. Among other things, they are placing green roofs atop service buildings, installing low-energy LED lights and running construction equipment on clean diesel fuel not required by the federal government until 2010. Other airport owners are recognizing the 84-page Sustainable Design Manual as a new benchmark because it applies to all engineered structures, not just buildings.