Shows
Design the FutureLu Salinas on consulting and doing what's right for the most peopleLu Salinas has been working in the green building industry since 2006 -- with firms and on projects in the US, Australia, Southeast Asia, and Mexico, where she works today. Her consulting firm, THREE Environmental Consulting, has worked on everything from small affordable housing projects to large infrastructure projects such as the New International Mexico City Airport in Texcoco. She grew up in Mexico in a family of civil engineers, and happened upon the James Wines book, Sustainable Architecture, in the early 2000s, which sparked her awareness of and interest in the field. She sees the in...2024-09-0539 minDesign the FutureCristina Gamboa on quantifying the benefits of a decarbonized economyCristina Gamboa is CEO of the World Green Building Council, an influential local-regional-global network focused on “the transformation to sustainable and decarbonized built environments for everyone, everywhere.” She is an economist with a background in sustainability, policy, and multi-stakeholder partnerships; as such, she is a trusted convener in international settings such as UN Climate Change summits and the World Economic Forum. Cristina is from Colombia and lives in London. Before she came to this work, she was an academic economist with a focus on international affairs and a passion for communicating. “Collectively, we’ve had a huge win, gett...2024-08-1546 minDesign the FutureStephanie Phillips on valuing materials and a silo-busting mindsetStephanie Phillips leads the City of San Antonio's Deconstruction & Circular Economy Program. Housed in the Office of Historic Preservation, the program prioritizes building material reuse as a tool for affordable housing repair, traditional trades revival, economic innovation, equitable access to high-quality resources, and cultural and community resilience. Her work contributes to nonprofits and coalitions that focus on embodied carbon and circular economy policy and advocacy, including the Climate Heritage Network and Build Reuse. She is the co-founder of Circular San Antonio and is a 2023 J.M. Kaplan Fund Innovation Prize awardee.Her w...2024-06-2741 minDesign the FutureSandeep Ahuja on technology tools for sustainabilitySandeep Ahuja is co-founder and CEO of cove.tool, an AI-first consulting platform that aims to break down barriers in the design and construction cycle, creating a new network of shared information, interoperability, and accountability across projects and teams.In addition to running cove.tool, Sandeep has recently co-authored a book with Patrick Chopson. Build Like It’s the End of the World: A Practical Guide to Decarbonize Architecture, Engineering, and Construction is due out from Wiley by the end of 2024.Sandeep is passionate about transforming the AEC industry with intelligent and innovative solutions to re...2024-06-2033 minDesign the FutureNora Rizzo on materials and ethicsNora Rizzo is Grace Farms Foundation’s Ethical Materials Director. She works to advance the Design for Freedom movement to eliminate forced and child labor from the built environment. For the past two decades, Nora has been dedicated to creating change in the built environment through sustainability, resilience, and social equity work. Nora described the traction around the Design for Freedom work, and shared her excitement about a new public exhibit at Grace Farms Foundation in New Canaan, Connecticut. “With Every Fiber" was curated by Chelsea Thatcher and designed by Nina Cooke John. “This exhibit is focused on the...2024-05-3043 minDesign the FutureAlyssa-Amor Gibbons on cultural heritage and resilienceAlyssa-Amor Gibbons designs environmentally conscious, energy-efficient, and resilient architecture that reflects a deep reverence for nature and human interconnectedness with the world. She has degrees in structural engineering and architecture and specializes in Building Information Modelling. She also works as an advisor for the Spinnaker Group, a division of SOCOTEC, focusing on sustainable certification of buildings in hot and humid climates. Her affinity for hot and humid stems from her home: Alyssa-Amor is from Barbados, an island nation, and she lives and works there now. She thinks that growing up with an acute understanding of human’s and...2024-04-2548 minDesign the FutureJanice Barnes on climate adaptation as part of designDr. Janice Barnes is founder of Climate Adaptation Partners, a NYC-based partnership that focuses on climate adaptation. With technical training in architecture and organizational behavior, she helps clients to understand risks and evaluate adaptation pathways and link these to design and financing options. She works at the intersection of climate change, design, and public health and uses the question "how might we?" to frame her work. We talked with Janice about her advocacy and education work, her current client and project work, and more. She insists that “climate adaptation is part of design. We have a professional obl...2024-04-1149 minDesign the FuturePaula Melton on green building knowledge and educationPaula Melton is the Editorial Director at BuildingGreen, which supports the international sustainable building movement with learning resources, community building, and other services. She works with editorial teams to develop and deliver webcasts, long-form analysis, and other guidance on BuildingGreen.com and LEEDuser.com. “We have problems that are caused by people being in silos,” Paula says, “and not being able or willing to communicate. We need to be thinking about people skills and processes in new ways.” She adds that progress in the movement really demands a lot of soft skills. “We are all engaged in change mana...2024-03-2148 minDesign the FutureLaurie Schoeman on climate risk, resilience, and financeLaurie Schoeman is the Director of Climate for Enterprise Community Investment and has served as senior advisor at the Council on Environmental Quality in the Executive Office of the President. Her aim is to develop and implement innovative policies and solutions that enhance the climate adaptation and physical resilience of communities across the nation, especially those that are vulnerable and underserved. “When we talk about climate adaptation, I want people to point to built systems all over the country that are rooted in nature-based solutions,” she says. “It's time we move out of the textbooks and into our str...2024-02-2245 minDesign the FutureNoorie Rajvanshi on sustainability as part of everyday workNoorie Rajvanshi is Director of Sustainability and Climate Strategy at Siemens USA, part of a multinational technology company. Noorie talked to us about her family’s sustainability roots, her mechanical engineering background, and how her fascination with quantifying environmental impact led to her role at Siemens. She is proud of her work on performance tools to support cities with ambitious GHG reduction goals and of her current work on carbon pricing.Noorie calls herself a climate optimist and a climate realist. And she says that she feels part of a movement -- one that is cha...2024-02-0839 minDesign the FutureVeena Singla on environmental health and justiceDr. Veena Singla is Senior Scientist with the People & Communities Program at the NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council). She seeks to address health disparities linked to harmful environmental exposures using an interdisciplinary approach, incorporating environmental health, exposure science, public health, and policy expertise. Her research investigates how toxic chemicals and pollution related to systems of materials use, production, and disposal threaten the health of communities. “If you work on buildings, you're actually working on health and justice, even if you didn't think about it that way,” she says. “Green building has influenced health and justice in both...2023-12-1441 minDesign the FutureSeema Bhangar on human health, data, and buildingsSeema Bhangar is a Healthy Buildings & Communities Principal at the US Green Building Council; she focuses on research and innovation. She is also a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley’s Center for the Built Environment. If you are interested in the field of human health and buildings, Seema advises you to “collect data and be curious and discerning and honest. We have evaluate impact and ask what we do not know.” Seema is working with a new team to rebuild a dedicated research function at USGBC. She is fueled, she says, by the magic that happens “when we bring re...2023-11-3041 minDesign the FutureAnnie Bevan on materials and thinking about impact holisticallyMaterials maven Annie Bevan is a facilitator, consultant, and collaborator focused on creating large-scale change and leveraging sustainability as a strategic business enabler. She’s effecting this through two roles: she is CEO of SMS Collaborative and CEO of mindful MATERIALS.The mindful MATERIALS organization began as steward of a library tool. (That tool started at HKS, which gifted the idea to the built environment community.) Today it is a nonprofit convener, aggregator, and aligner centered on the Common Materials Framework — a system for thinking about products and holistic impact.“We want building product manufacturer to hea...2023-11-1644 minDesign the FutureAlejandra Menchaca on design analytics and opening windowsThrough her consultancy, AIRLIT studio, Alejandra Menchaca provides expertise in mechanical engineering and building science to owners and design teams. One of her current projects will be the first performing arts facility in the US with full natural ventilation. Ale holds a PhD in mechanical engineering and has taught at MIT and Harvard GSD, where she has mentored, she says, “several brilliant students who have become inspiring disruptors in the building simulation industry. That’s immensely rewarding.”We talked to Ale about growing up in Mexico and her shift from aerospace engineering to environmental stewardship and building science...2023-10-2644 minDesign the FutureVictoria Burrows on decarbonization and proving the possibleVictoria Burrows is a manager of portfolio development and industry partnerships at Kompas, an early-stage venture capital firm backing innovations for decarbonizing the built environment and manufacturing. Decarbonization has been the focus of Victoria’s career to date (her prior role was leading Advancing Net Zero at the World Green Building Council), and she lives it, too. She is renovating her own net zero home in France. Victoria is excited to be working in venture capital right now because, she says, "the market needs a suite of solutions for every part of the problem -- solutions that are...2023-10-0546 minDesign the FutureAriane Laxo on the broadening impacts of designAriane Laxo is Sustainability Director at HGA, an architecture and engineering firm of 1,000 people in 12 offices. We talked to Ariane about her work, what she draws on to lead, and how she finds strength in the purpose of sustainability. She advises others to listen to the curiosity that pulls them and cultivate an introspective mindset. In addition to stewarding projects at HGA that demonstrate a holistic approach to design and deeply integrated sustainability, Ariane is also working on change management at the firm, which includes cultivating an inclusive culture and a distributed network of intelligence around sustainability, e...2023-09-0743 minDesign the FutureMary Ann Piette on feedback between building design and operationsMary Ann Piette is the Interim Associate Lab Director of the Energy Technologies Area at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She manages a research enterprise comprised of 700 staff and affiliates, including 120 principal investigators working across a broad set of technology R&D programs to accelerate decarbonization ranging from demand-side energy efficiency and grid integration to hydrogen technologies, energy storage, and renewable energy systems. We had a terrific time talking to Mary Ann about her mechanical engineering background and how she thinks about buildings, energy, comfort, and grids. She’s focused on four pillars of decarbonization: energy efficiency, electrification, gri...2023-06-2242 minDesign the FutureSarah Ichioka on regenerative models, integration, and reality-based thinking for the futureSarah Ichioka is an urbanist, strategist, curator, and writer currently based in Singapore. She leads Desire Lines, a strategic consultancy. Her latest book, Flourish: Design Paradigms for Our Planetary Emergency, co-authored with Michael Pawlyn, proposes a bold set of regenerative design principles for addressing environmental and social challenges. We talked to her about the book and related podcast, her wide-ranging career, and her abiding interest in cities, which was first piqued in her eighth grade year through the Future City competition. She and Pawlyn started working on the book when they perceived tension between evolution in the bu...2023-06-0857 minDesign the FutureRenée Cheng on agency and equity in the built environmentRenée Cheng is an architect and dean of the College of Built Environments at the University of Washington. She pioneered research surrounding the intersection of design and emerging technologies and is a leader in the American Institute of Architects around equity in the profession and practice. She led the research effort for AIA guides for equitable practice. She sees students as partners, and notes that the practice environment they face is radically different from the one their teachers experienced. “We need to be teaching more about collaborating across disciplines,” she says. “And we need to help our stude...2023-05-2545 minDesign the FutureFiona Cousins on technical knowledge and cross-disciplinary collaborationFiona Cousins, a mechanical engineer by training, is the Americas Chair for Arup, guiding a 1,900-person engineering, design, consulting, and planning firm with a focus on collaborating and innovating to shape a better world. Fiona and her teams take a broad view as they pursue value for clients, considering climate change, social equity, and biodiversity. As a longtime leader in the field, Fiona has a keen perspective on the arc of progress. She says that the market transformation that has occurred in the past 30 years means that it feels a bit less like a movement now. “The flo...2023-05-0446 minDesign the FutureMarnese Jackson on the power of ordinary people and energy equity in the MidwestMarnese Jackson is an environmental and climate justice activist, advocate, trainer, and educator in Pontiac, Michigan. This mother of two is the co-director of the Midwest Building Decarbonization Coalition, which focuses on inspiring and educating Midwesterners to end new installations of fossil fuel equipment in residential and commercial buildings by 2030, and to achieve zero emissions from these buildings by 2050, with integration of equity and labor justice. Marnese started her her career doing energy audits in homes, learned about poor air quality in certain areas, and became a regional organizer with the NAACP’s environmental justice program. She wor...2023-04-2046 minDesign the FutureStephanie Greene on buildings electrification and the climate challengeStephanie Greene has just stepped down from a role as managing director at RMI, where she led the Buildings Program. She also helped launch RMI's building electrification initiative, which is focused on enabling a cost-effective, sustainable, and equitable path to building decarbonization, with work spanning the U.S., China, and India. We talked to her about this work, her previous work at PG&E, building teams, and about how crucial systems thinking is to working on climate issues and the built environment. “I feel like buildings are the center of all the other topics I have worked on...2023-04-0644 minDesign the FutureDavida Herzl on data, health, and informed climate actionDavida Herzl is co-founder and CEO of Aclima, where she leads a team pioneering a new way to diagnose the health of our air and track pollution. A Public Benefit Corporation, Aclima measures air pollution and greenhouse gasses with block-by-block resolution. The company's enterprise software, Aclima Pro, translates billions of scientific measurements into analytics for companies, governments, and communities to reduce emissions and improve public health. Aclima has been driven by two questions: Where is pollution coming from and who is it impacting? Today the company operates the largest mobile sensor network on Earth, creating datasets of h...2023-03-0240 minDesign the FutureRochelle Routman on transparency and bringing passion to workRochelle Routman is Chief Sustainability and Impact Officer of HMTX Industries, a resilient flooring manufacturer. She has been passionate about the environment since a young age, and brought that into her work through corporate sustainability.She saw an opportunity to bring greater transparency into flooring products, helping to advance industry-wide disruption. Today, she is working on ESG; HMTX will release its first Impact report soon. The company’s new headquarters in Connecticut, designed by McLennan Design, is expected to earn Living Building petal certification later this year. “I definitely feel like I am part of a mov...2023-02-1646 minDesign the FutureSandy Mendler on research and collaborating across networksSandy Mendler is an architect, planner, and researcher focused on creating new models for healthy, sustainable living. She is a design industry thought leader and dynamic project leader; at Gensler, she is a principal, studio director, and regional practice leader for education. She previously worked at Mithun (where she was part of a Bay Area Resilient by Design team in the Rockefeller Brothers Fund competition) and HOK (where she led the influential EPA HQ project and co-authored the HOK Guidebook to Sustainable Design). Throughout her career, Sandy has been asking big questions about complex topics and developing s...2023-01-2647 minDesign the FutureLakisha Woods on architects in a changing industry and worldLakisha Ann Woods is the executive vice president and CEO of the American Institute of Architects, a network of 94,000 architects and design professionals (in 200 chapters) who are committed to enhancing the built environment. Woods previously served as president/CEO of the National Institute of Building Sciences and as senior VP/CMO at the National Association of Home Builders. Architects are naturals at addressing complex or multifaceted issues, Lakisha says, and she points out that today that means addressing climate and equity as interconnected issues. She also talked about the AIA’s renovation of its HQ in Washington, a re...2023-01-1238 minDesign the FutureCarrie Meinberg Burke on curiosity, biomimicry, and design synthesisCarrie Meinberg Burke is an architect, designer, artist, and inventor whose work is infused with research into light, ecology, health, human sensory perception, and biomimicry. She runs Parabola Architecture with her husband, Kevin Burke. They work at all scales, and one recent workplace project was described, by its Google owners, as “a building with a soul.” Carrie is co-developing an innovative heating and cooling unit that applies biomimicry principles to optimize form for thermal comfort and energy efficiency. Carrie is a believer that you have to design the design process itself, in order to give any project the s...2022-12-0853 minDesign the FutureMarsha Maytum on practice with purposeMarsha Maytum is a founding principal at Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects. Her career is steeped in a passionate belief in the value and power of architecture and design. With her husband, Bill Leddy, and their partner, Richard Stacy, Marsha has created a teaching practice structured to focus on mission-driven work. They are co-authors of Practice with Purpose: A Field Guide to Mission-Driven Design (ORO Editions). At the heart of the matter, Marsha says, “Sustainability and equity are embedded in good design.” She was a key player in the 2019 resolution that helped establish the American Institute of Architects’ holist...2022-11-1750 minDesign the FutureNakita Reed on preservation, sustainability, and dissolving silosNakita Reed is an architect with experience in preservation, restoration, and adaptive reuse of historic buildings with a focus on sustainable strategies; she is an Associate with Quinn Evans Architecture and works from their Baltimore office. She is also the host of Tangible Remnants, a podcast exploring the intersection of architecture, preservation, sustainability, race, and gender.For Nakita, preservation and architecture have always gone hand in hand. “Just like I can’t say I’m more black or more female, I am not more preservationist or more architect.” But those silos, and others, are everywhere in our industry...2022-10-2740 minDesign the FutureChandra Robinson on design for access and equityChandra Robinson is a principal at LEVER Architecture, a Portland, Oregon-based design practice recognized for material innovation. She came to architecture by way of geology, physics, and kayaking. She is passionate about creating beautiful spaces that are accessible for everyone and enjoys working closely with clients to create designs that express their values -- and we had a great time talking with her about access, equity, and identity. 2022-10-0652 minDesign the FutureBomee Jung on scaling climate-responsive buildingBomee Jung is co-founder/co-CEO of Cadence OneFive, a public benefit corporation with a climate justice mission. They are developing, Momentum, a software to enable city-scale acceleration of existing building decarbonization. Before this role, Bomee was the first VP for Energy and Sustainability at the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), and before that she led the climate mitigation and adaptation programs of the New York office of Enterprise Community Partners. She serves on the board of the Institute for Market Transformation and the loan committee of Capital For Change. With Momentum, Bomee and her co-founder and t...2022-09-2245 minDesign the FutureFrances Yang on embodied carbon leadership and collaborationFrances Yang is a Structures and Sustainability Specialist at Arup. In addition to her work on projects defining embodied carbon leadership, she has been a mobilizer and leader in the movement, serving on the Carbon Leadership Forum Board, vice chairing the Structural Engineers 2050 Commitment, and co-founding the All for Reuse Initiative, among a host of other advocacy work. Frances talked about the importance of collaboration across disciplines. “No single profession can tackle climate change alone,” she says. She is dedicated to setting ambitious and achievable targets and frameworks to help disciplines meet them. She sees potential for cultural change arou...2022-09-0141 minDesign the FutureJane Abernethy on product sustainability and corporate accountabilityJane Abernethy, Chief Sustainability Officer at Humanscale, started as an industrial designer. As such, she has always thought about sustainability, which she sees as part of the inherent challenge of design at all scales. Jane has spent a lot of time thinking about how to evolve a company from within. She prefers to talk about results rather than aspirations; in this era of hyperbole and greenwash, that gives Jane a restrained profile and it helps her keep Humanscale honest.We had a fascinating discussion about the complexities of supply chain management including the challenges of what to...2022-08-1143 minDesign the FutureClaire Maxfield on math and persuasion in building designClaire Maxfield directs Atelier Ten’s San Francisco office, which works, as a consultant to architects or owners, on an incredible range of large, complex, and environmentally ambitious projects — buildings, landscapes, and master plans. She has been integral to many significant green building milestones in the US and beyond. We talked to her about what it is like to be a full-time green building nerd. She described how she uses a broad range of skills — analytical, technical, artistic, communications, and even persuasion — in the work. Her teams are leading the big decisions around leading-edge projects. And the woman-led...2022-07-1446 minDesign the FutureAdele Houghton on public health, climate change, and the built environmentArchitect Adele works at the intersection of public health, climate change, and the built environment. She is co-authoring a book, Architectural Epidemiology, which lays out a methodology for designing and operating buildings that respond to the specific environmental and human health needs of people in individual neighborhoods. Adele has been working in the green building movement for years; early on she was involved in the Green Guide for Health Care. Today, she senses that there is a feeling that we’re not making the impact we wanted to. “I think that one part of the problem is that...2022-06-1651 minDesign the FutureLaurie Kerr on climate-focused policy and getting the math rightArchitect Laurie Kerr is a national leader in sustainable building and climate policy. She is Principal Climate Advisor at USGBC and the president of LK Policy Lab. She was NYC’s Deputy Director for Green Building Policy under Bloomberg, and helped develop the city's influential sustainability plan and policies. Laurie was an early advocate for the idea that “buildings matter” in terms of energy and carbon footprint, and helped create policies and framing that have stood the test of time. “We changed the conversation from cars and power plants to buildings, and existing buildings.”Laurie was full of...2022-05-2639 minDesign the FutureArathi Gowda on movement culture and climate advocacyArchitect Arathi Gowda leads ZGF's East Coast Sustainability Practice. She is an advocate for collective climate action and is the current co-chair of US Architects Declare and a member of the American Institute of Architects’ Committee on the Environment Leadership Group. Arathi was at SOM for 20 years in Chicago before moving recently to her new role, and her move to DC reflects her ambitions around climate and advocacy as part of architecture. Arathi is a keen observer of the architecture profession and the real estate and financial realms in which it functions. She notes that following the per...2022-05-0546 minDesign the FutureDevon Bertram on driving sustainability in real estateAs VP of Sustainability Consulting at Stok, Devon advises clients on sustainability for their building portfolios, consulting with major organizations on carbon, ESG, and more. She recently authored Stok’s Sustainable Real Estate Program Handbook, a multi-year, collaborative effort focused on driving faster change. “This work can be heavy,” she says. “You have to stay hopeful and be curious.” She is encouraged by growing awareness about embodied carbon and increasing collaboration across the industry at this critical time. “We need more transparency and more advocacy and policy," she says. “Data collection is still a struggle. We are just beginning...2022-04-0743 minDesign the FutureJuli Polanco on climate, heritage, and preservationWhen we think about conservation and historic preservation, we often think first of land and buildings. But Juli Polanco’s work is putting people, culture, and climate at the center of those topics. We talked to Juli about her work as State Historic Preservation Officer for California, her role founding and leading the Climate Heritage Network, and her involvement with the Urban Land Institute’s Sustainable Development Council. Her mission, she says, is to help build resilient communities. Part of that is making sure that people see themselves in history. “We can use history as a bindin...2022-03-1753 minDesign the FutureGina Ciganik on healthy buildings for allGina Ciganik is CEO of the Healthy Building Network, which is known for research and guidance around products and green chemistry. Gina is recognized as a national leader in transforming human and environmental health through strategic partnerships, innovative business practices, capacity building, and novel approaches. Having jumped from one career (affordable housing development) to another (public health and toxicology), Gina has become a “chief translator” about chemicals and health -- it has become a passion for her. “As soon as I understood the depth of the health challenge around products and materials," she says, “I knew I had to ge...2022-03-0346 minDesign the FutureAngie Brooks on social and climate concerns as part of design“I have always seen sustainability and social concerns as part of design,” says architect Angie Brooks. This perspective is rooted, in part, in her undegrad architectural studies that emphasized regionalism. And since her early days in practice, Angie has felt that architects should shape the framework within which they work. Her career and practice, with partner Larry Scarpa, shows how architects can be proactive agents of change. Angie's passion for communities has led to advocacy and policy work and a commitment to tackling tough topics. This manifests in a number of ways, including the recent Density for Quali...2022-02-1049 minDesign the FutureLotte Schlegel on policy and transforming marketsLotte Schlegel is the Executive Director of the Institute for Market Transformation (IMT), a national nonprofit organization focused on equitably decarbonizing buildings through policies and programs that increase demand and action for high-performing buildings. She’s also a co-founder and board member of ecountabl, which helps people support causes they care about when they bank and shop.Lotte described how she came to the built environment space because it is where issues of energy and health intersect. She talked about IMT's work on building performance standards with cities and states and the important trend of putting frontline co...2022-01-2742 minDesign the FutureSusan Szenasy on being a design advocateSusan Szenasy is one of the best known design critics and editors of the past four decades; she served as editor of Metropolis magazine from the mid 1980s until a few years ago. In 2017, she was the winner of a Cooper Hewitt National Design Award. During her tenure, Metropolis became one of the most expansive design publications in the American media landscape -- covering all disciplines and tackling sustainability as part of design early and deeply. We talked to her about ethics, Trombe walls, why the disciplines don’t talk to one another much, and how the “archi...2022-01-1356 minDesign the FutureJulie Hiromoto on the role of architects in climate actionJulie Hiromoto is a Principal at HKS, where she serves as firmwide Director of Integration, leveraging business, design excellence, and technical expertise to advance socially and environmentally responsible design. Julie is a big believer in research and coalitions, and has always engaged with numerous organizations, including AIA, ULI, ILFI, and IWBI. She attended the UN’s COP26 (as part of the AIA delegation). Julie stresses the value of asking questions and being open to learning through different roles. Julie notes that the built environment community has finally gotten governments and the public to recognize that buildings are a p...2021-12-1649 minDesign the FutureIlana Judah on systems thinking, resilience, and transformative approachesArchitect Ilana Judah recently completed her graduate studies in an interdisciplinary program with a focus on urban climate adaptation. This step in her career was designed to orient herself to where she could make the greatest possible impact addressing the climate crisis. She has been consulting to building industry stakeholders through her firm, ACORN Resilience & Sustainability. Before going back to school, Ilana was Principal/Director of Sustainability at FXCollaborative, known for pioneering work on sustainable high-rise buildings.Ilana is optimistic about our ability to address the climate crisis. “I think it’s going to come naturally over the...2021-12-0247 minDesign the FutureLisa Heschong on designing for daylight and viewArchitect, researcher, consultant, and educator Lisa Heschong is also an author. Her latest book, Visual Delight in Architecture; Daylight, Vision and View (Routledge, 2021), explores findings on the physiological, cognitive, social and cultural importance of daylight and view in our everyday environments. Her book, Thermal Delight in Architecture is a cult classic, which grew out of her MIT master’s thesis. Lisa thinks of daylight and view as “nutrition” that we need on a continuous basis. “The circadian stimulus that is provided by daylight is really fundamental to our health on so many levels," she says. “For metabolic health, we...2021-11-1147 minDesign the FutureKathryn Wright on making people the focus of sustainable buildings work“We need as many people working on this as possible,” says Kathryn Wright, Program Director for Building Energy for the Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN). In this role, Kathryn supports people working in 250 US and Canadian cities and counties on decarbonization, climate justice, and resilience.The USDN recently released an Equity and Buildings framework to help practitioners approach the built environment in a more holistic and people-centered way. “We are all striving for a just transition and to combat climate change,” Kathryn says. “And if we look at the history of the built environment in North America, it is buil...2021-10-2150 minDesign the FutureRobyn Eason on building relationships to help cities thriveRobyn studied architect, civil engineering, and city and regional planning, and today she is the Long Range Planning & Sustainability Manager at the City of West Hollywood. Robyn notes that building genuine, long-lasting relationships within and across industries and communities is the key to meaningful, district-scale sustainability work. “Transformation is happening at the local government level,” she says, “and it’s so important for us to learn about what’s working. That’s why the networks and relationships are so valuable.” She attributes the growth of sustainability activity at the local level (even when it’s not called that) to the thoug...2021-10-0744 minDesign the FutureKatie Ackerly on housing as the core of a resilient futureKatie Ackerly, a principal at David Baker Architects and the firm’s sustainable design lead, is committed to elevating the critical importance of high-performance, equitable housing as the essential core of a successful, resilient future. Katie would like to see more focus on the big questions. “What is the value of housing to society?” she asks. “And why is it so expensive to build? If we can tackle the construction market, that would go a long way toward increasing the performance and resilience of homes for people and communities.” In addition to the many things that are usually ass...2021-09-2349 minDesign the FutureMarta Schantz on real estate's role in sustainability and decarbonizationMarta Schantz is senior vice president at the Urban Land Institute, where she has been building ULI's Greenprint Center for Building Performance -- a community of practice -- into a vanguard of real estate sustainability. ULI is tackling transformational initiatives including net zero and decarbonization. “I’m proud that a real estate industry group is declaring decarbonization a priority," Marta says. ULI recently released an electrification report because, she says, “most of real estate hasn’t yet realized that buildings need to electrify to be truly zero carbon. Our report is the business case for new buildings and retro...2021-09-0942 minDesign the FutureLindsay Baker on climate activism and her new role as ILFI CEOThis week, we turn the spotlight on host Lindsay Baker who has just been named CEO of the International Living Future Institute. Lindsay is a building scientist, market mover, and climate activist focused on transforming the built environment to rise to the challenge of the climate crisis. Most recently, she was Global Head of Sustainability and Impact at WeWork; before that, she grew a smart buildings software startup, Comfy, to acquisition, and held roles at the US Green Building Council and Google. Linday is excited to be transitioning back to the non-profit world after being in the p...2021-08-0553 minDesign the FutureDana Bourland on affordable housing advancing justiceDana Bourland is committed to solving our housing and climate crises in ways that advance justice. Dana led the creation of the environment program at The JPB Foundation, one of the largest private foundations in the US. Before that, she helped create the Green Communities program (at Enterprise Community Partners), a set of criteria now required by 27 states.Dana is also the author of a new book, Gray to Green Communities: A Call to Action on the Housing and Climate Crises, published this year by Island Press. Dana conceived it as a thank you to the imaginative...2021-07-2943 minDesign the FutureDaphany Rose Sanchez on energy equity market transformations“We are energy social workers,” says Daphany Rose Sanchez. She founded Kinetic Communities, which advocates and implements strategic energy equity market transformations for New York communities, to respond to a representation gap in the energy sector. She got interested in this as she studied sustainable urban environments and redlining and other policies. “I started to see a correlation between the opportunity for generational wealth, sustainable housing, and climate response,” she says. “I wanted my career to be an intersection of housing, climate, and economic mobility.” These days, she works on pathways to electrification that involve workforce development, housing, and...2021-07-1551 minDesign the FutureJohanna Partin on ditching fossil gas and the power of city-level changeJohanna Partin is Deputy Director of the Building Decarbonization Coalition, which works to help electrify California with clean energy. “We are not going to be able to counteract emissions or have healthy cities without getting off fossil gas,” she says. Johanna studied microfinance abroad but migrated from international development to a hyper local focus, working with San Francisco Mayors Newsom and Lee, and then to the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group; she founded and directed the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance. “Cities tend to be more ambitious than their state or national counterparts,” Johanna says, “because they are on the fron...2021-07-0849 minDesign the FutureMartha Campbell on decarbonizing the built environmentMartha Campbell is a Principal in RMI’s Carbon-Free Buildings Practice, focused on decarbonizing the U.S. building stock using standardized, affordable, attractive building construction methods and innovative business models. Martha has worked in the ski industry and for Goldman Sachs and doing field organizing in Northern New Mexico. A stay at an off-the-grid hostel in Australia prompted her to wonder, “Why don’t we build everything this way?” At RMI now, she is working to decarbonize the economy using market based approaches. And that early question still drives her. “I want to move to a place where this i...2021-06-1749 minDesign the FuturePamela Conrad on carbon sequestration and why neutral is not enoughLandscape architect Pamela Conrad is a principal at CMG Landscape Architecture and founder of Climate Positive Design. She grew up in rural Missouri, has a background in plant science and regenerative design, and today is focused on climate mitigation and resilient design in the public realm. The role of landscape architects in carbon sequestration is something she explored as a Landscape Architecture Foundation Fellow, which led to Climate Positive Design’s challenge and Pathfinder tool. “I wanted to understand the impacts of my projects, so I built a landscape carbon calculator. But the the real challenge is to rea...2021-06-1041 minDesign the FutureKate Simonen on building decarbonization and scaling impactArchitect and structural engineer Kate Simonen is a leader, teacher, researcher, and convener -- and a big believer in the collective impact model. She is also executive director of the Carbon Leadership Forum (a network of 25 regional hubs and thousands of practitioners) and Chair of the Department of Architecture at the University of Washington.She has been a force behind collaborative initiatives such as the Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator and the Structural Engineers 2050 Commitment. After practicing for years, Kate is an educator because she sees the role as ”part of my climate action responsibility.” Kate is thri...2021-06-0338 minDesign the FutureMichelle Moore on clean energy for community powerMichelle Moore is a social entrepreneur, former White House official, and current CEO of Groundswell, a nonprofit that builds community power by connecting clean energy with economic development, affordability, and quality of life.Reflecting on 25 years in the sustainability space, including a stint at the USGBC, Michelle notes that the focus on metrics and goals has fostered is a very technocratic culture. Yet her drive and purpose is centered on the idea that sustainability is fundamentally about loving people and place. Michelle believes in aligning value with values. This gives her a discerning perspective and inspires her...2021-05-2048 minDesign the FutureChandra Farley on energy equity and a just transitionChandra Farley is the Just Energy Director at the Partnership for Southern Equity where she leads a team developing local and regional strategies to advance energy equity. “Activism is about trust, respect, and partnership,” she says, “This is personal work.” While some of the activity around utilities and how they are regulated can seem wonky, the influence is significant. PSE focuses on how equity-centered energy and utility policies can improve household economic stability and quality of air, water, and other resources that affect health and well-being. The organization’s theory of change is that people drive it. Chandra poi...2021-05-1351 minDesign the FutureJasmin Moore on local governance for a positive futureJasmin Moore serves as the Sustainability Director for Douglas County, Kansas, and the City of Lawrence, Kansas. This role encompasses everything from energy systems to food policy, and she recently led the integration of sustainability and equity into funding criteria for the Lawrence Capital Improvements Plan, a first in the state. Jasmin is pleased that, as she puts it, “equity has finally come to the sustainability party. Particularly in local government, sustainability and equity are closely tied.” We discussed the language of sustainability and the importance of working with communities to define terms locally. For the Douglas Count...2021-05-0650 minDesign the FutureRenée Lertzman on climate action as change managementRenée Lertzman is a researcher, educator, and strategist who uses psychological insight to change our approach to the environmental crisis. She works with organizations to harness the creativity needed to solve big problems. We spoke with Renée about her work, including Project Inside Out, which she created to help people in all sectors explore psychological concepts and expand changemaking potential. “In the built environment sector and others, the baseline is understanding that climate action and sustainability work is fundamentally change management,” she says. “It is also upsetting and charged. Recognizing these qualities of the work can help...2021-04-2940 minDesign the FutureKirsten Ritchie on big goals for building betterKirsten Ritchie is a Global Resilience Leader and principal at Gensler, where she brings her civil engineering background to big discussions about innovation, wellbeing, and high-performance design. Being a trailblazer throughout her career has given Kirsten a confidence that’s crucial for the persuading that is part of that role. She points out that advancing sustainability in the AEC industry depends on collaboration. “I am really proud of the work we are doing,” she says. “We are making places better for people and better for the planet.” Gensler has recently committed to taking all projects to net zero carbon...2021-04-2235 minDesign the FutureDaniele Horton on real estate and scaling climate actionDaniele Horton is passionate about the role of real estate in tackling climate change. Trained as an architect, she is an influential sustainability leader; her company, Verdani Partners, manages sustainability for portfolios totaling more than 720 million square feet. Daniele grew up in Brazil with an appreciation for the natural world. In the work world, she shifted from architecture to real estate because she saw the possibility to scale sustainability solutions. She is committed to reaching net zero, for new and existing buildings, and warns that commercial real estate firms that do not move toward this will not b...2021-04-1542 min