Carbon Smart Building Day Speakers
Keynote Speakers
Physicist Amory Lovins, 70, is cofounder and Chief Scientist of Rocky Mountain Institute (www.rmi.org); energy advisor to major firms and governments in 65+ countries for 45 years; author of 31 books and over 600 papers; and an integrative designer of superefficient buildings, factories, and vehicles. He received the Blue Planet, Volvo, Zayed, Onassis, Nissan, Shingo, and Mitchell Prizes, MacArthur and Ashoka Fellowships, 12 honorary doctorates, the Heinz, Lindbergh, Right Livelihood (“alternative Nobel”), National Design, and World Technology Awards, and Germany’s Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit. A Harvard and Oxford dropout, former Oxford don, honorary US architect, and Swedish engineering academician, he’s taught at ten universities, most recently Stanford’s Engineering School and the Naval Postgraduate School (but only topics he’s never studied, to retain beginner’s mind).
Dr. Andrew Steer is the President and CEO of the World Resources Institute, a global research organization that works in more than 50 countries, with offices in the Brazil, China, Europe, India, Indonesia, Mexico and the United States. WRI’s more than 700 experts work with leaders to address seven urgent global challenges at the intersection of economic development and the natural environment: food, forests, water, climate, ocean, energy and cities. Dr. Steer joined WRI from the World Bank, where he served as Special Envoy for Climate Change from 2010 - 2012. From 2007 to 2010, he served as Director General at the UK Department of International Development (DFID) in London. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Pennsylvania.
Edward Mazria, founder of Architecture 2030, is an internationally recognized architect, author, educator and visionary with a long and distinguished career. His award-winning architecture and planning projects span a thirty-five year period, each employing a cutting-edge environmental design approach. He is the author of numerous published works, including the ‘bible’ of solar design, The Passive Solar Energy Book. Mr. Mazria’s research has reshaped the international dialogue on climate change to incorporate the Building Sector. With his colleagues he developed the 2030 Challenge, Roadmap to Zero Emissions, China Accord, 2030 Palette, 2030 Districts, Zero Cities Project, and the recently released ZERO Code among many other groundbreaking initiatives.
Jay Inslee was elected to Congress in 1998, serving until 2012 when he was elected governor of the state of Washington. He was re-elected in 2016. During his time in Congress, Jay became known as a forward-thinking leader, especially on issues of clean energy and the environment. He co-wrote a book, "Apollo's Fire: Igniting America's Clean-Energy Economy," about a national program to fight climate change through clean energy innovation and job-creation. As governor, Jay's top priority is growing Washington's innovative industries such as clean energy, information technology and life sciences, and strengthening existing industries such as aerospace, agriculture, maritime and the military. Since 2013, Washington has experienced a 30-year low in unemployment rates, record exports and has consistently ranked as one of the top states for business.
Panelists
Amanda Sturgeon, FAIA is the CEO of the International Living Future Institute (ILFI), a leading organization that focuses on the transformation to a world that is socially just, culturally rich and ecologically restorative. She is the author of Creating Biophilic Buildings (November 2017), the founder and driving force behind the organization’s Biophilic Design Initiative and is a sought-after expert on biophilic design around the world. Amanda is an award-winning architect who enjoyed a successful 15-year career working to harmonize the relationship between people and nature on projects such as Islandwood on Bainbridge Island, Washington. In 2013 she was elected as a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in recognition for her extensive advocacy and volunteer service to the green building movement. She was named in 2015 as a recipient of the Women in Sustainability Leadership Award.
Andy Frank is the Founder and CEO of Sealed, an energy and financial technology company based that invests in home efficiency upgrades. Sealed runs the HomeAdvance program that pre-pays for energy-saving home upgrades, with customers re-paying based on the energy they waste. Prior to Sealed, Andy co-founded Efficiency 2.0, a software company that helped utilities better engage their residential customers. Andy received a B.S. in Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College.
Andrew McAllister was appointed to the California Energy Commission by Governor Edmund G. Brown in May, 2012, and reappointed in January 2017. He is lead commissioner on energy efficiency. Andrew has worked for over 25 years in a variety of capacities across the electric utility, energy efficiency and renewable energy arenas. Prior to joining the CEC, he was managing director and policy director of a clean energy non-profit; a consulting project manager in California and in a variety of developing country settings; and an energy efficiency analyst at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He holds M.S. and PhD degrees from UC Berkeley. He is a returned Peace Corps Volunteer.
Andria Jacob oversees a portfolio of clean energy program and policy initiatives for the City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (BPS). She has over 15 years of experience designing and delivering innovative energy efficiency, renewable energy and sustainability programs. Andria has founded nationally-recognized programs like Solarize Portland and Clean Energy Works Oregon. She currently directs the Home Energy Score and Sustainable City Government programs and leads the City’s nascent efforts to develop a community-wide resilient power plan. She is a key implementer of Portland’s resolution to be 100% renewable by 2050. Andria began her career at E Source in Boulder, Colorado and worked in private-sector consulting before joining local government.
Anthony Bernheim, FAIA, LEED Fellow is the Healthy and Resilient Buildings Program Manager, Planning Design and Construction at the San Francisco International Airport. On the forefront of sustainability, reimagining the built environment and its impact on human and planetary health, Anthony Bernheim is a visionary and respected leader in smart, energy efficient, high performance building. He has devoted his career to pioneering the impact of buildings on global health, indoor environmental quality and human health. He has a record of designing and implementing a holistic approach and process to sustainability, contributing to improving human health, comfort, and wellness in the built environment. As the Healthy & Resilient Buildings Program Manager, Planning Design & Construction at San Francisco International Airport, he is responsible for the Net Zero Energy and the Activation Planning Services programs.
Anu Natarajan serves as the Legislative Affairs Manager at Stopwaste.org, an organization that helps Alameda County’s businesses, residents, and schools waste less, recycle more, and use water, energy, and other resources efficiently. Anu has professional experience as an architect and urban planner in both agency and consulting roles. Anu has focused on community engagement and outreach by building a network of networks and using technology in innovative ways. As Director of Policy and Advocacy at MidPen Housing, she focused on creating awareness for the need for affordable housing in the Bay Area and focused on funding mechanisms. Anu was elected to the Fremont City Council where she served as councilmember/vice mayor for ten years. She is the Chair of the Board of Greenbelt Alliance.
Barry Coflan is a Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Schneider Electric's EcoBuilding Division within the Partner Business. He is a member of the EcoBuilding Executive Committee, Schneider Electric Leadership Council, as well as, the Global Innovation and Technology Council. Coflan also serves on the not for profit board of Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnership and the Design Lights Consortium — together focused on energy efficiency. Mr. Coflan has held several leadership functions for Schneider during the past 20 years including; General Management, R&D, Marketing and Strategic Segment Development. During his tenure leading the Building Management Line of Business he was in charge of the development of Schneider's flagship SmartStruxure Building Management System. The target for this global platform is large scale buildings (greater than 10,000 square meters in size). Most recently Barry has been focusing on advancing the company's Internet of Things (IoT) strategy including into large scale, midsized and residential buildings.
Ben Packard started as the Harriet Bullitt Endowed Executive Director of EarthLab at the University of Washington in September 2017. EarthLab is a UW-wide initiative that harnesses the power of collaboration to tackle thorny environmental challenges including climate change, ocean health, natural hazards and healthy ecosystems, promote new learning and action to address environmental challenges, and bring the exceptional research and science at the University to bear on a range of environmental matters and to build relationships between the University and public, private and nonprofit sectors. Before coming to EarthLab Packard served as global managing director of corporate engagement at The Nature Conservancy; prior to The Nature Conservancy he led the internationally recognized environmental sustainability efforts at Starbucks.
Senator Bob Wieckowski was elected on Nov. 4, 2014 and represents the 10th Senate District in the California State Legislature. The district stretches from southern Alameda County into Santa Clara County and shares the member’s focus on job creation, clean technologies, protecting our environment and reducing unnecessary regulations. Mr. Wieckowski chairs the Environmental Quality Committee and Budget Subcommittee 2 on Resources, Environmental Protection, Energy and Transportation. Senator Wieckowski’s district is home to more clean tech companies than any other district in the state. Whether it’s solar panels, electric vehicles or other breakthrough industries, the 10th Senate District is a major contributor to California’s clean economy. The Senator is a state leader in advocating for climate adaptation programs and has participated on state and regional panels examining green infrastructure investments.
Brendan Owens oversees strategic development and integration of rating systems at USGBC. In this role Brendan collaborates with teams developing tools that transform the way we design, build and operate the built environment. He led the effort to establish the system goals for LEED v4 and is building on this work as the foundation to integrate other programs USGBC collaborates on. Brendan is a board member of the New Buildings Institute and is deputy director of the center for cycling technology at USGBC. Additionally, Brendan volunteers as a board member of the foundation USGBC is partnering with to build the William Jefferson Clinton Children’s Center in Port au Prince, Haiti. Brendan is proud to serve as an advisor to the Honor’s College at his alma mater Purdue University. He is also a licensed Professional Engineer and a LEED Fellow.
Brenden Millstein is CEO & Co-founder of Carbon Lighthouse, where he is responsible for corporate growth, engineering, and long-term planning. Under Brenden’s leadership, Carbon Lighthouse became profitable and began reducing emissions within 6 months of operations. Brenden previously worked for NYSERDA, the State agency charged with addressing New York’s largest energy and environmental issues. Working with a small team comprised of leading energy experts, Brenden co-administered a budget of $87 million, executing energy efficiency and demand response projects at 250+ manufacturing plants and high-rise office buildings in New York City. Brenden’s clients included Citigroup, J.P. Morgan Chase, CBRE, and many other banks and property management companies.
Brent Trenga has truly run the construction industry gamut serving in various roles including Architect, Construction Manager, Developer and even project owner, allowing him to fully understand the sustainability ecosystem. As Building Technology Director for Kingspan North America, Brent is committed to reducing the environmental impact of business operations, products and services through continuous improvement and environmental transparency. Since 2015 Brent has lead Kingspan North America’s material health and transparency program while collaborating with their Global Healthy Building Agenda team. Brent also leads Kingspan’s education program, supports strategic planning for the business development group and provides insight on current and future sustainability initiatives keeping Kingspan at the forefront of our industry.
Brett Phillips, Vice President of Sustainable and Responsible Investments for Unico Properties, manages high performance green building and renewable energy projects for Unico’s real estate portfolio and third-party clients. He sets high performance design and operations standards, reduces company-wide energy and greenhouse gas emissions, invests in renewable energy, and promotes sustainability to industry and government leaders. At Unico, Brett has overseen high performance design operations projects for over 21 million square feet of LEED-certified real estate. He is chairman of the 2030 Districts Network and board member of the Seattle 2030 District, working to implement the 2030 Challenge goals in Seattle and across the globe.
Clay Nesler is the Vice President, Global Sustainability and Industry Initiatives for the Building Technologies and Solutions business of Johnson Controls. He also chairs the company’s global sustainability council. Since joining Johnson Controls in 1983, Clay has held a variety of leadership positions in research, product development, marketing, strategy and corporate sustainability in both the United States and Europe. Nesler serves on the board of American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, the executive group of the US DOE/EPA SEE Action network and is chair of the Alliance to Save Energy International Steering Committee. He helped establish the UN Sustainable Energy for All Building Efficiency Accelerator and serves as chair of the Industrial Advisory Board of the US-China Clean Energy Research Center and is a member of the International Energy Agency Energy Efficiency Industry Advisory Board.
Cliff Majersik is the executive director of the Institute for Market Transformation (IMT), a national nonprofit organization that is laser-focused on increasing energy efficiency in buildings to save money, drive economic growth, and reduce harmful pollution. Under his guidance, IMT is a recognized trailblazer in bringing together real estate, service providers, and government to catalyze greater investment in energy-efficient buildings. Cliff is a pioneer of energy efficiency concepts in valuation, building codes, and building performance policy. His advice is often sought on developing legislation and as a speaker and industry judge. A LEED Accredited Professional, Cliff previously served as a management consultant, started a 25-person software firm, and graduated from Williams College.
Dave Pogue is leading the development of socially responsible, market driven solutions to align corporate responsibility principals into CBRE business practices through a strategy called Shared Advantage. In his prior role as Global Director of Corporate Responsibility, Dave oversaw CBRE’s development, implementation and reporting for all aspects of corporate social responsibility, including environmental stewardship, community engagement and corporate giving. His leadership has produced an award-winning sustainability platform leveraging thought leadership, service delivery and industry associations to raise worldwide green building standards. Program achievements include development of CBRE’s $1 million Real Green Research Challenge; and delivery of co-branded BOMA BEEP training to more than 24,000 attendees.
Denise Fairchild is the inaugural President of Emerald Cities Collaborative (ECC), a national nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., with affiliates in major urban centers across the United States. She is charged with advancing ECC’s “high-road” mission to green our cities, build resilient local economies and ensure equity inclusion in both the process and outcomes of a new green and healthy economy. Denise is nationally recognized and respected for her 40-year successful track record and innovative programs in sustainable and community economic development, domestically and internationally. In 1995 she founded and directed the Community and Economic Development (CED) Department at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College, as well as an affiliated nonprofit community development research and technical assistance organization, CDTech.
Eleni Reed, Lendlease's Head of Sustainability, provides leadership and management oversight in developing, implementing and driving Lendlease’s corporate sustainability framework in the Americas region to create places that enrich people’s lives today and in the future. She collaborates with the business to design and build places that are environmentally efficient, promote health and wellbeing, enhance community development and deliver long term value. Prior to joining Lendlease, Eleni was Chief Greening Officer at the US General Services Administration (GSA) Public Buildings Service, where she led the integration of sustainability practices in real estate operations to create healthy, productive and environmentally high-performing workplaces for building occupants across GSA’s 370 million square foot portfolio.
Elizabeth (Liz) Beardsley is Senior Policy Counsel at the U.S. Green Building Council. Her portfolio includes green building law and policy issues across the international, federal, state, and local spectrum. Recently her work has focused on connecting building policy to climate mitigation and she has represented USGBC at three COP climate change conferences. Liz has written about green building policy and building-climate issues for outlets such as Governing, USGBC+ magazine, and the usgbc.org blog. She came to USGBC from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, where she was a Senior Attorney involved in evaluating government environment and energy programs. Prior to her legal career, she was an environmental engineer and Principal at Camp Dresser & McKee (now CDM Smith), where she focused on water issues and infrastructure planning.
Emma Stewart, Ph.D., is the Urban Efficiency & Climate Director at WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities, where she is responsible for the Institute’s global work on urban building and vehicle efficiency, urban distributed renewables, and city climate strategy. Prior to WRI, she founded and directed design software giant Autodesk’s Sustainability Solutions department, where she led a product and go-to-market team to make sustainable design a “no-brainer” for millions of engineering and design customers.
Erin McDade is a Program Manager for Architecture 2030 and the 2030 Challenge for Products Lead. She brings to the organization a background in architecture, with a focus on sustainable building research and analysis. She holds a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Washington and worked at the Integrated Design Lab in Seattle before joining Architecture 2030. While with the Integrated Design Lab she helped to develop Targeting 100!, a tool for deep energy retrofits and aggressively sustainable new construction in the healthcare sector. She also completed lighting and thermal analyses on the revolutionary Bullitt Center. She leads Architecture 2030’s Products Challenge and helps manage the development of each of Architecture 2030’s programs and initiatives with a focus on the AIA+2030 Series and the 2030 Districts Network.
Fiona Cousins is an Arup Fellow and a member of Arup Group Board, Arup Americas Region Board, and the Global Digital Executive. She helps lead the sustainability, building engineering and data strategies teams in Arup’s New York office, and directs technical and research investments for the Americas Region. Fiona is a mechanical engineer by profession and has spent much of her career engaged in HVAC design, with an area of specialization in thermal comfort and energy efficiency. She has extensive project experience and has worked on a wide range of projects, including the design of museums, archives, trading floors, laboratories, libraries and performing art centers. She has also worked on planning projects with a focus on energy and sustainability. Fiona is a frequent presenter on transformative sustainable building design, very low-energy design, resilience and sustainability.
Jeff Thiel, a Carbon Innovations consultant, is a business development and market transformation strategist. He is an experienced executive and entrepreneur who has built and launched new products and services in industries ranging from PC software to financial services, health care, and K-12 education. Jeff worked at Microsoft for 10 years leading product management and development teams in the Windows and Consumer Products Divisions. Jeff started his career with global management consulting firm Bain & Co. He received his MBA with honors from Wharton.
Kate Simonen, AIA, SE is founding director of the Carbon Leadership Forum, an industry-academic collaboration highlighting the carbon impact of the built environment, and developing pathways for “carbon smart” buildings to be part of the global climate solution. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Washington, a writer, and a researcher with significant professional experience in high performance building systems, seismic design and retrofitting, net-zero energy residential construction, prefabrication and collaborative practice. She authored the authoritative Life Cycle Assessment and the LCA Practice Guide.
Katie Ross leads Sustainability for Microsoft’s global Real Estate portfolio. She is responsible for developing and implementing sustainability strategy for their office and retail portfolio. Katie's career has been dedicated to the adoption of high performance, healthy, sustainable buildings. She develops sustainability strategy for Microsoft's new campuses including Puget Sound, Silicon Valley, Hyderabad, and Israel, oversees Microsoft's Zero Waste certification for their headquarters campus, and works with global sites to implement sustainable best practices. She prides herself on being a 'sustainability translator' - ensuring that Microsoft's employees and the public understand the nuances and importance of a particular initiative.
Kelly Roberts, P.E., LEED AP BD+C is a Principal and Project Manager at Walter P Moore in Atlanta, Georgia with structural design experience ranging from educational and healthcare facilities to high-rise office towers. She leads WPM’s Sustainable Design Community of Practice for the structures group; specializing in whole building life cycle assessment and the use of sustainable and salvaged materials. She is a founding board member of a non-profit material reuse center, the Lifecycle Building Center of Greater Atlanta, as well as a member of the Structural Engineering Institute Sustainability Committee and the Carbon Leadership Forum. Kelly was recently named as one of the 100 Most Influential Women by Engineering Georgia Magazine. She is also a 2017 Design Futures Council Emerging Leader and an ENR Magazine Top Young Professional.
Kendra Tupper is a licensed Mechanical Engineer with over 15 years of experience in the corporate, nonprofit, and government sectors and is currently serving as the Chief Sustainability & Resilience Officer for the City of Boulder. In that role, she oversees the city's climate, energy and zero waste policies and programs and leads a city and county wide Resilience team. Her current work includes exploring future carbon taxes and pricing mechanisms, as well as designing and piloting innovative new climate, energy, and resilience programs. Prior to joining the city, Kendra was a Principal at Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), where she led projects ranging from deep energy retrofits, industrial process efficiency, efficient data center design and operation, and the development of carbon neutral plans for cities, campuses, and Fortune 500 companies.
Mark Frankel is the Technical Director for the New Buildings Institute. NBI develops programs, codes and policy, training, and research on high performance buildings and energy efficiency for organizations all over the country. Currently Mark is involved in national coalitions to improve building performance feedback, market adoption strategies for net zero energy and deep energy retrofits, development of design strategies to improve building/grid integration, and in the development and implementation of innovative codes and policies focused on building performance outcome and benchmarking. Mark has has consulted on hundreds of capital projects, ranging in scale from single and multi-family residential projects to large commercial buildings and portfolio strategies. Mark has served on the boards of USGBC, ILFI, and Seattle 2030 District.
Mark Thompson Brandt is Principal Conservation Architect & Urbanist at MTBA Associates, with over 30 years’ experience. Former Director of Canadian Association of Heritage Professionals and of Canada Green Building Council /Ottawa, Mark is a Director of APT, the Association for Preservation Technology International, Co-Chairing APT’s Technical Committee on Sustainable Preservation. He is the founding Co-Chair of ZNCC, the Zero Net Carbon Collaboration for Existing & Historic Buildings. Brandt is co-author of the national document “Building Resilience: Practical Guidelines for the Sustainable Rehabilitation of Buildings in Canada”. Parliament Hill projects include $70M East Block Rehabilitation and $100M Sir John A. Macdonald Building, which received 7 National/International awards and 5-Green Globes rating.
Martha Brook has been at the California Energy Commission for almost three decades; there she has gained experience in energy demand forecasting, building energy efficiency standards, research and development of energy efficient technologies for residential and commercial buildings, and strategies to scale energy efficiency in existing buildings. Martha is currently the technical advisor to Commissioner Andrew McAllister, where she provides support on all areas of building and appliance energy efficiency. Martha is a California Professional Mechanical Engineer and she is keen to apply her knowledge and experience to advance California’s building decarbonization policies.
Michelle Malanca Frey is the Executive Director of ULI San Francisco. She has two decades of built environment experience, from planning through construction, and has worked with organizations around the globe to drive the development of healthy, livable, and sustainable communities and buildings. She is a long-time member of ULI San Francisco and served as the Sustainability Committee Co-Chair for several years. Michelle’s work has included the development of green building rating systems in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Abu Dhabi. As part of her own consultancy, she advised developers and investors on the integration of sustainability initiatives and performance requirements into large-scale development projects and real estate portfolios. As Vice President of the World Green Building Council, Michelle led collaborative, global projects, including the Business Case for Green Building report.
Michelle Romero is a brilliant campaign strategist with a decade of experience, building and leading state and national initiatives that expand opportunities for people of color. As the National Director of Green For All, Michelle leads a national strategy to accelerate inclusive green economy solutions, that bring clean energy, good jobs, and better health to underserved communities. Her accomplishments include launching the Moms Mobilize campaign to fight the Trump Administration’s dirty budget, and successfully securing a FY 2018 budget that included no cuts to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Under her leadership, Green For All has been a leading voice against efforts to dismantle climate and clean energy progress, and is working to shift billions of dollars from polluter pockets to polluted communities through carbon pricing and inclusive financing strategies. Michelle’s work has been featured in media outlets like CNN, The Los Angeles Times, NowThis, Bustle, ABC News, FastCompany, The San Francisco Chronicle, and Univision.
Monica Barone has been the Chief Executive Officer of the City of Sydney since 2006. In this time she has overseen the development and implementation of the City's long term vision for Central Sydney - Sustainable Sydney 2030. She manages approximately 3000 staff and contractors, an annual Capital expenditure and Operational expenditure budget of approximately $880 million (2015/16) and $7.6 billion dollars of net assets including the Council's commercial property portfolio. In 2015 the City of Sydney processed over five billion dollars of new development. The City's major projects are the CBD Light Rail (initiated and partially funded by City of Sydney but now managed by Transport for NSW) and the $13 billion Green Square Urban Renewal site. Since her appointment the City has completed hundreds of infrastructure projects including active transport, community facilities and parks - winning over 90 national and international awards.
Panu Pasanen is the CEO of Bionova, a company delivering sustainable performance solutions for the global construction industry. He is in charge of the innovative and integrated One Click LCA platform, allowing energy designers, architects, structural engineers, and other construction experts to use their design packages for automated LCA. He has expanded One Click LCA's use to 50+ countries and achieved compliance with 30+ green building rating systems. Moreover, he consults regulators, government agencies, standardization bodies, and certification organisations on the adoption of LCA-based regulations and policies and has authored numerous studies on the subject. Presently, he supports the Finnish government with national embodied carbon regulations and oversees the delivery of the Norwegian government's comprehensive carbon tracking and optimization solution.
Patrick Enright is the Green Building Engineer with the City of Vancouver's Sustainability Group, where he works on green building policy for large new buildings. Current priorities include the implementation of the Zero Emissions Building Plan, with the first step being the recent update of the Green Building Policy for Rezonings. Patrick is a professional engineer with years of experience in the building industry, including a number of years in Vancouver with a mechanical engineering firm in design and energy modeling. Prior to moving to Vancouver, Patrick worked in the national project management office of Defence Construction Canada located in Ottawa.
As Co-director of Perkins+Will’s firmwide Sustainable Design Initiative (SDI), Paula McEvoy assures that sustainable ideas are an integral part of the firm’s projects and practices. She coordinates sustainability efforts across the international firm’s offices, teaches sustainable design workshops and speaks frequently on sustainable construction, business practices and visioning. She has been instrumental in defining sustainability at Perkins+Will and has been directly responsible for shaping the firm’s commitment to leadership in sustainable design. A Registered Architect and LEED® Fellow, Paula has the type of exemplary, broad-based experience that generates a unique, holistic approach to her work. Paula has been Project Architect for a wide variety of projects, with a focus on sustainable, high-performance buildings. She is a member of The American Institute of Architects and 2010 President of AIA Atlanta. In addition, she is USGBC LEED Faculty, and serves on the Board of USGBC Georgia Chapter.
Peter Turnbull has 35 years of experience promoting energy efficiency at Pacific Gas and Electric Company. Since 2010, he has served as the Principal Program Manager for PG&E’s Zero Net Energy efforts providing research, information and documentation in support of the State of California’s ZNE policy goals for commercial and residential buildings. He currently serves on the Boards of NBI, the Cool Roof Rating Council, and as Advisory Board Chair of the Net Zero Energy Coalition. Over his career, he has had extensive experience in managing energy efficiency rebate, research and information programs across many sectors. He is a frequent speaker at industry events sponsored by organizations involved in high performance buildings. Mr. Turnbull holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in English, and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Montana State University.
Prodipto Roy is the Program Manager of the Buildings and Industry portfolio at the ClimateWorks Foundation. At ClimateWorks, he manages the portfolio focusing on and aiming to decarbonize the buildings and industry sectors in high-emitting regions by 2050. He focuses on strategies related to global supply chains, embodied carbon, electrification, low-carbon materials development, energy efficiency codes and standards, and unleashing the power of procurement in the public and private sectors. Prior to joining ClimateWorks, Prodipto worked at the Mayor’s office in Los Angeles. Prodipto holds a B.S. in Environmental Science and Environmental Policy from the University of California, Los Angeles, and is a current MBA candidate at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.
Ralph DiNola is an expert facilitator and convener providing inspiration and a pathway for business, policymakers and building owners seeking quantum advances in building energy performance. Ralph has dedicated his professional life to bringing sustainability, green building and energy efficiency innovation to scale. For more than 20 years he has served as a consultant to developers, governments and Fortune 500 companies seeking quantum advances in their building practices and projects. He has been invited to provide keynote presentations at corporate meetings and international conferences and serves as an expert facilitator and educator. Ralph served as a technical advisor for the Living Building Challenge™ standard and has consulted on over 130 LEED® projects, including ten precedent-setting LEED Platinum certifications. Ralph was founding Board Chair of the International Living Future Institute, served on the USGBC LEED Retail Committee and was recipient of the Better Bricks Green Building Advocate Award and voted one of the 50 most influential Portlanders by Portland Monthly Magazine. Ralph has a bachelor’s degree in Historic Preservation from Roger Williams University and a Master’s Degree in Architecture from University of Oregon. The New Buildings Institute is known internationally as a leader in the field.
Rives Taylor directs Gensler’s Design Resilience teams and is a recognized global expert in resilient and sustainable design. Rives has contributed to several publications including WIRED and Fast Company and is a member of the prestigious AIA Fellowship. Rives has taught at the University of Houston and Rice University for the past 25+ years.
Rod Yeoh is widely acknowledged as a leader in integrated practice development and project management, Rod brings over 24 years of international experience in a broad range of project types to the firm. His past success with multi-disciplinary design and delivery build on the leadership and growth of DIALOG’s integrated practice.The success in Rod’s collaborative approach is exemplified by a portfolio of sustainable, high-performance buildings. These include the award winning City of Vancouver National Avenue Works Yard, the first building to be LEED certified by the CaGBC, the Fred Kaiser Engineering Building at UBC acclaimed for its energy efficiency and several BC Hydro field operations facilities designed to meet LEED Gold and Platinum equivalents.
Ryan Zizzo MASc, PEng, LEED AP ND, is a professional engineer with a decade of green building project management experience across Canada and Europe. He creates and implements sustainability strategies that help clients understand, track and reduce their environmental impacts and exposure to climate change risk. Strategies including green building certifications, embodied carbon life cycle assessment, and resiliency strategies. He previously worked for one of Canada’s leading green engineering firms, was a lecturer at Finland’s largest Technical Universities and has provided green building education seminars throughout Europe. Ryan holds engineering degrees from Queen’s University (BScEng), the University of Toronto (MASc) and is a LEED AP ND.
Dr. Shamir Ghumra has an Engineering Doctorate from Loughborough University, UK and is a Fellow of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment and a Chartered Environmentalist. Dr. Ghumra is a unique individual who; has first-hand site experience with heavy plant; years of commercial acumen as a territory sales manager and was previously Head of Sustainability at Aggregate Industries (turnover in excess of £1bn and part of the Lafarge Holcim Group). As BREEAM Director at BRE Dr. Ghumra is well connected to both industry and academia and takes ultimate responsibility for all BREEAM related schemes and standards globally. Dr Ghumra has taken a personal interest in Responsible & Ethical Sourcing over the past ten years whilst in industry, consultancy and more recently at BRE.
Stacy Smedley has a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from the University of Washington, and 15 years in the architecture and construction professions. Her resume includes the first LEED for Homes Platinum certified project in Washington State as well as the first project in the world to be certified under Living Building Version 2.0 standards, the Bertschi School Living Science Building in Seattle. At Skanska, Stacy fulfills preconstruction management and sustainability roles, focusing on creating sustainable initiatives and opportunities office wide. She is a subject matter expert in green certifications and construction materials, from associated emissions to transparency and toxicity. Stacy is currently on the Advisory Board for the University of Washington Carbon Leadership Forum, Chair of the Embodied Carbon Network Construction Taskforce and Chair of the Washington Businesses for Climate Action.
Taylor Keep has spent his career designing building systems and working to transform their relationship with people, culture, and the grid. He started his career as a mechanical engineer at Arup in San Francisco and London, then left to study building interactions with the grid with UC Berkeley’s Energy and Resources Group. He then co-founded an architecture and engineering practice called VITAL and worked to develop an energy services business anchored around urban microgrid technology for NRG. Taylor joined Katerra in September 2017 and leads its Building Sciences team, which develops customer and physics-based requirements for new Katerra materials and products.
Victor Olgyay, AIA is a bioclimatic architect living in Boulder, Colorado. In 1978 he designed his first passive solar house, and has since worked as an architect, writer, professor, researcher, daylighting designer, and environmental consultant. Since 2005, he has been a principal with Rocky Mountain Institute leading the Institute’s Buildings Practice to encourage widespread adoption of net zero district developments and comprehensive building energy retrofits. From 1993 to 2000 Victor was an Associate Professor and Director of Research at the University of Hawaii School of Architecture. He has served on the Board of Directors for the American Solar Energy Society, and is currently on the University of Colorado Design Review Board, and the GSA Green Building Advisory Committee.
Victoria Burrows is Head of Advancing Net Zero, the pioneering World Green Building Council global project to ensure that all buildings are net zero carbon by 2050. In this role, Victoria oversees and supports Green Building Councils participating in the project, as well as a number of other partnerships which provide funding and support, marketing and communications, and the Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment. The Commitment, which will be officially launched at the Global Climate Action Summit, serves to promote and inspire advanced climate action towards decarbonisation of the built environment from Business and Government. Victoria co-authored the book: A Whole System Approach to High-Performance Green Buildings.
Through his over twelve-year tenure at Architecture 2030, Vincent Martinez has developed robust networks focused on private sector commitments, education and training. Vincent has strong connections to private sector leaders in urban real estate through his previous role as the 2030 Districts Network Interim Director from 2013 to 2016, helping co-found the 2030 Districts model that has now been adopted by 20 North American cities. He now sits on the 2030 Districts Network Board of Governors. Vincent also formerly managed the development and dissemination of the AIA+2030 Professional Education Series, which provided design professionals in 27 markets across North America with strategies for reaching zero net carbon buildings and has since been developed into an online education series. Vincent currently leads Architecture 2030’s work on urban zero-net-carbon buildings.
Wil V. Srubar III, PhD, LEED AP, is an assistant professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he leads the Living Materials Laboratory. Dr. Srubar received his PhD in structural engineering and materials science from Stanford University in 2013. He received his BS and MS degrees from Texas A&M and The University of Texas at Austin, respectively. His materials science research concerns the sustainability, durability and viability of low-impact and living materials for buildings and construction. His industry experience includes structural engineering design and analysis, retrofit and rehabilitation of materials and structures, facility asset management, and environmental sustainability consulting. He is an active member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Architectural Engineering Institute, and the American Concrete Institute.
Event Emcee
Andrew Himes, a Carbon Innovations consultant, is a network orchestrator and communications strategist. He was founding editor in 1987 of MacTech, the leading Apple technology journal, then in 1992 co-founded the Microsoft Developer Network. He led Microsoft’s first web project, and then led Microsoft’s Platform Web Team. Since leaving Microsoft, Himes has worked to increase the effectiveness of social change organizations and networks. He was founding executive director of Charter for Compassion International, a global movement of cities practicing measurable compassion in every realm of community life. He is the coordinator of Carbon Smart Building Day.