Hello All - It is so wonderful to virtually meet everyone and read through introductions. I'm a believer that positive change starts with groups of passionate and like-minded people organizing, and I think this group has the potential to push our industry forward, as well as offer a place for support and knowledge sharing.
I am Director of Sustainability for Skanska USA Building, and have been with Skanska for almost 5 years now. Prior to that, I was on the architecture side of the table for 10 years, focusing on green design via LEED and Living Building Challenge work. I joined Skanska after partnering with them as the Architect/Contractor team on the Bertschi School Living Science Building, and immediately noted that there was a much larger opportunity to make positive sustainable impact in the built environment sitting on the Contractor side of the table at a company like Skanska.
As contractors and builders, we touch every material and component of a building, and have the opportunity to engage, educate and support stakeholders, from designers and engineers to owners, in many phases of a project's fruition. The more we are able to provide green building data, benchmarking and innovative solutions to our clients and each other, the more positive movement forward we are going to see in building efficiency, health and materials life cycle assessment.
Currently at Skanska, I am part of a national group called Green Project Solutions that supports all offices and building projects nationwide. We are on call for support and training around any green building certification system that may be assessed or implemented on a project, from LEED to WELL to Living Building Challenge. We are also currently driving a focus on carbon (operational and embodied), and analyzing our recently announced international commitment to zero carbon by 2050, as well as our commitment to the We Are Still In movement as a business. In our NW markets, we are also seeing moves to legislate carbon emissions both through a tax or fee, as well as specifically around the embodied emissions of materials specific to construction. I see this as a key area of focus moving forward and am the co-chair of the Washington Businesses for Climate Action to ensure that those crafting and proposing carbon policy engage the business community and implement policy that not only benefits our environment, but also invests and grows the local economy.
I currently sit on the Carbon Leadership Forum Advisory Board, and am the Embodied Carbon Network Construction Taskforce Chair - I invite any of you interested in embodied carbon to reach out and we can get you signed up to receive information and participate however you see fit!
I could go on forever - sustainability in the built environment isn't just a job to me, it's something I've been passionate about since I was 8 and watched my grandpa's land get clear cut and turned into a suburban housing development. I told my mom I wanted to build buildings that didn't destroy nature, and that's still true. I look forward to working with this group to further that mission.
