Theresa Lehman

LEED Fellow, LEED® AP-BD&C, ID&C, WELL AP, LEED Faculty®, WELL Faculty, Fitwel Ambassador

Director of Sustainable Services

Miron Construction Co., Inc.

BIO

Theresa Lehman, LEED Fellow, LEED AP BD+C, ID+C, WELL AP, the director of sustainable services for Miron Construction Co., Inc., has dedicated her entire career to sustainable practice. Miron’s Building Green mission is to, “lead by example to demonstrate the benefits of the triple bottom line (people, planet and payback) through education, corporate culture and practical construction solutions.”

Theresa has worked +80 projects seeking LEED certification utilizing many of the LEED green building rating systems. She has successfully lead the LEED certification process for projects in the commercial, retail, healthcare, K-12 education, higher education, religious, manufacturing, industrial, and government markets that have successfully been awarded Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum LEED certifications.

Her portfolio of LEED certified projects boast many “firsts” such as the first LEED certified project for the state of Wisconsin, the first LEED certified NICU in Wisconsin, the first zero-net energy Platinum LEED certified project to earn an Innovation credit to successfully demonstrate zero-net energy, carbon neutrality, the first LEED Platinum public K-12 project in the world, the first LEED certified projects for many organizations, K-12 schools, and private colleges, and piloted the only K-12 school in the LEED v4 beta program, which was awarded LEED Platinum. More impressively, health metrics were benchmarked by the District for five years prior to the students moving into their new, high-performance, healthy twenty-first century learning environment, and have been measured since occupying the new school. Asthma and allergy incident rates declined 75%, average sick days declined 8%, the number of incidents of communicable diseases decreased from 136 to 32 (425%), and nearly all standardized test scores improved. The evidence is clear; people are a product of their environment; high-performance, healthy environments make a difference. This project has received 16 awards, including ENR’s 2016 “Best of the Best” K-12 School in the Nation, has been featured in numerous magazines, as well as in the book, “Green Think – How Profit Can Save the Planet” authored by Rick Fedrizzi, CEO & Founding Chairman of USGBC.

Theresa has an eloquent way of educating people by sharing project success stories, which aligns with USGBC’s mission. Theresa has been a LEED Faculty™ member since 2006 and a WELL Faculty since 2016. She is a guest presenter at local K-12 schools, technical colleges and universities, and has presented at national conferences for USGBC (Greenbuild) and the Center for Green School at USGBC’s National Green Schools Conference. Locally Theresa has presented at many organizational conferences including AIA, ASHRAE, ACEC and others. She has been the keynote speaker at Girls in Engineering, Math and Science (GEMS) event, has participated in Smart Girls Rock and other GEMS events, and has hosted STEM events at Miron. In 2012 Theresa voluntarily taught a six-week “Go Green” class at the local Boys & Girls Club.

As an active member of USGBC, Theresa has voluntarily served on numerous committees and working groups since the early 2000’s, including the original LEED Curriculum Committee who developed the LEED education framework and workshops. Theresa has taught numerous LEED workshops throughout the US and as far away as Dubai and Abu Dhabi. She has also instructed several webinars USGBC’s @Education subscription platform and has instructed several WELL Overview webinars and lunch-n-learns.

As an active Advocacy Committee member, Theresa represents Wisconsin as an advocate for government policy and has testified to the US Congress and Sensate, and several of committees on numerous occasions. In 2009, USGBC selected Theresa to represent USGBC at the World Climate Summit in Mexico.

Identified by USGBC as a Subject Matter Expert in the early 2000’s, Theresa has been on GBCI’s development and review teams for the LEED AP BD+C, ID+C and LEED Green Associate exams and the WELL AP exam.

Locally, she serves on USGBC-Wisconsin’s Green Schools and Advocacy Committees, is an advisory board member of Fox Valley Technical College’s Construction Management Program and University of Wisconsin - Stout’s Masters in Construction Management Program, was appointed by Governor Walker to the Wisconsin Environmental Education Board (WEEB), and was on the Board of Directors for the Neenah-Menasha YMCA, now serving on the YMCA’s Building & Grounds Committee.

She has co-authored and published articles in many trade magazines, has had projects featured in numerous publications, and is quoted on a regular basis for many periodicals including newspapers, magazines, and industry newsletters.

Theresa is recognized for her sustainable leadership. In 2013 she was named to Engineering News Record (ENR) Midwest’s Top 20 Under 40, in which she was honored in the January 27, 2014 edition of ENR Midwest. One of her greatest honors was being named by USGBC to the 2012 class of LEED Fellows, the building industry’s most prestigious professional designation. She is the youngest among the world’s most distinguished green building professionals to be selected as a LEED Fellow.