Watch the recorded webinary of our April LEED Construction User Group.
This LEED Construction User Group is composed of people living and breathing LEED on a daily basis. We'll address all your questions and concerns about LEED.
Navigating carbon emissions legislation can be a challenge, but we’ve got you covered! Join us for an insightful webinar where industry experts break down the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Buy Clean policies—what they mean, why they matter, and how they impact general contractors and the construction industry.
We’ll explore the big picture of sustainability, greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions, and compliance requirements for federal projects. Plus, hear from Burns & McDonnell and Hathaway Dinwiddie on how they’re adapting to meet these evolving standards. Whether you’re tackling reporting and auditing requirements, budgeting for sustainable materials, or aligning with LEED v5, this session will provide actionable insights, best practices, and key takeaways to help you stay ahead. Stick around for a moderated Q&A to get your pressing questions answered!
Kristin Brubaker has a profound understanding of sustainability in the built environment, backed by her degree in environmental science and experience in the general contractor realm. She is passionate about educating individuals on the environmental impact of construction and helping them implement sustainability practices efficiently and effectively. Kristin has led multiple corporate responsibility initiatives focused on reducing environmental impact and earned her LEED AP BD+C certification in 2021. She is currently the Customer Acquisition and Education Manager for Green Badger, where she focuses on ESG (Environmental Social Governance) implementation in the construction industry and supports customers on their sustainability journey.
Jessie Buckmaster has nearly 15 years of experience in sustainable commercial construction and green building across California. She is a subject matter expert in in evaluating healthy and low embodied carbon building materials. As Director of Sustainability for Hathaway Dinwiddie Construction she provides sustainability expertise and consultation for HDCCo’s projects from preconstruction through certification. Jessie has completed dozens of sustainable projects including managing the Materials petal for a project pursuing Living Building Challenge certification. Jessie was selected for BD+C Magazine’s 40 under 40 cohort in 2020. She holds credentials for LEED AP BD+C, LFA, and is Board Secretary for USGBC-LA.
Annie is the Sustainability Services Delivery Lead for Burns & McDonnell, developing holistic solutions leveraging the firm's expertise to address sustainability goals and climate resiliency needs. She has over a decade of experience in sustainable design and construction, with specialties including third party certifications, specialty building projects, resilient design, embodied carbon, horizontal master planning, and airport infrastructure. She currently serves as the Chair of the U.S. Green Building Council Mountain Region Market Leadership Advisory Board, and as a Co-Chair of the Carbon Leadership Forum Rocky Mountain Hub.
Did you miss our February 2025 LEED Construction User Group meeting? Good news! You can watch the recording here.
This LEED Construction User Group is composed of people living and breathing LEED on a daily basis. We'll address all your questions and concerns about LEED.
Watch the recorded session of the October 2024 LEED Construction User Group.
This LEED Construction User Group is composed of people living and breathing LEED on a daily basis. We'll address all your questions and concerns about LEED.
Are you a building or construction professional looking to sharpen your skills in high-performance building practices? Don’t miss our upcoming webinar showcasing Urban Green Council and two of their key courses: GPRO Operations & Maintenance Essentials and GPRO Construction Management.
Urban Green Council is a NYC-based nonprofit dedicated to decarbonizing buildings for healthy and resilient communities. GPRO is Urban Green’s flagship training program that teaches the people who build, renovate, and operate buildings how to integrate sustainability practices into their daily work.
The webinar will begin with an introduction to Urban Green Council, followed by an in-depth look at the GPRO courses and a Q&A. Whether you’re focused on optimizing building systems or managing construction projects with an eye on sustainability, these courses offer valuable insights for professionals dedicated to the future of green building.
Join us to learn how GPRO training can transform your career and projects.
Colleen Burns| Urban Green Council
Colleen Burns is the Associate Manager of Education at Urban Green Council, where she manages the outreach and delivery of Urban Green’s flagship programs, Crushing the Code and GPRO: Green Professional Building Skills Training. She previously worked at Green Amendments For The Generations, a nonprofit dedicated to inspiring and training community members and legislators to constitutionally protect their environmental rights. Colleen holds a B.A. in Communication and Culture and a minor in Environmental Studies from Fordham.
Oliver Holmes | LEED AP
Oliver Holmes is a mechanical engineer, licensed professional engineer and a LEED AP. He has a BS in mathematics from State University of New York- Oneonta and a BS in mechanical engineering from Syracuse University. His career started in the environmental field of air and water pollution. His interests shifted into the area of energy utilization and its connection to building science. He has worked in building design, construction as well as operation and maintenance at hospitals, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Williams College, and as a Commissioner of Public Works. He challenged teams working on the complex designs of scientific and engineering research environments to incorporate sustainability and resilience. His energy and environmental focus led to the incorporation of many sustainable design features in these projects.
He reduced Rensselaer’s electric energy consumption by over 15% and reduced its water usage by approximately 50%. His interest in building science and sustainability led to being invited to provide guest lectures in the School of Architecture at Rensselaer. He then became an adjunct faculty member and has taught courses in building science and sustainable building design for over twenty years. He has worked with Urban Green Council for over ten years delivering training programs in building operation and maintenance, energy codes and construction management.
Sustainability is often focused on by the design and construction team for the end building, but it can be overlooked for a project team and jobsite. While employees at the home office enjoy the benefits of LED lighting, air quality monitoring, healthy snacks, and EV charging stations, conditions at the jobsite can differ significantly. For teams spending 24-36 months on site, creating a sustainable and healthy working environment is crucial.
Join our webinar to explore effective strategies for enhancing sustainability and wellness on construction sites. Key topics include:
Don't miss this opportunity to learn how to create a better work environment for your onsite teams.
Kristin Brubaker | Green Badger
I have a profound understanding of sustainability in the built environment through my degree in environmental science and previous experience working in the general contractor realm. I am passionate about educating individuals about the environmental impact of construction and helping them to implement sustainability practices efficiently and effectively. I have led multiple corporate responsibility initiatives focused on reducing environmental impact, and earned my LEED AP BD+C in 2021.
Natalie Terrill | Beck Architecture
Natalie Terrill is the Director of Sustainability at The Beck Group, a renowned design-build firm celebrated for its integrated approach to architecture and construction, and its leadership in green building initiatives. Named a LEED Fellow in 2022 for her dedication to environmental stewardship and sustainable development, Natalie drives initiatives that embed green practices into the company's projects and operations. With nearly two decades of experience in sustainable design and construction consulting, she leverages her extensive expertise to guide The Beck Group toward innovative, eco-friendly solutions that reduce its carbon footprint, solidifying the firm’s position as a leader in sustainable building.
Watch the recorded session of the August 2024 LEED Construction User Group.
This LEED Construction User Group is composed of people living and breathing LEED on a daily basis. We'll address all your questions and concerns about LEED.
Watch this webinar for busy Project Managers overseeing LEED projects and ensuring compliance. We cover how to read a LEED scorecard, best practices for gathering data from subcontractors, as well as how to utilize Green Badger resources for planning, tracking, and reporting project goals. Share tips on using Green Badger dashboard dials to quickly see project status and identify areas needing attention. Explain credit compliance requirements and demonstrate the platform's tools for exporting reports in LEED online ready format. We provide a demo of our in-field mobile app for making IAQ inspections a breeze.
The webinar will showcases a project example and conclude with a Q&A session. As a bonus, we share our LEED Project Cheat Sheet!
Don't miss this opportunity to streamline your construction processes to achieve sustainability goals efficiently.
Lauren Richardson, Sustainability Manager at Green Badger
LEED GA, WELL AP, SITES AP
Lauren has a background in LEED, quality management, training, team facilitation, ISO certification, and 10 years of experience in the design-build industry as a commercial interior designer and project manager. She completed an HBS Online course in Sustainable Business Strategy. Lauren is currently the Sustainability Manager for Green Badger, which offers cloud-based solutions, training, and consulting for LEED project teams. Keeping "Sustainability Simplified" as Green Badger's motto is what she strives to do through all of her training sessions.
Lauren Breckenridge, Sustainability Associate
LEED AP
Lauren manages customer experiences and assists project teams nationwide with LEED documentation and ESG data. Lauren has consulted on various retrofit and new construction projects, including a hospital at the University of Wisconsin/Madison and a historic library rehabilitation in Melrose, MA. She previously gained hands-on sustainability experience with Negawatt, Ecological Environments, and Breckenridge Group Architects. Outside of work, Lauren is active in her Tucson community, volunteering with USGBC Mountain Region and Arizona Forward. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Sustainable Built Environments from the University of Arizona, where she also participated in community service and international collaborative projects. Lauren is dedicated to achieving holistic sustainability goals for both Green Badger clients and non-profits.
Watch the recorded session of the June 2024 LEED Construction User Group.
This LEED Construction User Group is composed of people living and breathing LEED on a daily basis. We'll address all your questions and concerns about LEED.
It’s one of the worst feelings for an interior designer: you put your heart and soul into a great design only to face last-minute changes dictated by factors outside of your control.
Design in construction can get messy. Even with the best planning and foresight, commercial specifications can still change at the end of a project due to a wide variety of reasons but some of the most common are value engineering, pricing, and availability of products.
The goal of value engineering in commercial architecture and interior design is to optimize for the best balance between design functionality, aesthetics, and cost. Meanwhile, market forces, including changes in product availability and cost of labor, can quickly impact a project's budget, forcing project teams to revise specifications to accommodate. Then there are times when owners simply get tired of forking over cash and ask for budget cuts.
You often compromise your design with these alterations, and you likely need to rush to make them to the drawings and finish schedule in order to meet construction schedules.
Interior designers have to be ready and flexible to adapt to potential changes. And with so many factors to consider when specifying your materials selection, including codes, acoustics, maintenance, and long-term durability (as well as the design aesthetics) to say “it’s complicated” is an understatement. Fortunately, having ready access to reliable product information is within reach. This is particularly important when balancing sustainability practices with value engineering challenges.
Following LEED standards ensures that chosen products meet sustainability criteria, helps designers contribute to healthier indoor environments, and the third-party certification adds credibility, making clients less likely to substitute products or compromise environmental goals. While upfront costs might be slightly higher, the inherent value of LEED-certified products make them more resistant to specification changes. Interior designers play a crucial role in educating clients about these benefits and fostering cooperation throughout the project.
Through our collaborations with thousands of project teams and hundreds of designers, Green Badger has identified interior architectural finishes and furniture products linked to LEED attributes.
Using these essential products, along with others like them necessary for your team to accrue certification points, can prevent jeopardizing your beautiful finishes before installation.
The great news is you can instantly find and verify thousands of products for a LEED project, all consistently updated and easily referenced in Green Badger’s platform.
Watch Richard E. Glaze, Jr., Partner with Barnes & Thornburg LLP, offer his expertise as an attorney on ESG, why stakeholders are demanding disclosures, disclosure forums, climate reporting issues, legal requirements for ESG, and what the future holds for ESG.
ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) practices encompass a range of policies and actions that builders and developers disclose to stakeholders and regulators. Stakeholders and regulators increasingly demand ESG disclosures to assess risks, reputation, and long-term sustainability. However, various forums for disclosure, such as SEC reports and corporate social responsibility reports, present both opportunities and pitfalls for builders and developers navigating ESG commitments.
Builders and developers are increasingly focusing on environmental aspects of ESG, with a particular emphasis on climate reporting. Quantitative metrics like greenhouse gas emissions and net zero pledges are gaining importance alongside qualitative factors such as operational impacts and mitigation measures. Various climate disclosure rules are shaping the landscape. Despite challenges and anti-ESG sentiments, the momentum behind ESG practices is expected to continue growing, underscoring its enduring importance in the building industry.
Richard Glaze, Atlanta Attorney | Jr. Partner at Barnes & Thornburg
A former federal enforcement counsel with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and a former special assistant U.S. attorney, Rich Glaze is an environmental and criminal defense lawyer who provides creative, strategic, results-oriented counsel to his clients – primarily corporations, municipalities, utilities and individuals.
Alongside his colleagues, Rich counsels businesses about the legal aspects of Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) issues, with a focus on climate change, sustainability and environmental justice, informed by his experience and training in environmental, business and corporate law.
It’s one of the worst feelings for an interior designer: you put your heart and soul into a great design only to face last-minute changes dictated by factors outside of your control.
Design in construction can get messy. Even with the best planning and foresight, commercial specifications can still change at the end of a project due to a wide variety of reasons but some of the most common are value engineering, pricing, and availability of products.
The goal of value engineering in commercial architecture and interior design is to optimize for the best balance between design functionality, aesthetics, and cost. Meanwhile, market forces, including changes in product availability and cost of labor, can quickly impact a project's budget, forcing project teams to revise specifications to accommodate. Then there are times when owners simply get tired of forking over cash and ask for budget cuts.
You often compromise your design with these alterations, and you likely need to rush to make them to the drawings and finish schedule in order to meet construction schedules.
Interior designers have to be ready and flexible to adapt to potential changes. And with so many factors to consider when specifying your materials selection, including codes, acoustics, maintenance, and long-term durability (as well as the design aesthetics) to say “it’s complicated” is an understatement. Fortunately, having ready access to reliable product information is within reach. This is particularly important when balancing sustainability practices with value engineering challenges.
Following LEED standards ensures that chosen products meet sustainability criteria, helps designers contribute to healthier indoor environments, and the third-party certification adds credibility, making clients less likely to substitute products or compromise environmental goals. While upfront costs might be slightly higher, the inherent value of LEED-certified products make them more resistant to specification changes. Interior designers play a crucial role in educating clients about these benefits and fostering cooperation throughout the project.
Through our collaborations with thousands of project teams and hundreds of designers, Green Badger has identified interior architectural finishes and furniture products linked to LEED attributes.
Using these essential products, along with others like them necessary for your team to accrue certification points, can prevent jeopardizing your beautiful finishes before installation.
The great news is you can instantly find and verify thousands of products for a LEED project, all consistently updated and easily referenced in Green Badger’s platform.
