For the Emerging Professional: Leading Sustainability Efforts at Architecture Firms

March 2024

Sponsored by Hörmann High Performance Doors, Kingspan Insulated Panels, Think Wood and Vitro Architectural Glass

Presented by Kjell Anderson, FAIA, LEED Fellow, Sara Bayer, AIA CPHC® LEED AP and Russell Fortmeyer

Continuing Education

Use the following learning objectives to focus your study while reading this month’s Continuing Education article.

Learning Objectives - After reading this article, you will be able to:

Outline the skill set, experience, and education necessary for becoming a sustainability director at an architecture firm.
Describe how each of the presenters works with clients and colleagues to set performance goals.
Discuss ways sustainability directors can keep projects on track to achieve performance goals, from conceptual design through construction and occupancy.
Describe some of the industry-wide sustainability initiatives that the presenters are involved in.

Have you ever wondered what a sustainability director does? On March 12, join RECORD and three sustainability directors—all from highly regarded architecture firms—to find out. The panelists will discuss how they collaborate with clients and colleagues to set performance goals, how they shape the design process, and how they keep projects on track. Speakers will also outline the career paths that brought them to their current leadership roles.

Photo courtesy of Getty Images

Kjell Anderson, FAIA, LEED Fellow, practices architecture and serves as a Principal and the Director of Sustainable Design at LMN Architects, working with all of LMN’s clients to set and exceed sustainable design goals. He wrote the first architect-centered book on energy modeling, co-authored AIA’s first policy statement on climate change, led the development of the Path To Zero Carbon series and has spoken extensively on energy, water, materials, and embodied carbon. He founded the Seattle Hub of the Carbon Leadership Forum, served on the AIA National Committee on the Environment and currently serves on the Washington State Building Code Council where he chairs the Energy Code Technical Advisory Group. A lifelong Washingtonian, he lives in Seattle with his wife and two daughters and enjoys playing music and soccer.

Sara Bayer AIA CPHC® LEED AP, is an Associate Principal and Director of Sustainability at Magnusson Architecture and Planning (MAP), where she manages many of the firm's most energy efficient multifamily housing projects. She also leads studio-wide efforts to design for passive house, implement broader carbon reduction methods, and incorporate healthy building systems and materials. This work includes nine NYSERDA Buildings of Excellence Competition winners and two NYSERDA Buildings of Excellence Early Design Phase studies. Sara was certified CPHC in 2016, serves on the board of New York Passive House and is a frequent contributor in forums such as Urban Green, AIANY, ASHRAE, NESEA, BEEX, and PHA; striving to make sustainable, healthy, and uplifting design achievable for all.

As Woods Bagot’s global sustainability leader, Russell Fortmeyer leads the firm’s response to climate change and ecological imperatives across our operations, culture, and projects. In that role, he led the publication of Woods Bagot’s Climate Playbook in 2023, the first public sustainability report for the company. He has taught at the Southern California Institute of Architecture and currently teaches at the architecture school at the University of Southern California. In 2019, he was the curator of the US Pavilion, RECKONstruct, at the Milan Triennale, which focused on materials lifecycle assessments and the emerging circular economy. Russell was made a LEED Fellow with the US Green Building Council in 2023. He has a BS in architectural engineering from Kansas State University and an MA in Architecture from the University of California, Los Angeles. He lives in Los Angeles.