Living Building Challenge: The Role Civil Engineers Play

Speaker: Haley Gardner, Manager, Buildings + Energy, ILFI

Haley will present on the general role that civil engineers play in allowing project teams to achieve their sustainability goals, specifically when it comes to meeting targets set by rating systems. She will focus on the Living Building Challenge, including the Zero Carbon program aimed at reducing embodied carbon for heavy structural materials which structural engineers play a huge role in, in many ways. The Living Building Challenge is an international sustainable building certification program run by the International Living Future Institute (ILFI). Haley will also discuss the LBC Water Petal, particularly on stormwater management and wastewater management. She is looking to paint a broad picture for where everyone fits in within creating a sustainable built environment and a living future!

Speaker Bio:

Haley supports the Zero Energy and Zero Carbon Certification programs at the International Living Future Institute. She provides technical guidance on how buildings can achieve net-positive carbon on a life cycle scale while maximizing their energy efficiency.

Haley recently completed her master’s thesis wherein she performed a whole-building life cycle assessment (LCA) of a Living Building to identify where high environmental impacts occur over the building’s life cycle. She brings this knowledge of both Living Buildings and LCA to ILFI in order to administer the Zero Energy and Zero Carbon Certifications through a technical lens while considering comprehensive life cycle impacts; this allows her to approach problems with a systems perspective. She has experience working for large energy companies and general contractors, and is elated to finally have made it to her dream career of working on green buildings.

A civil engineer by training, Haley received a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech along with a Master of Civil Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh. She is a diehard Hokie fanatic (as they all are) and misses Blacksburg dearly, but is thrilled to be living in Seattle as she is much closer to her Southern California family. While not daydreaming about green buildings, Haley enjoys watching and playing soccer, catching up on her favorite shows, and enjoying the beautiful landscape of the PNW.

ILFI's international headquarters are located in Seattle, in the Bullitt Center (Certified Living by the LBC and Platinum by LEED).