NYC | SBA Field Director

Janus Welton, CSBA, LEED AP BD+C, Architect

Ms. Welton is a Practicing Registered Architect in New York and California, a LEED Project Manager, Sustainable Building Consultant and Educator. She combines Sustainability, Energy Efficiency, Building Biology, and Biomimicry in Architecture, Interior Design, and Planning. She holds a Master of Architecture degree (M. Arch) from the University of Colorado Denver, CO, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) from Virginia Commonwealth University and continues to expand her knowledge base with the following certifications:

• LEED AP BD+C, Leader in Energy and Environmental Design, US Green Building Council
• CSBA Certified, Sustainable Building Advisor, Sustainable Building Advisor Institute
• Biomimicry Specialist, Biomimicry 3.8
• Founding Member, Biomimicry NYC
• BBEC, Building Biology and Environmental Consultant, International Institute of Building Biology ™ and Ecology
• Candidate for Passive House Certification
• Candidate for International Living Building Challenge Certification.

Prior to starting her own architecture studio in New York in 2000, Ms. Welton served as Director of Concept Architecture for Sony Development, as Senior Designer for Walt Disney Imagineering, and Senior Architectural Designer at Vito Cetta, Randy Washington Group Architects and Planners, all in Los Angeles. She and her team recently placed third in the International Living Building Challenge Aleutian Island Home Competition and second in the Hudson Valley’s Cragsmoor Association Design Competition – incorporating Living Building Challenge principles including net zero water and energy into affordable smaller prefab homes.She lectures widely on Sustainability, Biomimicry, and Resiliency and initiated the SBA Sustainable Building Advisor Program in NYC where she serves as Field Director for SBA Projects. She joined the Viridian Future One Project where she is spearheading the LEED, Living Building Challenge and Passive House aspects of what will be the “greenest” Brownstone Renovation in NYC- aspiring to LEED Platinum, LBC Red List Materials and the Passive House EnerPHit Standard.

GUEST EXPERTS

Here is a sampling of past NYC|SBA Guest Experts. New Guest Experts are always being invited for upcoming Field Project Sessions . We make an effort to match and accommodate your areas of field project interest so please sign up early and email Janus with your requests! janus@janusweltondesignworks.com

Guest Expert : Peter C. Fusaro

Chairman, Global Change Associates Inc.

Mr. Fusaro is a leading international expert on energy and environmental financial markets and trading. He has authored sixteen books on the subject as well as numerous articles and publications. Peter is a bestselling author of What Went Wrong at Enron (John Wiley, June 2002). He is a professor at Columbia University teaching a graduate level course on renewable energy. He consults to the investment banks, hedge funds, the energy industry, governments and the World Bank on commodity price risk management, competitive analysis and business strategy. Peter has worked with the Capital Markets group of Deloitte Touche in New York as well ABB Financial Services, the US DOE and NYC Mayor’s Energy & Telecommunications Office.

Books & Publications:

• Coauthor, New York Times’ best seller What Went Wrong at Enron (Wiley, 2002)
• Coauthor, Energy & Environmental Project Finance: New Investment Techniques (Oxford University Press, 2010)
• Coauthor, Energy & Environmental Trading Law (Cameron May, 2008)
• Author, Professional Risk Managers Guide to Energy Markets (McGraw- Hill, 2007)
• Coauthor, Energy and Emission: Collision or Convergence (John Wiley, 2006)
• Coauthor, Energy & Environmental Hedge Funds: The New Investment Paradigm (John Wiley, 2006)
• Coauthor, Green Trading Markets: Developing The Next Wave, (Elsevier, 2005)
• Coauthor, Energy Hedging in Asia (MacMillan, 2004)
• Author, Green Trading: Commercial Opportunities for the Environment (2004).
• Author, New York Times best seller What Went Wrong at Enron, (John Wiley, 2002). Translated into Japanese, French & Italian.
• Author, Energy Convergence: The Beginning of the Multicommodity Market (John Wiley, 2002)

SBA Guest Expert : JESSICA COOPER

Project Manager and Sustainability Director

Having worked in the architecture and design industry since 2007, Jessica has experience in project management, design, and construction. In her current role at Delos Living, Jessica seeks to improve health and wellness through the spaces in which we live and work, while minimizing the impact on our natural environment.

Before joining Delos Living, Jessica worked as Programs Manager at Urban Green Council where she was responsible for developing and executing educational programs for the green building communities of New York City, Westchester, and Rockland. Prior to this, Jessica worked as Project Manager at LB Architects where she managed a variety of interior design and construction projects for corporate, residential, and not-for-profit clients. During her time here, she also gained experience serving as an interior designer, construction manager, and office sustainability coordinator.

Jessica graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelors of Science in Design and Environmental Analysis. She currently serves as a committee member on the Living Building Challenge NYC + NJ Collaborative and the IIDA New York Chapter Sustainability Forum. A LEED Accredited Professional since 2008, Jessica maintains her Interior Design and Construction specialty and also holds a certificate in Green Professional Building Skills Training: Construction Management.

SBA Guest Expert : ROLLIE JONES, CIH

Rollie Jones is a Certified Industrial Hygienist with Environmental Connection, Inc., located in New York, NY. Among many high profile projects, his work has included independent compliance and risk management monitoring of LEED and other sustainability initiatives on large construction projects such as the National September 11th Memorial and Museum, the World Trade Center Transportation HUB project in downtown Manhattan; during the construction of educational facilities throughout the tri-state area and on various investigative and litigation support assignments. Rollie’s environmental consulting expertise is grounded in his technical training, research and participation in a variety of initiatives focused on building sciences, including materials analysis, energy efficiency and indoor air quality. Rollie is a Volunteer Ambassador for the International Living Future Institute and founding member of the New York and New Jersey Living Building Challenge Collaborative.

SBA Guest Expert : YETSUH FRANK AIA, LEED BD+C

Programs & Communications Consultant Green Light New York

Yetsuh Frank is an architect, writer and educator with over 15 years experience in green building and sustainability. Previously the Director of the NYC office of YRG sustainability consultants, Yetsuh currently leads the Program and Communications efforts of Green Light New York, a non-profit energy and lighting efficiency center for the NYC real estate community. He is Adjunct Associate Professor in the Architecture & Urban Design program of New York University.
Prior to his work at YRG he was Director of Programs at Urban Green Council, the New York chapter of the US Green Building Council, where he was responsible for the development of educational programs and advocacy initiatives that promoted green building in and around New York City. Yetsuh chaired the LEED 2009 Regionalization Task Force for the Northeast Corridor Region, is a LEED Subject Matter Expert and a member of the USGBC Core Team.
Prior to joining Urban Green Council he was an Associate at Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners, where he led the Sustainable Design Group and managed a series of high profile projects including the Tutu Center, the Sports Museum of America and the Geothermal Well Field for the General Theological Seminary in Manhattan- the largest geothermal well field in the region.
In 2007 Yetsuh was selected by the Climate Project to be among the 1000 volunteers trained by Al Gore to present his slideshow on the global climate crisis. He received a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Oregon in 1995 and presents regularly on green building issues to a variety of organizations.

SBA Guest Expert : AMY LARKIN

Making the Economic Case for Sustainability

Amy Larkin is the author of Environmental Debt: The Hidden Costs of a Changing Global Economy, published by Palgrave MacMillan in June 2013 and on Amazon June Best Sellers list. In the book, she connects the environmental and financial crises — both causes and solutions. Amy is an award-winning entrepreneur and environmental activist who has launched cultural institutions, co-founded one of the first affinity-marketing businesses, and was involved with Greenpeace for 30 years — as a Board member, advisor, and from 2005 – early 2012, Director of Greenpeace Solutions.

In 2010, Greenpeace Solutions worked with the Consumer Goods Forum, a consortium of 400 companies with $3 trillion in revenue, to eliminate HFCs from all new equipment starting in 2015. This industry transformation will eliminate 1 – 2% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions over the next 30 years. This work won the prestigious 2011 Roy Award from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government for public/private partnerships that protect natural resources.

Through her consulting business, she is working with the Agricultural Sustainability Institute of UC/Davis and the Consumer Goods Forum. Amy currently serves as the Chair of the Advisory Board of Biomimicry NYC and is also the Chair of the Board of the ARChive of Contemporary Music, the largest collection of contemporary music in the world.

SBA Guest Expert : MARK DORFMAN

Materials: Green Chemistry & Biomimicry

Mark Dorfman is a Green Chemistry Naturalist with the Biomimicry 3.8 group. He received his Master’s degree in environmental chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Public Health. His case-study research of waste reduction practices at chemical manufacturing facilities helped INFORM, Inc. spur the creation and passage of the Federal Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 as well as similar laws in key industrial states. He’s had the great privilege of providing technical assistance to disadvantaged communities located along the so-called “chemical corridor” between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana in their efforts to promote industrial pollution prevention locally.

On the international front, Mark has worked with chemical industry trade organizations to promote green chemistry in Mexico, India, Russia, and Nepal. In recent years, he’s created educational materials that link green chemistry with biomimicry including a section in John Wiley and Son’s “Transforming a Sustainability Strategy into Action”, a fellowship with the Chemical Heritage Foundation, and leading workshops for scientists and college students in Kathmandu, Nepal through a grant from the American Chemical Society’s Green Chemistry Institute.

In 2007, he joined the Biomimicry 3.8 Group (then the Biomimicry Guild) to focus full time as liaison between the Guild and the world’s leading green chemists to develop the biomimetic component of green chemistry strategies. He’s charged with the exciting and rewarding task of helping Guild clients find sustainable solutions through inspiration from nature’s warehouse of sophisticated, elegant, and life-friendly chemical transformations. Mark is an avid cyclist, swimmer, hiker, and aquarist, maintaining no less than three distinct aquatic environments in his New York City studio apartment.

SBA Guest Expert: F.L. Andrew Padian

F.L. Andrew Padian is Vice President for Energy Initiatives for The Community Preservation Corporation (CPC), a not-for-profit affordable housing mortgage lender, where he is working in the implementation of the Green Financing Initiative (GFI), working with CPC staff and building owners across New York State. He has 30 years of experience in the unique building science of multifamily buildings, and has performed detailed energy analysis on hundreds of buildings across the country. He created the first national model for training and certification of building managers and maintenance staff of multifamily buildings for energy efficiency; over 2000 participants have taken the extensive 1 to 5 day training.

Mr. Padian is a frequent contributor to energy and sustainable publications, and has spoken at numerous conferences across the country over the last 30 years (NESEA Building Energy, Affordable Comfort, Apartment World, National Weatherization Conference, National Multifamily Conference to name a few). He lives in NYC, and is involved in many sustainable causes there, including GreenHomeNYC (Board President), the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (Vice Board Chair) and the Clinton Community Garden. He served as the Conference Chair of NESEA’s 2008 Building Energy Conference in Boston, and Vice Chair of the 2009 Conference, each of which attracted over 3500 participants. In 2010, He received NESEA’s Distinguished Service Award, awarded to only 17 people in the last 40 years.

Last year, Mr. Padian chaired a joint NESEA-GHNYC Conference on Multifamily Sustainability. The groups plan a similar, larger one for this year on all types of building sustainability called Building Energy NYC (BE-NYC) on October 16th.

Through GreenHomeNYC, Mr. Padian runs a sustainable jobs network called “GreenCareerMeetup” which attracts 30-50 people for each monthly meeting. For over 2 years, this 100% volunteer service has gotten one person per month a full-time job in the sustainability field.

Prior to CPC, Andy started ran the Multifamily Buildings Division for Steven Winter Associates, Inc., worked for the Association for Energy Affordability and as an independent consultant, and toiled in the NYC Mayor’s Energy Office and the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

SBA Guest Expert: Lauren Yarmuth

Principal, LEED-AP BD&C

Lauren is Co-Founder and Principal of YR&G. With over 13 years of experience spearheading the sustainability industry, she is a recognized leader skilled at helping people, companies, buildings, and communities to implement and benefit from sustainability-focused solutions.

An architect by training, Lauren applies her diverse project experience and whole-systems perspective to enable teams of people to develop creative approaches to realize greater success in their work. This process draws upon Lauren’s skills of teaching, facilitating an integrative process, and inspiring people to engage with their work and surroundings in more meaningful ways.

Lauren is also a celebrated presenter, educator, and facilitator. She is LEED Faculty for USGBC, and she teaches at various colleges and universities including as adjunct faculty at Columbia University.

Lauren has worked with the LEED Rating System since its inception including supporting hundreds of projects nationally and internationally to earn LEED certification, and as a technical consultant to USGBC/ GBCI for project certification reviews, credit interpretation (CIR) responses, Reference Guide content development, and training curriculum.

Accreditations and Affiliations:

LEED Fellow
LEED AP BD+C
LEED Faculty
Ambassador, Living Building Challenge
Adjunct Professor, Columbia University (2009 – present)
Adjunct Professor, New York University (2009-2012)

SBA Guest Expert: Ken Levenson

Passive House

Ken Levenson is a founding partner and COO at 475 High Performance Building Supply (475), a company dedicated to providing those products that help transform green building into high-performance building across the US. Ken is a registered architect in New York State with 20 years experience as a practicing architect, including 10 years as principal of Ken Levenson Architect PC, based in Brooklyn, NY. A graduate of Pratt Institute, Ken became a Certified Passive House Consultant in 2010, incorporating the Passive House standard into projects, including several historic building renovations in “Brownstone Brooklyn”. Frustrated with the lack of available high-quality building materials and know-how in the building supply industry, Ken helped form 475. Ken is also president of NY Passive House, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting the Passive House standard, and a founding board member of the American Passive House Network. Ken regularly lectures on high performance building science issues including the Passive House standard.

SBA Guest Expert: Larry Beckhardt

Larry Beckhardt is Chief for Strategic Planning in the Bureau of Water Supply at the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). DEP is responsible for supplying drinking water and providing waste water treatment for the City of New York, as well as communities and residents in other parts of southeastern New York State.

Since 1990, Mr. Beckhardt’s responsibilities at DEP have included: development, implementation and financing of cooperative pro¬grams with landowners, local government and government agencies in the City’s water supply watershed region for protection and enhancement of drinking water quality; design, implementation and management of $75 million agricultur¬al and forestry pro¬grams to protect water supply from non-point sources of contam¬ination (1992 to 2008); manage¬ment of $800,000 watershed local and region¬al land use planning pro-gram (1991 to 1994); coordina¬tion of agency nego¬tia¬tions with watershed communities over City’s watershed regulatory program and local watershed protection plans (1991 to 1994). In 1998, he designed, negotiated and drafted $10 million Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program Memorandum of Agree¬ment with US Department of Agriculture.

In 2009, Mr. Beckhardt was appointed to the newly created position of Strategic Planning Chief in the Bureau of Water Supply. In this capacity, he is responsible for the Bureau’s strategic and long term planning, as well as coordinating its responsibilities under the City’s PlaNYC 2030 sustainability program.

Mr. Beckhardt was born and raised in New York City, where he currently resides. He graduated in 1983 with a B.A. in history from Wesleyan University in Connecticut, and received a Fulbright Scholarship for post-graduate study at the Johannes Gutenberg Universität in Mainz, Germany. In 1999, he received a “Hammer Award” from Vice President Gore’s National Partnership for Reinventing Government for his work on the NYC Watershed Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program agreement with USDA.

SBA Guest Expert: Kathleen Bakewell

Kathleen Bakewell is a New York-based, landscape architect and Founding Principal of Brook Farm Group. She is also the Founder and Executive Director of BioCities, a non-profit dedicated to urban ecosystems with a specific interest in the interdependence and linkages between humans and nature. BioCities promotes urban agriculture through its built work and held a major symposium, “How Food Systems Shape Cities: Ecological and Economic Perspectives” in New York City in May 2012. It is currently developing building integrated agriculture – a soil-based rooftop farm in collaboration with a proprietary hydroponic growing facility, set in an incubator space operating within an industrial symbiosis framework.

In her landscape architectural practice, Kathleen has designed landscapes ranging from large planning projects such as the 600 acre Cacique Costa Rica, to small urban spaces that include a recently completed habitat green roof for New York University. Her clients include Machado and Silvetti Associates, Morphosis, Buro Happold, Columbia University, The Usdan Center and Sustainable South Bronx. She serves on the Board of Advisors for FarmingUp, and is a Founding Director of Our Growing Place at Gracie Mansion, a children’s food growing and cooking program. She has taught and lectured widely on the design of high performance landscapes, ecological infrastructure and urban agriculture at Harvard, Columbia, Cornell, Yale, and the NJIT.

Education
MLA Landscape Architecture, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University
BA Film Animation Columbia College
BA candidate: Music, Grinnell College

Accreditations
LEED Accredited Professional: Neighborhood Development, Building Design + Construction.
Registered Landscape Architect: New York, New Jersey

SBA Guest Expert: Robert Politzer, LEED AP

President, Greenstreet Inc. www.greenstreetinc.com

Robert Politzer is the President and Founder of Greenstreet Inc.. Mr. Politzer is a LEED accredited professional and Chair of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce’s Green Design and Construction Committee, former Adjunct Professor at NYU and NYC Technical College and former Chair of the Sustainable Business Task Force of the New York State Environmental Business Association.

Under Mr. Politzer’s leadership, Greenstreet has grown from a small environmental testing and abatement company to a leading green building firm, operating primarily in the NYC tri-state region. Greenstreet has worked on a number of groundbreaking projects including: the Mark Twain House Visitors Center which was the first LEED Certified Museum in the US; the Green Canteen which was the first LEED registered restaurant project in NYS; 126 Fort Greene Place which was the first green townhouse project in NYC; and the first grid-tied residential Solar PV system in NYC. Over the years, GreenStreet has worked on a wide range of project types including: high-end residential renovations and new construction; commercial office interiors; health club renovations; retail renovations and new construction; and private school renovations. Of these project types, GreenStreet has the most experience with high end residential green renovations which have included the Penthouse at 1 5th Avenue in Manhattan.

With Greenstreet at the core of his endeavors, Mr. Politzer has forged strategic JV Partnerships and initiatives with other trusted colleagues to broaden Greenstreet’s professional capabilities. These Partnerships include: Greenstreet/Hollister for ground up commercial construction; Greenstreet GreenPower for solar design and installation; Warburg/Greenstreet for property development; and GreenStreet Services which is in the process of being certified as a Minority Woman Owned Enterprise that will target the Public Sector.

Mr. Politzer holds a Bachelor’s in Biology from Indiana University, a Master’s in Environmental Policy from the University of Michigan, and a Master’s in Environmental Engineering from Manhattan College. He is a Tai Chi instructor at the West Side YMCA, father of Rebecca and Benjamin, and husband of Barbara Reef.

SBA Guest Expert: Nette Compton, RLA, ASLA

Nette Compton, RLA, ASLA, is the Director of Green Infrastructure for the New York City’s Parks Department. She was project manager for Parks’ High Performance Landscape Guidelines, and now works with the Department of Environmental Protection on implementing New York City’s Green Infrastructure Plan. She oversees a team of landscape architects and engineers broadly focused on urban greening initiatives and research, including shorelines and the right-of-way. She has worked on sustainability initiatives with multiple city agencies over the past 7 years, most recently on post-storm and climate change planning. She is an adjunct professor at Fordham University.

SBA Guest Expert: Dickson Despommier

Dickson Despommier has received numerous teaching awards (eight Best Teacher of the Year awards at Columbia University), and the national American Medical Student Golden Apple Award for Teaching Excellence in 2003. He has authored five books, written over 70 peer-reviewed scientific papers, and numerous published review articles on a wide variety of scientific subjects. He has lectured on the concept of vertical farming at universities (MIT, Harvard, NYU, Cornell, Rochester Institute of Technology, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Rutgers, Brigham Young University, The Singularity University), The American Museum of Natural History, The Chicago Museum of Science and Technology, to city governments (Chicago; New York; Seattle; Newark, NJ; Jersey City, NJ; Los Angeles; Seoul, Korea; Amman, Jordan; Beijing, China; Bangalore and Combatore, India), The United Nations, International Monetary Fund, NASDAQ, and Credit Suisse Bank, and federal government agencies, including, USDA and USAID. He has presented at TED and TEDx (7 times), PopTech, Ars Electronica, IdeaCity, PINC, 21 Minutes of Knowledge, Big Ideas, The Colbert Report, PechaKucha, The Feast, Omega Institute, Monterey Design Conference, World Science Festival (3 times), Edinburgh International Science Festival, Manchester International Science Festival, Seoul Digital Forum (twice), Short Course in Indoor Agriculture, University of Arizona, the NYC AIA, Chicago AIA, and Indian Institute for Architecture annual meeting. He has been featured in the Huffington Post, Time Magazine, The New York Times, The Bloomberg Businessweek Report, Fast Company, Tree Hugger, The Economist, The Guardian, and numerous radio, TV, and newspaper interviews (e.g., U.S.A., Canada, France, Holland, China, India, Spain, Germany, U.K.).

SBA Guest Expert: Thomas Gately

Solar Photovoltaics, Solar Thermal Economics of Renewable Energy

Thomas Gately is the Founder and President of Green Power Solutions based in the Flatiron area of New York and serving the northeast, with a particular expertise in developing solar projects in New York City. Green Power Solutions was started in 2006 and provides turn-key renewable energy solutions such as Solar PV, solar thermal for domestic hot water, central and pool heating, wind power, battery backup and generator emergency power. Services provided include structural, layout, and electrical design, project finance sourcing, NYC permit expediting, system installation, troubleshooting and maintenance. Thomas has lived and worked in New York City since 1994 having worked as a commodity and foreign exchange trader until about 2000. Then Thomas transitioned into the solar industry starting as an installation technician for a Long Island, NY company for several years gaining valuable experience in all aspects of the design and installation of solar PV and solar thermal systems.

SBA Guest Expert: Julie Torres Moskovitz

Julie Torres Moskovitz is the founding principal of the collaborative design firm Fabrica 718 in Brooklyn. She retrofitted the first certified New York City Passive House in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Julie is the author of The Greenest Home: Superinsulated and Passive House Design. Passive is the new green. Passive Houses—well insulated, virtually airtight buildings—can decrease home heating consumption by an astounding 90% and decrease overall energy consumption up to 75%, making them not only an attractive choice for prospective homeowners but also the right choice for a sustainable future.

SBA Guest Expert: Jonce Walker

Jonce Walker, a LEED Accredited Professional and a Certified Sustainable Building Advisor is a Sustainability Consultant at Terrapin Bight Green where he specializes in green building and biophilic design. Jonce has over a decade of sustainability leadership experience in urban design, renewable energy, green building, and progressive policy that has helped transform both public and private institutions.
Jonce was previously Programs Manager for Urban Green Council, where he worked on planning and strategy development for panel presentations, conferences, courses, and written educational materials. Jonce was also previously the Sustainability Manager for Maricopa County Arizona where he authored and directed the Maricopa County Green Government Program, a comprehensive 144 measure policy which succeeded to advance regional sustainability.