Towards Zero Carbon 2025: Symposium - A Future Vision for Sustainable Structural Design
Agenda and Speaker Details
Introduction - Towards Zero Carbon: A Roadmap for the Structural Engineering Profession
Jerry Hajjar | Northeastern
Jerry Hajjar is the CDM Smith Professor, University Distinguished Professor, and Department Chair in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Northeastern University. His research and teaching interests include analysis, experimental testing, and design of sustainable and resilient steel and composite building and bridge structures, regional modeling and assessment of infrastructure systems, and earthquake engineering, and he has published over 300 papers and authored or edited five books on these topics. Dr. Hajjar was elected as a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2022 and has received numerous honors and awards, most recently the 2023 Lynn S. Beedle Award from the Structural Stability Research Council.
Session 1 - Motivating a Sustainable Future: Market Drivers, Regulation, and Incentives
Length: 30 mins
Description: This session will present a 15-year vision for embodied carbon policy and market incentives across federal, state, and local levels, exploring how both regulatory and voluntary mechanisms can drive progress. It will include an overview of emerging and evolving policy drivers, as well as the role of private market mechanisms such as financing tools, certification systems, and environmental attribute certificates (EACs), and will examine how these forces might evolve over time to accelerate meaningful impact.
Learning Objectives:
- Gain insight into the key regulatory and voluntary mechanisms that shape embodied carbon policy.
- Explore the intersection of embodied carbon regulation, financing, and certification—and how structural engineers can leverage these drivers to influence project outcomes and advocate for low-carbon solutions.
- Anticipate the future landscape of embodied carbon accountability and incentives, equipping structural engineers to collaborate effectively with policymakers and industry partners in advancing zero carbon design and construction.
Anish Tilak | RMI
Anish Tilak is a manager with RMI’s Carbon-Free Buildings program where he manages projects in the Embodied Carbon Initiative. Anish applies a depth of industry experience and subject matter expertise to develop scalable approaches to decarbonize the built environment, with a current focus on policy research and market development to advance low-embodied carbon materials.
Session 2 - Building a Sustainable Future: Perspectives from Across the Industry
Length: 45 mins
Description: This session will offer a forward-looking exploration of the sustainable practices that developers, architects, and contractors will likely adopt within the next 15 years. The panel will delve into the primary factors influencing and motivating owners and the industry to prioritize sustainability, and how these changes will shape the future of the built environment.
Learning Objectives:
- Gain insight into the evolving sustainability priorities of developers, architects, and contractors—and understand how these shifts will shape the expectations and responsibilities of structural engineers in a net-zero future.
- Explore the key drivers motivating industry-wide sustainability efforts, including market demand, risk mitigation, and long-term value creation, and consider how structural engineers can align their practice with these priorities.
- Anticipate how emerging industry practices and collaboration will influence the structural engineering profession’s role in designing and delivering sustainable buildings over the next 15 years.
Erika Winters-Downey | Clayco/Lamar Johnson Collaborative
Erika Winters-Downey, SE, LEED AP BD+C, is an Associate Principal and Director-Sustainable Structures for the Clayco/Lamar Johnson Collaborative enterprise. She has spent her career building relationships to foster the sharing of best practices in structural design and construction. With a breadth of experience spanning structural design, a technical institute, and construction, her experience allows her to drive success from project pursuits through design and construction. In her current role, she works across the enterprise to lead embodied carbon reduction strategies. She has established prototype client deliverables for Embodied Carbon studies, as well as a pilot testing program to assist clients in implementing low-carbon concrete designs. She is the current board chair for the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) Central Plains chapter, and a member of the inaugural board of the Kansas City Building Energy Exchange. An accomplished speaker and author, she thrives on the ability to distill technical topics for all to understand and apply.
Kjell Anderson | LMN Architects
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 and co-authored AIA’s first policy statement on climate change.. He founded the Seattle Hub of the Carbon Leadership Forum, served on the AIA National COTE and currently serves on the Washington State Building Code Council where he leads the Energy Code Technical Advisory Groups.
Amanda Kaminsky | Consigli
Amanda Kaminsky is Director of Sustainability for Consigli Construction, which recently acquired Lendlease Construction. Building on a couple decades of deep collaboration with multidisciplinary teams to pilot and standardize systemic industry sustainability improvements to portfolio organics collection, material ingredient transparency and health, concrete decarbonization, drywall closed loop recycling, and uptake of electric construction equipment, Amanda is continuing progress at scale with supply chains, recycling networks, policy makers, and the teams and communities where Consigli builds.
Amanda sits on the Boards of Carbon Leadership Forum, Health Product Declaration Collaborative, Construction & Demolition Recycling Association, Center for Zero Waste Design, and is a Reuse Partner of Build Reuse. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Architecture from the University of Virginia.
Iris Loureiro | Prologis
Originally from New Jersey and now based in Miami, Florida, Iris holds a B.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Rutgers University. She started her career at Turner Construction, spending three and a half years as an Engineer and a Sustainability Engineer. Now, she is the Construction Innovation Manager at Prologis, focusing on researching and piloting new technologies and processes to drive efficiency and sustainability across Prologis’ Developments in Canada, US, Mexico, and Brazil.
Session 3 - The Future of Building Materials
Length: 60 mins
Description: This session will explore the cutting-edge materials and products that will shape the future of sustainable structural engineering. Discover the innovative materials that will revolutionize the construction industry and learn how to navigate the challenges and opportunities they present.
Learning Objectives:
- Discover innovative and emerging building materials expected to shape the future of sustainable construction and influence the structural engineering profession.
- Understand the broader sustainability and market drivers behind the development and adoption of new materials, and the opportunities they present for reducing embodied carbon in structural systems.
- Explore how structural engineers can prepare for and influence a shifting materials landscape, positioning themselves as leaders in advancing zero-carbon design over the next 15 years.
John Kevern | NREL
Dr. Kevern is senior researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory focusing on cement and concrete resilience. He is an internationally recognized expert on concrete durability and non-traditional concrete applications. Dr. Kevern has been named one of the top five most influential people in the concrete industry by Concrete Construction Magazine and is a Fellow of both ACI and ASCE.
Kim Olson, PE | Nucor
Kim Olson, PE is a licensed structural engineer. She is currently an engineering manager in Nucor’s Buildings Group. Prior to joining Nucor, she was the HSS Consulting Engineer for the Steel Tube Institute. At FORSE Consulting and Martin/Martin, Inc. she managed and designed a variety of structures, from research labs and sporting grandstands to recreation centers and schools. Kim is a licensed professional engineer (PE) and a member of several AISC, AWS and ASTM Technical Committees.
Will Lepry | Colorado Mass Timber Coalition
Will Lepry is the Director of the Colorado Mass Timber Coalition where he leads over 350 members across 150+ organizations to help support healthy, resilient forests and encourage a thriving forest products economy through mass timber in Colorado and the Rocky Mountain Region. He has a background in materials engineering and management consulting.
Session 4 - Structural Design - Visions for the Future
Length: 45 mins
Description: This session will feature industry experts discussing their vision for the future of sustainable structural design. We will explore how the structural engineering profession and practice may evolve over the next 15 years to address our environmental impact. Attendees will learn about new design goals and parameters to meet future sustainability requirements.
Learning Objectives:
- Explore visionary approaches to sustainable structural design and analysis that reflect the profession’s potential evolution over the next 15 years.
- Understand how emerging sustainability goals and external pressures are reshaping the priorities, responsibilities, and design parameters for structural engineers.
- Envision the future role of structural engineers as proactive leaders in environmental stewardship and zero-carbon design, driving meaningful change and innovation in the built environment.
Sheng Zheng | Martin/Martin
Sheng Zheng is a Professional Engineer with five years of industry experience at Martin/Martin Consulting Engineers in Lakewood, Colorado. He specializes in AI and technology initiatives as part of his role. He is also a member of SEAC.
Ian McFarlane | MKA
Ian is a Senior Principal who has led the design of mid- and high-rise buildings ranging from residential and office to innovative mixed-use developments. He leads MKA’s sustainability experts, working as a resource across all market sectors to develop strategies on sustainable design and construction practices.
Laura Karnath | Walter P Moore
Laura is a registered architect and a Principal at Walter P Moore. She spent her early career as a computational designer and has experience working on a broad range of projects spanning four continents. She now splits her time between Walter P Moore’s sustainability and enclosure engineering teams. She supports firm-wide embodied carbon reduction initiatives, co-chairs Walter P Moore’s Sustainable Design Community of Practice, and leads whole building life cycle assessments for a wide range of project types and scales. Laura is also a founding co-leader of the Los Angeles Hub of the Carbon Leadership Forum and an advocate for low embodied carbon buildings.