Embodied Carbon Discussion with the Director of Building Science at Payette - Andrea Love

As a Building Scientist, Andrea’s interests are in pushing the performance and minimizing the environmental impact of her projects. She also enjoys building the firm’s knowledge and intuition about  sustainability through research endeavors and project explorations. At Payette, Andrea works across projects to bring rigor to the performance of projects. She integrates performance modeling tools into Payette’s design process at the very beginning to inform and push designs. Additionally, she leads a number of internal research projects, and was the Principal Investigator on the 2012 AIA Upjohn Research Initiative-funded “Thermal Performance of Facades,” a research project focused on thermal bridging. She also leads the firm’s efforts on the AIA 2030 Commitment, tracking and benchmarking the performance of projects across the firm. Andrea received a Master of Science in Architecture Studies in Building Technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she was the recipient of the Tucker-Voss Award and focused her thesis on the thermal performance of facades. She is also a Lecturer at MIT in the Department of Architecture’s Building Technology group where she teaches a class on building envelope performance. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the USGBC Massachusetts Chapter, as well as the national USGBC Chapter Steering Committee and Education Steering Committee, and is a member of the COTE Advisory Group to the Board. EDUCATION MS, Arch. Studies, Building Technology, 2011, Massachusetts Institute of Technology B.Arch., 2002, Carnegie Mellon University   Show Highlights    Payette focuses on the most energy intensive typologies out there on the fusion of design and performance  Why there is no value in holding research that helps to advance the industry.  Andrea provides useful online tools to benefit projects with apples to apples comparisons  Thinking holistically about carbon, climate change and the impact buildings have The vast amounts of carbon emissions come from the operational carbon forcing energy modeling and embodied carbon to move to the forefront  Make sure building science is part of conversation from the onset of design, even in interviews Being able to articulate to your firm your interests and your skills will help you and your organization find your sweet spot to make a profound impact in an emerging industry     “According to the ITCC. The report that they put out in 2018, we need to globally cut our carbon emissions in half by 2030, and eliminate them completely by 2050. If we look over that kind of critical time period between now and 2030, the vast majority of the emissions, actually even from energy intensive buildings,  is really going to come from the embodied carbon. We can't ignore it and it's something that I think is starting to really grow as a focus for firms and across the industry.  I think we'll continue to push to become more mainstream throughout the practice.” -Andrea Love   Andrea Love’s Show Resource and Information       Connect with Charlie Cichetti and GBES   GBES is excited our membership community is growing. Consider joining our membership community as members are given access to some of the guests on the podcasts that you can ask project questions. If you are preparing for an exam, there will be more assurance that you will pass your next exam, you will be given cliff notes if you are a member, and so much more. Go to to learn more about the 4 different levels of access to this one-of-a-kind career-advancing green building community! If you truly enjoyed the show, don't forget to leave a positive rating and review on .  We have prepared more episodes for the upcoming weeks, so come by again next week! Thank you for tuning in to the !   Copyright © 2020 GBES