GBMS With Brenda Martens

Light House Building Centre's Brenda Martens About the Episode In this episode, we visit with Brenda Martens. Brenda has worked in the building industry for over 25 years. She is a practitioner, educator, and advocate in the field of green building and sustainability. She is also the Director of Research and Collaboration for Light House Sustainable Building Centre. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Cascadia Green Building Council, is a past faculty member of the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) and the University of British Columbia Continuing Studies, and is a co-founder of Recollective Consulting and the Open Green Building Society, an organization that open sources information about green buildings. She currently teaches green building and sustainability for BCIT. Tune in to this episode to hear more about Brenda's journey. Key Talking Points Getting to know Brenda Brenda's start in sustainability First experience with Green projects Exposure to Mentors LEED Fellow Cascadia Projects during Brenda's Career What does the future hold Bucket List Brenda's Advice Key Milestones of the Episode [01:43] Intro to Brenda Martens [02:30] Early Exposure to Physics [03:05] Brenda's AHA Moment [05:36] Mentors [10:25] Living Building Challenge [16:20] Buildings at the end of life [18:34] Trends in the future of green building [22:56] Areas of Strength for Brenda [24:32] Brenda's Bucket List [29:25] Final Words of Encouragement Key Quotes from the Episode "My focus was on commercial buildings at the time, I had never worked in the single-family, residential market." "That's when I had my first epiphany that we didn't have to do business as usual." "The design for disassembly and reuse is not strong. How do you design for buildings and life?" "I see a proliferation of different standards and rating systems. Some of them like the Living Building Challenge and LEED are holistic and some are more concentrated on a portion of the characteristics of buildings." "You look at it as an opportunity not a challenge." Key Resources Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most by Douglas Stone Learn More about Brenda Martens, B.Sc., CSBA, LEED AP BD+C, LEED Fellow Brenda's work experience encompasses residential, institutional, commercial, and industrial projects throughout British Columbia, including the Vancouver and Whistler Athletes' Villages, the Okanagan College Centre of Excellence (a Living Building Challenge Petal candidate), and over 20 BC housing projects across the province. She is deeply involved in the green building movement and has served the community as Chair of the Site and Water Technical Advisory Group (TAG); LEED Canada Steering Committee member; and the City of Vancouver Green Building Strategy Committee member, amongst other roles. She is committed to growing the green building movement through practice, mentorship and education. LinkedIn Connect with Charlie Cichetti and GBES Charlie on LinkedIn Green Building Educational Services GBES on Twitter Connect on LinkedIn Like on Facebook Google+ GBES Pinterest Pins GBES on Instagram 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 www.gbes.com/join 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 iTunes. We have prepared more episodes for the upcoming weeks, so come by again next week! Thank you for tuning in to the Green Building Matters Podcast! Copyright © 2019 GBES