Design the Future

Rosa Sheng is an architect and Principal with SmithGroup and the firm’s Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. We discuss how intersectionality plays out in architecture, pushing us to eliminate conventional silos and explore how sustainability, justice, diversity, equity and inclusion are interrelated. We talk about the diversity and gender pay equity issues behind the American Institute of Architecture’s Equity by Design initiative, founded at AIA San Francisco, and how that group’s research has spotlighted patterns across firms.

Our first guest, Sara Neff, Senior Vice President for Sustainability for Kilroy Realty, has brought that organization to a leadership position in sustainability within the real estate market. She talks about her career journey, advances being made in the real estate sector, why the business case matters (and isn’t everything), and what commitments to carbon neutrality mean in her sector. We discuss what’s ahead, including work in supply chains and efforts to quantify climate risk. She also tells us about the Neffletter (sign up at SaraNeff.com), her email newsletter that talks about her reasons for optimism.  

In our kick-off episode, meet hosts Lindsay Baker  and Kira Gould, who discuss their interest in exploring and sharing the amazing work being done in sustainability by women across the country and beyond.Lindsay and Kira have worked in a number of capacities in the sustainable design field: Lindsay worked at USGBC, Google, and WeWork, in between which she started and ran Comfy. Kira was an editor at Metropolis magazine, worked at architecture firms, and now runs a communications consultancy; she also co-authored Women in Green: Voices of Sustainable Design.Lindsay and Kira believe that there are connections between sustainability and women's leadership strengths, and that women talking about their paths can help other women who are seeking to chart or optimize their own. Starting this podcast in 2020, a year that has long been discussed as a milestone year for climate action and sustainability progress, seems appropriate. Starting it amid the first round of stay-at-home orders amid the COVID-19 pandemic added a layer of awareness to discussions about human health, what we design and build, and the health of our planet.