The Green Building Matters Podcast with Charlie Cichetti

Norbert Szircsak is Head of ESG Strategic Advisory Services for Colliers International based in Budapest, Hungary. Norbert started his career with Colliers International - Hungary in August 2007, joining the Valuation and Advisory services team.   Norbert has over 15 years’ experience in the real estate and green building industry. He has been directly involved in more than 30 LEED certification projects, including Commercial Interiors,  Existing Buildings and New Construction projects. In the majority of these projects, he has been the overall project manager. Hungary's first certification in LEED version 4, which is also the first certified office building in the countryside, and the first LEED Platinum certification are on his & his team’s list of accomplishments. Norbert has also contributed to more than 10 BREEAM In-Use certifications, similarly in project manager roles. Norbert graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering from Gábor Dénes College in 2009. He obtained his local appraiser qualification in 2009 and is also a member of the Hungarian Real Estate Association. Furthermore, in 2009, he obtained the LEED Green Associate and in 2013 the LEED Accredited Professional with specialty qualification from the U.S. Green Building Council. In 2019, he became a WELL Accredited Professional.   Show Highlights Get a better understanding of Hungary and the European regions. Usage of renewables  A peak into what rating systems are easier and harder to apply   Taxonomy   European Green Deal  Connecting engineering and technical backgrounds into a green building career. Challenges building within an advanced green building environment.  90% of Collier’s work is green building certified with green building advisory for various types of buildings. Learn where green building is expandings in competitive markets. A total carbon plan to reduce your carbon footage with electrification and the renewable energy production on site. The grid infrastructure development needs.        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 © 2023 GBES

Angelica M. Ospina Alvarado is a LEED Fellow with over 15 years of experience and deeply passionate about contributing to our planet. Angelica has been a forefront leader of the adoption of green building, and integrative design practices in Colombia. Her strategic thinking, technical rigor and integrative approach has brought together the work of government, academia, industry and professional associations to advance the field. She is one of the founding members of the Colombia Green Building Council where she has volunteered her knowledge and experience since its foundation, currently, she is the Technical Director of the Council. Angelica is part time professor at the civil engineering master’s program at Universidad de los Andes, in the field of construction engineering and management.   Show Highlights Understand how to include natural ventilation and different simulations to support the needs of the region.  Moving topics that have a huge impact in public policy.  Comparing LEED to the various rating systems used in the region.  EDGE’s great impact in the social and in housing sector. CASA Colombia supports the residential sector ARC influence on reporting energy consumption The difficulties of building for a climate lower energy consumption . A roadmap for Columbia’s goals to meet the demands of new buildings and existing buildings as the country develops.  Sustainable construction is growing faster in the region with incentives and the influence from the economic perspective . Decarbonization hurdles Columbia faces. The broader scope of urban development to focus on building green communities. “Urban development has a broader scope to not only focus on green buildings, but entire green communities. This is important. Decarbonization is a must now and moving to that for us is very, very important for resilience. Our countries really have a huge problem related to climate change. We need to move to that faster because we have not mapped those effects of climate change in each country. I see that we're moving in that direction.” -Angelica M. Ospina Alvarado     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 © 2023 GBES

TITLE: From Romania to Spain With Green Building Expert Patricia Abrudan    Patricia Abrudan is an architect certified as a Sustainability Consultant with post graduate training in Project Management and Facility Management and her work has mainly been oriented towards sustainable development projects. She has been focused on green building, life cycle assessment and sustainability consulting and certifications and is currently leading the ESG and Decarbonization Consulting team at JG Ingenieros in Barcelona, while continuing my work as a LEED Project Manager for several projects in the EMEA region.   Additional Work and Education: - Sustainability and Energy Efficiency Consulting - Carbon Footprint consulting for real estate assets - Life Cycle Assessment and Costing - LEED ZERO and Net Zero Carbon Services - Circular design development - Space planning and workplace consulting - Architecture planning, measurements and compliance   Show Highlights   Reimagining “matchbox” neighborhoods to make a difference in urbanism projects. Improve the deliverability sustainable projects in our cities to make better spaces by embracing the various challenges from public vs private enterprise. Transform projects into reality and impact people’s lives with so little.  Work with different types of clients to achieve their goals and make the environment better, with contradictory objectives. Walk the path of sustainability and embed sustainability in your business model, construction projects and real estate.   Patricia shares a unique opportunity to use our engineering infrastructure.  Expertise in engineering to assist clients in implementing global strategies into practice from the building level, portfolio level and wellness level..  Fascinating college classes and questions for the industry to consider and be an eco-engineer.  Switch the paradigm from a linear economy to a circular economy in order to achieve decarbonization.  “The first requirement for you to start a green building career is to believe in the movement. And not to just sign up because it's fashionable. Investigate a little bit what's behind this movement, and if you actually are in sync. And then, try to formalize your learning/education path, because it helps you discover where you can contribute.” -Patricia Abrudan   Show Resource and Information Linkedin   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 © 2023 GBES

Andrea Costa  is a qualified chartered engineer and building energy rating (BER) assessor in Italy and a Certified Energy Manager (CEM) affiliated to the Association of Energy Engineers (AEE).    He is expert in building simulation with experience on an array of building energy simulation software and ISO 50001 certification tools. Andrea is originally a graduate from the Politecnico di Milano where he obtained a BSc(Eng) in Building Engineering in 2005.    In 2007 he was also awarded a summa cum laude Masters of Science degree in Building Engineering. During the master degree programme, he was awarded an Erasmus Scholarship and studied at University College Cork in the academic year 2005/2006.    He pursued and was awarded a PhD in Civil Engineering from the National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG) with a PhD topic of providing support to the energy manager in improving the building operation strategy with considerations on building energy use and occupant comfort throughout the building lifecycle.    After his PhD, Andrea was awarded an industrially supported Postdoctoral Fellow co-funded by IRCSET (Irish Research Council for Science Engineering and Technology) as part of the Enterprise Ireland Partnership Scheme and D’Appolonia Spa in Italy.    Andrea brings with him a balance of field and research experience including FP7 projects for energy efficiency with targeted focus for office buildings, airports, sport facilities, and schools.   Show Highlights Play sustainability Legos to inspire your direction. Aims and innovative solutions and technologies to speed up change to the construction industry and the real estate industry. Research funded projects to support green building consulting and projects. R2M focus and industry impact    Making buildings more digitally sustainable and eco digital. Understanding new European directive for building energy efficiency Educating stakeholders to manage their own assets.  A framework for digital initial log books directly working with requirements and guidelines for green building. Unique approach to digitizing and keeping digital data available for buildings during daylight time. Providing internal occupants with the digital solutions that maintain better conditions. Understanding the difference between the European Green Deal and EU taxonomy mandates and priorities.  The secret to growing a sizable business for budding entrepreneurs.   Transform buildings into digital assets.  “Find the right balance or the mood of the dial. When you are very excited, it's easy. Longer when you are very frustrated, it's easier to reduce. The challenge is when you're frustrated, you should try to keep pushing a bit more than when you would like to stop. And when you are super excited, you should try not to overwork too much because otherwise another dry spell of being not so excited will come. It's a hard balance to keep.” -Andrea Costa     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 © 2023 GBES

Rob Watson  is an international leader in market transformation, circular economy, sustainable materials management, and green buildings. Watson is known as the “Founding Father of LEED.” Under Rob’s direction, LEED became the largest and fastest-growing international green building standard. Author Thomas Friedman called Rob "one of the best environmental minds in America." In 2019, Dartmouth Alumni Magazine recognized Mr. Watson as one of the "25 Most Influential Alumni" in the College's 250 year history.   Watson is a Principal with Upland Road, LLC, which develops eco-industrial campuses around a disruptive technology and business model that will revolutionize the global materials management industry by separating, diverting, and recycling up to 95% of municipal mixed waste that is collected in one bin.   Rob is also the Founder and Co-Chair of the SWEEP (Solid Waste Environmental Excellence Performance) Standard, a system of market transformation standards geared to move the waste industry toward sustainability.   Previously, Watson launched ECON Group and EcoTech International to implement cutting edge lifecycle optimized LEED projects in the US and China.   Watson was a Senior Scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) for 21 years and received the 2013 International Conservation Award from the Botanical Research Institute of Texas. In 2011, he was an international Zayed Energy Future Award semi-finalist & was profiled on CNN International. Watson was the first foreigner honored for Green Building Innovation by the Chinese Ministry of Construction in 2005 and received the first lifetime achievement award from the U.S. Green Building Council in 2002.   Mr. Watson is an Adjunct Professor at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and has an MBA from Columbia University and a MS from UC Berkeley. He is married to Green Schools Alliance Founder Margaret Howard Watson and has a 23-year-old son, Max.   Show Highlights Rob Watson, the Founding Father of LEED shares his stories and expertise on making a difference in the industry.  The ability to grasp complex systems, understand how they're put together and how to change them.  The curve balls thrown from the industry and how to adjust your swing to support and create systems that work.  Rob breaks down the SWEEP standard as “LEED for solid waste.” Creating a structure where value is captured by providing: buildings as a service.  The problem of the industry that the USGBC needs to be focusing on to transform and deliver sustainability that has true value.  The development of eco-industrial campuses that recycle 90-95% of everything. Smart centers sustainable materials and advanced recovery technology. Be part of “Humanity Inc. and a subsidiary of Planet Co.” by being systems thinking, but with a futurist mindset. AI could possibly be the seed of our salvation. Beyond tweaking LEED. We need to figure out how to deliver the Living Building Challenge and LEED Zero in a cost effective way. The need for radical confidence and a Star Trek moment before 2200. "Radical confidence. The Dalai Lama was asked by a colleague of mine, what's it going take to solve our environmental crisis? And he said, ‘Radical confidence.’ And that's basically, the old person who plants a tree. It's just doing something that you're never going to receive the benefit of because you have a positive vision of the future. I'm going to do it because it's the right thing to do and whether I benefit from it or not is not super relevant. Obviously, you’ve got to keep the roof over your head and food on the table. But at the end of the day, you have to have a life that's worth living. And that means, doing things outside of yourself to make it, you just make the world a better place." -Rob Watson   Show Resource and Information Linkedin   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 © 2023 GBES

Tom Liebel  is a FAIA, LEED Fellow is the Vice President of Moseley Architects, where Tom has been involved in integrating sustainable design principles into a variety of ground-breaking adaptive use and historic preservation projects over the past twenty years, with these projects recognized with multiple awards for design, smart growth, sustainable design and historic preservation.   Tom is involved in ongoing research exploring the relationship between sustainability, preservation and urban design, with a particular emphasis in the use of urban adaptive use projects to promote neighborhood revitalization and civic engagement.   Tom served two terms as Chair of the Maryland Green Building Council, served on the Maryland Advisory Council for Historic Preservation, Chairs Baltimore City’s Commission on Historical and Architectural Preservation, and served as a Mid-Atlantic Regional Representative on the American Institute of Architect’s Strategic Council, serving as the 2020 Moderator.   Specialties: Historic Preservation/Adaptive Use Sustainable and Resilient Design Affordable Housing Innovation/Visioning/Implementation Strategies Show Highlights The technical rigor of the sciences and blending of creativity in the industry. Green architecture particularly focuses on sustainable preservation, affordable housing, and how to build sustainable communities. Blending adaptive reuse with historic typology to drive sustainable building. Moseley Architects ability to understand the unique challenges that sustainable building presents and ways to innovate. Rediscover low energy approaches towards design by tapping into the past.  Tom breaks down understanding resilience into three buckets, natural, technical, and social. Interact with the best and brightest in the profession by involvement with trade organizations like AIA. The first approach is thoughtful designing down to the minimum load using basic principles orientation, lighting, natural ventilation, and bolting on modest technology to solve a modest energy demand.  “The idea of resilience and expanding sustainable design principles from dedicated green projects to every project. It's just kind of what we do. What is interesting is, when I'm teaching classes on sustainability…the concepts are so basic that my shorthand is: don't build stupid. And literally that's all you're doing once you know the principles, once you know the basic building physics, …you just kind of dance with the building.” -Tom Liebel Show Resource and Information Linkedin 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 © 2023 GBES

Adam Stark  is the Co-Founder | Wellness Author | Special Forces Veteran | NYU MBA | Endurance Athlete | Photographer & Artist | 500HR Yoga Trainer | Meditation & Mindfulness Coach | Conscious Leader   Coming from the RE development industry, he and his Co-Founder initially built Jet for themselves- to manage the portfolio of projects and assets at the companies they worked for. As they evolved the Jet.Build product, they began sharing the Jet solution with our network of builders. Long story short, today, Jet.Build is a Real Estate Developers, General Contractors, and Operators cloud-based Command Center.   Jet is servicing a clientele of national builders: from pre-con to project closeout, and through real estate management.   Adam is a Business Operations leader with 12+ years of experience leading and executing strategic planning for high-complexity projects and organizations. Collaborative team leader and experienced negotiator capable of stewarding both growth- and efficiency-focused change management initiatives across various business functions. Special Forces veteran who excels at navigating crises calmly whilst building partnerships and consensus among internal, external, and C-Suite stakeholders. Show Highlights The school of hard knocks is a great way to learn the necessities of the industry.  Tips to collaborate and communicate with a lot of different people, with a lot of different companies. Understanding the collaborative nature of building a project, the design element, and then having that literal tangible outcome.  Translatable skills from the military to construction sites.  Jet Build’s Command Center management tool for efficiency and simplicity in 3 clicks reduce the amount of administrative tasks with a central hub. support  roles of multi-company stakeholders on the real estate and construction side.  essential tech stack for companies. assist in creating an ecosystem. reduce waste for a lifecycle of an asset Tech enabled teams to move past the “friction point.” Utilizing software can really help every green building project. “Technology is pushing more and more into our space and real estate as a whole. Eventually it will get there, it’s just a matter of continuing to push adoption in our industry to support everyone really, the entire ecosystem.” -Adam Stark Show Resource and Information SHALOSH-Adam-Stark 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 © 2023 GBES

Sengavi Thirupathy  is the Senior Decarbonization Analyst responsible for managing project progress and deadlines, facilitating team meetings, and assisting the Associate Director of the Decarbonization team. Additionally, she serves as the QA QC lead for Energy Modeling scopes, the energy modeling training lead for the Decarbonization department, and Decarbonization lead participating in the VIM initiative. Sengavi graduated from Anna University, Chennai, India in May 2016 with a Bachelor of Technology in Chemical Engineering and completed her Master’s in engineering in Energy Systems from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Previously, Sengavi has worked on over 10 Net zero energy building design and modeling and 3 Net zero carbon projects. Sengavi has worked on various sectors such as medical office buildings, schools, and animal houses, semiconductor manufacturing units, multifamily residential buildings, automobile manufacturing buildings, data centers and office buildings. Sengavi has worked on Energy Audits, Utility incentive program management and grid carbon assessments as well.   Show Highlights A senior decarbonization analyst shares everything you need to know about decarbonization energy modeling, high performance buildings, and so much more. Working with the mandates surrounding energy efficiency and energy modeling for green building.  How to successfully shift your majors to work with your passion.  Sengavi shares her successful shift from chemical engineering into complete energy systems in the civil and architecture test side. High level tips on what really affects an energy model.  Useful tools like IES, Energy Plus, Energy Pro and eQuest to learn the ecosystem is an open source to use for energy modeling. Include passive strategies in your design, construction or existing buildings to reduce the need to bring in energy. Adaptability and grid harmonization will drive all of the design in the future.  Understanding the challenges with existing buildings vs new construction in energy modeling.   “I feel like buildings need to adapt to all of the things that nature is throwing at us right now. Adaptability and grid harmonization is what is going to drive all of the design in the future. The grid is becoming cleaner, and so how is your building going to adapt to it?” -Sengavi Thirupathy      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 © 2023 GBES

For today’s GBM Podcast, we want to talk about conferences. Let’s talk about, in particular, two AEC conferences, our host, Charlie Cichetti, attended in June 2023. We’ll also share some networking best practices while you're at your own conferences.   One of the first conferences our team attended to was at the very beginning of June, and the AIA Conference this year was in San Francisco. There were about 15,000 attendees!   Another conference our technology team attended was NXT BLD / NXT DEV in London June 20th & 21st, hosted by AEC Magazine, with about 500 attendees. It was really unique to be in one room where you had architects, tech startups, journalists, and investors - all collaborating and talking about the future of design & construction including AI & Data.   Show Highlights Top 5 Tips on how to get the most out of networking at a conference. AIA Conference: San Francisco  Preparation for architects coming to this conference Explore technology, materials, and service providers that support the industry Top 10 greenest projects from 2023’s AIA COTE awards NXT BLD + DEV in London Sessions on the future of design and architecture.  AI, data sharing are accelerating our industry.   “Conferences are a fantastic place to get encouragement, some continued education, see what’s trending, and also just meet people that you never know how your paths may cross again in the future. Maybe someone that becomes a friend. Could be a future business partner, could be someone that becomes a colleague or maybe they have an opportunity for you that's really exciting. Conferences are back and full - get out there!” -Charlie Cichetti     Show Resource and Information 2023 2023 NXT DEV 2023 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 © 2023 GBES

Charles Anderson is a landscape architect and fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects, He is a Principal of the Phoenix-based landscape architecture firm, Charles Anderson Landscape Architecture, which is the continuation of his practice of the Seattle-based firm Charles Anderson Landscape Architecture. Anderson is recognized by the American Society of Landscape Architects for combining nature, community needs, and art into his designs, emphasizing sustainability, indigenous plants and urban ecology.   His firm has an extensive record of award-winning multi-disciplinary park projects including over 25 community-based projects within the Seattle metropolitan area. Many of CALA's projects involve extensive public participation, including collaborations with community and neighborhood groups and public presentations. Recent neighborhood park projects include Roxhill Wetland and Bog Park in West Seattle and, the restoration of the 500 Area of , both of which received Merit Awards from the Washington Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects, and improvements to Mineral Springs Park to enhance public access and use including a new art walk and gathering spaces.   Show Highlights Charles shares tips for creating landscapes all around the world.  The importance of ASLA, American Society of Landscape Architects and other trade organizations to propel your career.  Everything you need to know about selecting native and adaptive plants. The dangers to the industry and environment if you ignore the native plants for something that grows quicker. Resource suggestions to figure out what is native in different regions to optimize the landscape. Why we need to love weeds more. Environmental landscape is an essential card in your lens. Seeing buildings  like mountains will help shape your design and create a natural system that benefits the earth.   “Mentors, I think, are the most critical part of the practice if you really want to aspire and get the opportunities of the greatest projects to work on. You observe how they behave, you observe how they create opportunities. And with each one of 'em [mentors], I captured something from them that became part of who I am. You can't always pinball, can't just read about it, you have to actually witness it. Some of us learned by rhythm, some of us had to see or hear.” -Charles Anderson   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 © 2023 GBES