Energy

Companies and institutions are increasingly switching to renewable electricity, and they are doing it in new and creative ways—from community solar gardens to virtual power purchase agreements. At ERG, I’ve had the privilege to work with leaders at the forefront of the ‘green power’ market—helping them explore and formulate their renewable procurement strategies and share their stories and best practices. 

Most of today’s buildings use considerably more energy than needed (like using a chainsaw to cut butter), so reducing their energy consumption provides a powerful opportunity for addressing our nation’s energy and greenhouse gas emission challenges. With these reductions, renewable technologies such as solar and wind become more economical and the path to net-zero buildings becomes a reality. I am inspired to work with stakeholders—from tenants and operations staff up through top-level management—to help them reduce their operations cost and create environmental benefits through enhanced energy efficiency.

In my experience, effective climate action requires invested leadership, multidisciplinary expertise to address all sources of greenhouse gas emissions, and equitable stakeholder engagement to guide and successfully implement new policies and strategies. I have had the pleasure of managing several climate action plan projects, guiding both municipalities and universities through the process of developing and implementing their unique plans, and I’m proud of the positive benefits those plans have brought to stem the effects of climate change.

I view every interaction as an opportunity to learn something new. Through my work at ERG, I feel fortunate to be surrounded by an amazing group of colleagues who share a sense of curiosity and a strong desire to innovate and grow our collective expertise so that we can better serve our clients and make the world more sustainable, equitable, and compassionate.

In the coming decades, the world must decarbonize its energy use to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, while simultaneously investing in measures to make the energy system more resilient to a changing climate. This transition presents many challenges, and how we meet these challenges will greatly impact our world’s economic, environmental, political, and social state. I’m proud to work with ERG’s clients to help facilitate this transition so that we can all live in a safer, more prosperous, and healthy world.

The most rewarding aspect of my career at ERG has been the opportunity to work each day with colleagues and clients who share a commitment to a clean energy future.

Both companies and the public sector have to assess environmental tradeoffs in the face of limited resources. LCA is a great tool for assessing those tradeoffs and making choices consistent with values. By generating high-quality public data and LCA tools, we provide the underlying data necessary for effective decision-making.