Speaker Series: Owning Your Sustainability Story

ABSTRACT:

This presentation provides an autobiographical portrait of how the presenter – Blake Jackson – transformed his career pathway as an architect into a dedicated, global sustainability leader within the AEC industry. It looks at his early influences, his moments of departure, and how he found his way within the uncomfortable space of having an undefined – and emerging – role within the industry, becoming a change agent and sustainability leader within several leading companies, including serving as Sustainability Practice Leader for Tsoi/Kobus & Associates, as US Northeast Sustainability Design Leader with Stantec, and currently as Director of Sustainability with NORR.

Participants will:

1) See how sustainability effects the practice of architecture and engineering at medium-to-large companies,

2) Learn about corporate social responsibility (CSR), environmental social governance (ESG), and how AEC companies are leveraging those to make positive, measurable impacts,

3) Learn about change agency associated with the development of dedicated sustainability roles within AEC companies.

BIO:

Blake Jackson, AIA is the Director of Sustainability with NORR, an 800-person, integrated AE company with locations in the US, UK, and Canada. Blake has 20+ years’ experience working at the nexus of sustainability, resiliency, wellbeing, and equity across architecture, interiors, and planning projects seeking measurable positive outcomes. He has a B.Arch. from Kennesaw State University and a M.Arch. in Sustainable Environmental Design from the AA Graduate School in London. He is a prolific author, educator, and speaker on built environment topics, is an adjunct faculty with the Boston Architectural College, and he is on the Advisory Board of the Interior Design Program at UMass Dartmouth. In 2015, he was honored as a BD+C Magazine “40 Under 40” AEC professional, and in 2021, he was named a LEED Fellow by the USGBC.