Kristen DiStefano on Designing for Future-Ready Sustainability
The Green Building Matters Podcast with Charlie Cichetti
Release Date: 09/10/2025
Decarbonizing Campus Design and Mentoring the Next Generation with Allison Wilson
The Green Building Matters Podcast with Charlie Cichetti
📣 The Green Impact Report Quick take: From decarbonization strategies to student-centric campus design, this episode with LEED Fellow Allison Wilson is a masterclass in sustainability leadership for mission-driven institutions. 👷♂️ Meet Your fellow Sustainability Champion Allison Wilson is a newly inducted LEED Fellow and architect at Ayers Saint Gross, where she champions sustainable, student-focused design for higher education institutions. Based in Austin, TX, Allison works nationally on everything from lab planning to decarbonized campus housing, helping clients...
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Impact-Driven Sustainability, LEED Leadership, and Building for Climate Resilience with Dr. Hoda Ibrahim
The Green Building Matters Podcast with Charlie Cichetti
🎯 The Green Impact Report Quick take: What does it really take to deliver LEED Platinum projects across the Middle East and Africa — at scale, in extreme climates, and without blowing budgets? Newly minted LEED Fellow Dr. Hoda Ibrahim shares how impact-driven sustainability, material transparency, and market transformation are reshaping the built environment worldwide. 👷♂️ Meet Your Fellow Sustainability Champion Dr. Hoda Ibrahim is a LEED Fellow, sustainability executive, architect, researcher, and global green building leader based in Cairo. With nearly two decades...
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Scaling Sustainability from Buildings to Communities with Julio Carrillo
The Green Building Matters Podcast with Charlie Cichetti
🎯 The Green Impact Report Quick take: From rural Peru to the skyline of Austin, Texas, Julio Carrillo shares how planners can be powerful sustainability changemakers. In this episode, learn how a LEED Fellow is pushing the green building movement beyond buildings — and into data-driven, community-scale transformation. 👷♂️ Meet Your Fellow Sustainability Champion Julio Carrillo is a Peruvian-born architect, urban planner, and newly named LEED Fellow based in Austin, Texas. With a passion for sustainable urbanism, Julio has helped launch the Peru Green Building Council, works...
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Eliminating Energy Waste with Smart HVAC Optimization with Brad Pilgrim
The Green Building Matters Podcast with Charlie Cichetti
🌍 The Green Impact Report Quick take: This episode matters to green building professionals because it shines a spotlight on how grid-interactive buildings and HVAC optimization can eliminate energy waste, generate new revenue, and play a crucial role in decarbonization — right now. 👷 Meet Your Fellow Sustainability Champion Brad Pilgrim is the founder and CEO of Parity, a Series B company pioneering HVAC optimization and grid interactivity across North America. From his early days as a commercial carpenter to building a 100-million-square-foot energy optimization platform, Brad’s...
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Simplifying Sustainability through Master Planning with Anshul Gujarathi
The Green Building Matters Podcast with Charlie Cichetti
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Healthy Buildings & Predictive Science with Dr. Christa Wright
The Green Building Matters Podcast with Charlie Cichetti
🎯 The Green Impact Report Quick take: How can we protect people as our buildings face hotter climates and evolving chemical risks? Dr. Christa Wright from UL’s Chemical Insights Research Institute shares how predictive science, empathy in research, and bio-based solutions are shaping the future of healthier indoor environments. 🎓 Meet Your Fellow Sustainability Champion Dr. Christa Wright is the Senior Research Director at the Chemical Insights Research Institute, part of UL Research Institutes. A trained environmental toxicologist and strategist, she leads the Center for...
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Building Resilience and Community in Central America with Federico Steinvorth
The Green Building Matters Podcast with Charlie Cichetti
🌍 The Green Impact Report Quick take: In this episode, Federico Steinvorth, a newly inducted LEED Fellow from Costa Rica, shares how he's championing sustainable building practices across Central America through early project integration, renewable energy, and a strong focus on community engagement. 🎓 Meet Your Fellow Sustainability Champion Federico Steinvorth is an engineer, marathon runner, and co-founder of a regional sustainability consulting firm based in Costa Rica. With a background in mechanical and electrical engineering and a master’s in construction management from...
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Giuli Ann Schacht on Designing Green, Living Biophilic & Building Community
The Green Building Matters Podcast with Charlie Cichetti
🌍 The Green Impact Report Quick take: From authentic storytelling to biophilic design and grassroots sustainability, Giuli Ann Schacht shows how creative thinking and a deep respect for nature can transform communities like High Point, NC — and how you can do the same. 👋 Meet Your Fellow Sustainability Champion Giuli Ann Schacht is a passionate creator, businesswoman, and advocate for biophilic design. With a background in brand storytelling, fresh food entrepreneurship, and green real estate development, she’s now bringing it all together to inspire greener communities through film,...
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Dana Pucillo on Acoustic Wellness and Sustainable Interiors
The Green Building Matters Podcast with Charlie Cichetti
🎯 The Green Impact Report Quick take: This episode uncovers how acoustics, materials, and design intersect to create healthier, more sustainable buildings. Dana Pucillo shares how listening — in design, leadership, and innovation — is transforming interior environments for human wellness. 👋 Meet Your Fellow Sustainability Champion Dana Pucillo is the Vice President of the Acoustics Division at Carnegie, a leader in sustainable interiors. With a career spanning 30+ years in interior design, commercial manufacturing, and sustainability, Dana champions healthy materials,...
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From BIM to Circular Sampling: Benjamin Glunz on Building Smarter
The Green Building Matters Podcast with Charlie Cichetti
📌 The Green Impact Report Quick take: Architect-turned-tech CEO Benjamin Glunz is reshaping the AEC industry by tackling inefficiency, waste, and legacy workflows. In this episode, he shares how platforms like BIMsmith® and Swatchbox® are making sustainability the standard — not the exception. 🤝 Meet Your Fellow Sustainability Champion Benjamin Glunz is the Founder and CEO of Anguleris, the company behind BIMsmith® and Swatchbox®. An architect by training, Ben is driven by a mission to simplify specification, reduce material waste, and empower the next generation...
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Quick take:
What if your master plan was smart enough to beat policy to the punch? Kristen DiStefano shares bold strategies from Atelier Ten that are shaping the future of zero-carbon communities — before the ink is dry on today’s code.
Meet Your Fellow Sustainability Champion
Kristen DiStefano is a Director at Atelier Ten and a leading voice in environmental design. Trained in both civil engineering and architecture, she brings technical fluency and people-centered creativity to some of the West Coast’s most ambitious sustainable projects. From net-zero campuses to district-scale reuse systems, her work bridges policy, performance, and people.
🌱 Breaking Ground on Better Building
In this episode, Kristen DiStefano revolutionizes traditional construction approaches:
Key Insight #1: Building a blackwater-powered future in Mission Rock
- The Challenge: Water reuse wasn’t even legal when the project began.
- The Solution: Design a district-wide blackwater treatment and reuse system anyway.
- ROI: Now required by code, the system will save an estimated 16 million gallons annually.
Key Insight #2: Rethinking energy at California College of the Arts
- The Challenge: Maker spaces with kilns, glass furnaces, and labs have huge loads.
- The Solution: Dual strategy — reduce architectural demand and work directly with studio leaders to tackle equipment use.
- ROI: Smart controls + future microgrid + PV = a scalable model for low-carbon academic buildings.
Key Insight #3: Expanding what "zero carbon" really means
- The Challenge: Too many sustainability frameworks stop at operations.
- The Solution: Kristen argues for a broader carbon scope: refrigerants, site work, EV infrastructure, and even transportation emissions.
- ROI: A regenerative, resilient framework that keeps pace with reality—and policy shifts.
🌎 Sustainable Soundbite
"Eventually the goal would be to never emit carbon to begin with. But we’re not quite there yet. So let’s chart the path."
— Kristen DiStefano
📌 Your Green Building Action Plan
Transform your next project with these steps:
- This Week: Revisit your project’s early-stage energy and water assumptions — are you future-proofing or checking boxes?
- This Quarter: Map your carbon strategy across all five pillars: operations, embodied materials, refrigerants, transportation, and site impacts.
- This Year: Pilot one regenerative or district-scale solution — even if it’s ahead of current code. Be the reason it's normalized later.
Connect & Learn More
- 🌿 Access full episode resources: [GreenBuildingMatters.com/podcast]
- 🗒 **Read the transcript here.**
- 🔗 Connect with Kristen DiStefano: [LinkedIn] | [Atelier Ten]
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