Director of Sustainability and Dog Whisperer Erica Weeks

The Green Building Matters Podcast with Charlie Cichetti

Erica Weeks, is a licensed architect who has dedicated her career to sustainability. Erica manages the Sustainability Services Sector at Hastings Architecture, where she works with owners, architects, engineers, and contractors across the country to facilitate sustainability rating systems. Erica has a keen ability to create synergies between disciplines and execute cross discipline calculations.

Erica earned her first LEED AP credential in 2006 and has facilitated the sustainability process on over 200 projects, under the array of available rating systems. She frequently presents at local, regional and national conferences for organizations such as the AIA and USGBC (US Green Building Council). She sits on the USGBC’s Water Efficiency Technical Advisory Group (WE TAG), a global cohort of water experts that share knowledge to enhance requirements for water in the future versions of LEED. (2022-2023)

Erica is in her second term nationally with the AIA’s Framework for Design Excellence cohort, addressing sustainability for the “every-day” architect in the AIA’s toolkits and has been a Committee on the Environment technical reviewer for the AIA’s annual COTE Top 10 Awards program. (2021-2023).

In June 2021, during USGBC Live, Erica was recognized as one of two individual Regional Leaders in the USGBC’s “Big South” (15 states, from Maryland to Texas) for her on-going leadership to create sustainable buildings and communities.

In 2017, Erica was named one of Nashville Business Journal’s Women of Influence, in the category of Inspiration/Mentoring, for her on-going support of professional education within Hastings and beyond. Erica provides project-based mentorship to design professionals, with the overall goals of making sustainability inherent to the design/construction process and fostering the education of the next generation of design professionals.

In October 2020, Erica was named a “Shero” in Courage by the US Green Building Council, for continuing to challenge the ‘business-as-usual’ thinking of the design and construction industry to make sustainability an embedded priority.

Show Highlights

• Insights on upcoming trends and developments in green building, such as LEED version 5 and the AIA's framework for design excellence.

• The involvement in various organizations promotes continuous learning and improvement in green building practices.

• Advice on emphasizing the importance of knowledge and avoiding greenwashing.

• Tips on pushing the boundaries and raising the bar in sustainability.

• Erica emphasizes the importance of staying up-to-date with the latest research in the field and making sure you agree with the credit language.

• Familiarize yourself with AIA”s ten different principles around energy, resources, water, integrated design and discovery.

• The value of obtaining credentials and expertise in rating systems.

• Avoid being a “regular engineer” to find what you are meant to do in the built environment.

“How do we implement all these other actual design features to make people feel connected with culture, feel connected with ecology? I think that question is increasingly important as we focus on more equitable social responsibility issues.”

-Erica Weeks

Get the episode transcripts here!!

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