Laurie Actman the Deputy Director of the Energy Efficient Buildings Hub guides her organization AS IT leads by example
By JoAnn Greco Sitting with Laurie Actman in the sunlit conference room of a 1911 barracks building that overlooks the Philadelphia Navy Yard’s Marine Parade Grounds, things seem pretty normal. But hidden away from the Romanesque arches and covered porches of the Energy Efficient Buildings Hub, where Actman serves as deputy director, is one of the nation’s most thorough set of monitoring instruments. The data that these gauges and gadgets collect will provide information on the degree to which the building’s technologies and systems impact its energy usage. “It’s axiomatic that you can’t manage what you can’t measure,” Actman says. In doing so, the Hub is not only helping its landlord, the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp., but is leading by example. This two-year-old consortium of 27 organizations - established by the U.S. Department of Energy and led by Penn State University - has a mission of reducing energy consumption in the commercial buildings sector by 20 percent by 2020. Intricately connected, a second goal seeks economic development. “We need to make sure that we take advantage of all of this activity to try to foster market growth,” Actman says. Green tech, she adds, “can become a workforce cluster just like pharma or life sciences.” For Actman, 43, the work calls upon the unique blend of civic wonkiness and green savvy that’s guided her throughout her career. Her B.A. in political science and master’s
Photo: Dominic Mercier