Women In Urban Sustainability

Women In Urban Sustainability: Meet The Women Leading The Charge Towards A Greener Future NOVEMBER 21, 2023 BY ASPIRE DESIGN AND HOME

In 2007, Kira Gould and Lance Hosey published the landmark book, Women in Green: Voices in Sustainable Design. It was the first book in the design industry to study the relationships between diversity, innovation and sustainability, which no one else was examining at the time.

Since then, the dialogue about women in design and architecture – and their relationship to the topic of sustainability has exploded, with events like the annual Women in Green Power Breakfast and the Women in Green Forum.

In research that Hosey conducted, he was able to prove that design firms that frequently win awards from the AIA Committee on the Environment have far better gender parity than the industry at large. This research confirms something that many of us have observed anecdotally: that women at firms, consulting companies and real estate businesses of all sizes are playing an outsized role in addressing the topic of sustainability in the built environment.

And this is in a profession that remains disproportionally male.

Last week, Archnative – the media platform founded by Diana Fedorkova that seeks to connect and empower women in architecture and real estate and to circulate their stories – and Spacesmith, the New York City-based architecture and design firm founded by Jane Smith that describes itself as having sustainability in its DNA – convened, at Spacesmith’s office in Lower Manhattan, a panel of four women called “Women in Urban Sustainability.” All of the participants are leading the charge in terms of sustainability in the built environment.

Moderated by Fedorkova, the event included Ambar Margarida, Principal at Spacesmith, Sydney Mainster, VP of Sustainability and design Management for The Durst Organization, Yasemin Kologlu, Design principal at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and Colleen Large, Senior Consultant at Brightworks Sustainability.

Kologlu kicked off the conversation by describing her role: “We are part of an industry that is part of the problem of climate change. Cities emit 70% of the world’s carbon and the building industry alone is responsible for 40% of those emissions. My job is to try to create a scenario where we are able to make cities that are part of the solution, not the problem.”

Large described working at the intersection of research and implementation to help project teams and clients make better choices throughout the process of designing and constructing a project, and during the lifecycle of a building. An emphasis on adaptive reuse and circularity in the building fabric, generally, is a large part of Margarida’s focus, as is designing projects to have a sense of timelessness. And Mainster explained that her work spans the construction and operations of The Durst Organization’s portfolio, as well as the company’s relationships with contractors, tenants and clients, to ensure that sustainability measures are being respected throughout the life of a building.

The panel discussion was followed by a lively conversation with the audience. One of the last questions was this: “Is it true that this nascent field of sustainability experts and consultants is being dominated by women, and if so, why.” Kologlu, who is writing an article on this very topic, said yes, it is true. Her research reveals that women tend to be very mission-driven and want to align their personal priorities with their work. As mothers and caregivers often, women are naturally inclined to be thinking about the future in a way that feels very urgent. And finally, she said, it is easy to break the glass ceiling in sustainability because there really isn’t one yet. It is still a maturing field with space to fill, and women are filling it.

We know that climate change is one of the biggest global crises of the 21st century and that architects must play a vital role in combatting it. Women seem to have known this for years, and are leading the charge. This event showed that the profession is in good hands.