![Alejandra Menchaca Alejandra Menchaca](https://aiau.aia.org/pluginfile.php/1/local_instructors/image/545/545.jpg)
Senior Associate, Sustainability | Thornton Tomasetti
Alejandra is a Vice President in the Sustainability practice at Thornton Tomasetti, where she leverages her background in mechanical engineering and building science to provide project teams with advanced sustainable design knowledge as well as energy modeling and occupant comfort expertise. She leads the firm’s research efforts, which are aimed at gaining a deeper understanding of the impact unique technologies and design strategies have on a building’s performance. Alejandra is a voting member of ASHRAE Standard Project Committee 62, a member of the USGBC Environmental Quality Technical Advisory Group, and a Technical Committee member of the IBPSA Boston Chapter. She holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT with focus on Building Technologies, and has lectured at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Courses
Embodied Carbon 101: MEP
Though mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) systems feature heavily in conversations about operational energy, they are an often-overlooked element in the embodied carbon conversation. Learn how MEP contributes to a project’s overall embodied carbon, including the impacts of systems of different scales and complexity, as well as the effects of MEP replacement cycles.
Course expires 11/14/2026