Barbra Batshalom is founder and President of the Sustainable Performance Institute. She is an industry leader whose vision has led to the creation of programs transforming the market from public policy to professional practice. Her work focuses on the intersection of systems, processes and culture. With a diverse background of fine arts, social psychology and 20 years in architecture and sustainability consulting, she brings a variety of skills to her work and a unique perspective engaging the human dynamics of decision-making and creative collaboration to technical work. She's an educator, public speaker and change agent that works with a wide range of governmental, institutional and private sector organizations to help them institutionalize sustainability and achieve measurable improvements in performance and profitability. SPI's Roadmap provides a framework to help firms institutionalize sustainability and deliver consistent, high quality sustainability services and was adopted by the US government last year. She teaches Sustainable Real Estate Development in Brandeis' Int'l Business School.
Courses
Embodied Carbon 101: Process + Firm Culture
In order to make true progress toward carbon reduction, carbon-thoughtful design must be part of the AEC industry’s standards and culture, instead of approached on a project-by-project basis. Hear from sustainability leaders representing a range of practices, including architecture, engineering and consulting, construction, and design/build firms who share the vision and infrastructure of their own firms’ sustainability and embodied carbon practice, and elaborate on how they arrived at a place where sustainable design and construction is built into their firms’ cultures. These leaders identify barriers to adopting carbon-thoughtful design and strategies for breaking down those barriers, including leveraging existing cultural and industry structures (for example: the AIA 2030 Commitment) and strengthening the connections between the existing values of firm leadership (for example: operational energy reduction; for example: materials and occupant health) and carbon reduction.
Course expires 11/14/2026
So You Want to Build a Climate-Minded Architectural Practice?
The built environment is witnessing the cascading impacts of climate change, from every person, project, and client. The architecture industry must look within, with immense opportunities to transform firm culture in response to present and future changing conditions. Our new resource, the AIA Climate Action Business Playbook, is for building an architectural practice that embraces climate change mitigation and adaptation. Individuals and firms can immediately apply the included recommendations and best practices to enhance their current policies and efforts around climate action within their practice. This session will inspire attendees to focus on behavior change, giving architects the tools to adopt more sustainable practice models.
Course expires 2/5/2026