Senior Specialist, Environment + Carbon | International Living Future Institute
Haley supports the Zero Energy and Zero Carbon Certification programs at the International Living Future Institute. She provides technical guidance on how buildings can achieve net-positive carbon on a life cycle scale while maximizing their energy efficiency.
Haley recently completed her master’s thesis wherein she performed a whole-building life cycle assessment (LCA) of a Living Building to identify where high environmental impacts occur over the building’s life cycle. She brings this knowledge of both Living Buildings and LCA to ILFI in order to administer the Zero Energy and Zero Carbon Certifications through a technical lens while considering comprehensive life cycle impacts; this allows her to approach problems with a systems perspective. She has experience working for large energy companies and general contractors, and is elated to finally have made it to her dream career of working on green buildings.
A civil engineer by training, Haley received a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech along with a Master of Civil Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh. She is a diehard Hokie fanatic (as they all are) and misses Blacksburg dearly, but is thrilled to be living in Seattle as she is much closer to her Southern California family. While not daydreaming about green buildings, Haley enjoys watching and playing soccer, catching up on her favorite shows, and enjoying the beautiful landscape of the PNW.
Courses
Embodied Carbon 101: Certifications + Commitments—A deeper dive
Take a closer look at how embodied carbon is incorporated—or will be incorporated—into sustainability programs for the industry and how carbon-thoughtful design is streamlined or incentivized through these programs. The course begins with a look at the established AIA 2030 Commitment, its success in addressing operational energy, and its next iteration, which will include embodied carbon. The AIA 2030 Commitment discussion is followed by an introduction to the SE 2050 Commitment, which is an embodied carbon-focused commitment born out of the Structural Engineering Institute, to be launched in November 2020.
After looking at example commitments, the course introduces the International Living Future Institute’s Zero Carbon Certification, a relatively new certification that looks holistically at operational energy and embodied carbon. And, following Zero Carbon, the Passive House certification is introduced, suggesting ways that practitioners can account for embodied carbon while pursuing this performance-focused certification. Through discussing four major industry sustainability programs, this course will help practitioners to distinguish where embodied carbon is built into certifications and commitments, and where embodied carbon considerations might need to be engineered into design and certification processes for holistic carbon reduction. AEC practitioners will receive the knowledge to evaluate and leverage certifications and commitments for the greatest impact.
Course expires 11/14/2026