All 2011 LEED Fellows

Biography

As the founder and director of HDR’s Sustainable Solutions program, Michaella has been a leader in the sustainability and green building industry for more than 16 years. As a strong proponent of matching sustainable strategies to the goals and characteristics of each project, she has worked closely with a multitude of clients to balance environmental, economic, and social equity goals.

Under Michaella’s direction, HDR began a process for integrating sustainable design concept into its work beginning in the early 1990s. The Sustainable Design Services group was established to pioneer a more principled approach to green building; early efforts were directed mainly at educating coworkers, advising project teams, networking with like-minded industry leaders, and marketing our services.

In 1994, Michaella signed on HDR as the first Architecture/ Engineering/Consulting firm to join the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). She was actively involved in the development of the first Leadership for Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating Tool. Soon after LEED was made public, Michaella assisted in a green building training program for the General Services Administration and also oversaw its implementation in a major Greening of the Government project, a series of three projects at the Pentagon. All three earned certification.

In 2006, after identifying the very practical needs of being strategic and unified in the firm’s approach to sustainability, Michaella oversaw HDR’s establishment of a Sustainable Solutions Leadership Team, a consortium of leaders from all of HDR’s various technical areas in both HDR’s Engineering and Architecture Companies. Its primary mission was to set a vision for the company and demonstrate best practices for delivering sustainable solutions in specific business areas. A secondary mission was to establish a marketing and education program that would quickly raise HDR’s level of sustainability awareness among all staff. Additionally, due to the growing recognition that the principles the firm espouses for clients must be demonstrated internally, Michaella directed the efforts for HDR to establish a Corporate Sustainability Initiative and hire a Corporate Sustainability Manager.

In 2009, Michaella was instrumental in the establishment of setting minimum sustainability requirements for all architecture projects at HDR, which include such things as setting energy and water targets, developing the Owner Project Requirements (OPR) and Basis of Design (BOD) documentation, assigning a sustainability champion, and setting and tracking project-specific sustainability goals. Michaella also directed the expansion of the Architecture company’s sustainable design services to grow beyond buildings and sites to also include energy services and commissioning. The number of staff focusing on sustainability at HDR now exceeds 50. All of these positions are jobs created since the formation of HDR's sustainability program. Finally, she was a strong advocate behind HDR’s endorsement of the Architecture 2030 challenge.

Michaella has worked on over 20 LEED projects, written sustainable guidelines for government agencies and organizations, trained over 3,000 people in various aspects of sustainability, and integrated sustainability into multi-million dollar infrastructure projects. Her clients have ranged from Federal agencies such as the General Services Administration, the U.S. Navy and the Department of Defense, to state agencies such as the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the Oregon Department of Transportation as well as universities, healthcare organizations, and other private companies and organizations.

She currently leads HDR’s national Sustainable Solutions Leadership Team, which is responsible for setting and driving HDR’s vision for sustainability across all aspects of the company, including both in the projects we deliver to clients and how we conduct our own business practices.

Work