CRRA2021

Director, LEED

Wes Sullens, LEED Fellow, directs Materials & Resources activities at the U.S. Green Building Council. Wes is responsible for the materials credits in the LEED Rating System and guides leadership criteria related to construction waste, product manufacturing, material transparency, circular economy, and embodied carbon.  He has worked in the public, private and nonprofit sectors for 20 years on broad topics including energy efficiency, building codes, supply chain sustainability, and chemicals transparency.

LEEDing the Way Waste Prevention and Zero Waste

The newest version of the LEED Rating System, LEED v4.1, has embraced the full materials management hierarchy of waste prevention, then reuse, then recycling. Credits in the rating system reward strategies that support circular economies with zero waste. Waste prevention is now a core component of the construction and demolition credit in LEED, marking a significant shift away from waste diversion to strategies that reward the prevention of waste before a building breaks ground. New waste prevention targets in LEED are intended to encourage best practices in dematerialization, light-weighting, and reducing construction phase excess.  This dramatic shift in LEED requires new perspectives during the early design phase that goes beyond source separation or commingling C&D waste on the jobsite. By empowering new players in the building industry to prevent waste, LEED is seeking to transform the way we build to favor designing-out waste in the first place. 

Senior Green Building

Since 1996, Eden Brukman has focused on establishing socially and environmentally responsible solutions for human habitat as a licensed architect, outreach strategist, and standards developer. She coauthored Living Building Challenge and directed its evolution and global deployment from 2007-2012; served as the first Technical Director of the Health Product Declaration Collaborative; and contributed to the early development of other programs such as Declare, the Pharos Project, and EcoDistricts. She is currently Senior Green Building Coordinator for San Francisco Department of the Environment. Eden’s advocacy efforts have led to policy reform and the creation of a network of local action groups in cities all over the world.

An Ounce Of Prevention Is Worth A Pound (or Ton!) Of Cure

San Francisco has long championed a zero waste mindset for construction and demolition materials: in 2006, banning direct hauling from jobsites to landfills and mandating recovery; and in 2018, instituting third party verification requirements for recovery rates and practices at Registered Facilities. The city is fortunate to have robust recycling outlets and progressive practitioners, who are joining policy makers to champion the Advancing Toward Zero Waste Declaration – a commitment to not only slash deposits to landfill but also cut back on generation itself. As such, local policy must also expand to encompass more directly the top two of the 3R’s in the waste hierarchy: Reduce and Reuse. Eden Brukman will share some of the city’s new and emerging waste prevention efforts, including infrastructure for material redistribution and source reduction through outreach, as well as design and construction activities.

Sustainability Director

As Sustainability Director, Mrs. Shapiro leads and develops all internal and external sustainability efforts for Webcor Builders.  She is Webcor’s Sustainability expert and leads all efforts on matters related to sustainable design and construction. Her primary responsibility is providing green building services to Webcor’s clients and AEC community, sustainability-related preconstruction services, and implementing Webcor’s corporate ESG program. She carries extensive experience in embodied carbon footprint reporting of construction materials and executing deep “green” integration among stakeholders from project inception through building operations.  In addition, Jenelle develops and manages all corporate initiatives aimed at increasing employee community involvement and Webcor’s corporate social responsibility goals. Jenelle holds a BS of Architecture from the University of Arizona, and a Masters of Sustainability Management from Columbia University.

General Contractor Zero Waste Lessons Learned

Since 2018, Webcor has pioneered innovative construction and demolition waste management strategies. Now, we’re pursuing an even more aggressive approach for optimized landfill diversion and transparency.

During this session, we’ll present part of our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy, which includes bringing these innovative implementation strategies to all Webcor projects, and share lessons learned from integrating a progressive waste program.

Lessons will focus on:

1. Reducing total waste generated on jobsites annually by 2% (unit: total waste/sf)
2. Utilizing RCI facilities for mixed construction and demolition debris for 50% of total annual waste by 2025.
3. Piloting TRUE zero waste at one construction project by the end of 2022.

We’ll dive into how collaborating with our self-perform (Concrete, Drywall, and Carpentry), subcontractor, and waste facility teams has encouraged us to creatively strategize ways to effectively meet our commitments.  Ultimately, these best practices are the future of doing business to achieve zero waste.

Zero Waste & Green Building Coordinator