Leading the Green Team

A day in the life of a sustainable design coordinator

Clare Epke of Denver’s Swanson Rink offers insights on what sustainable design coordinators really do.

By Melissa Leslie

When Clare Epke, 31, sustainable design coordinator at Denver engineering firm Swanson Rink, walks into the office, her day doesn’t officially begin until she checks her e-mail.

Her messages update the status of pending construction projects and LEED credits for existing projects. They sometimes include requests from owners for a mid-construction change in project certification, from LEED Silver to LEED Gold.

Then she creates a detailed monthly and weekly to-do list that she shares on an Excel spreadsheet with her counterpart, Josh Marceau. They monitor the firm’s projects and measure them against LEED criteria from pre-design to post-construction.

“Every form and everything I do is self-created,” says Epke, who created a year-to-year job matrix for Swanson Rink’s SDG in Microsoft project. “There isn’t a forum outside of our office available that creates standard (green) documents for everyone to use, like the AIA Docs.

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“But there should be.”

Multiple Tasking

Sustainable coordination, in its current form, has been around since 2002, according to Colorado State University professor Brian Dunbar, executive director of the university’s Institute for the Built Environment. But it’s growing, Dunbar says, and many professionals serving as sustainable coordinators are still working from scratch within their own firms to bring the process in-house.

“Many of my former students report that they are educating themselves on what needs to be done and how it needs to be done,” Dunbar adds.

For Epke, that consists of managing the LEED credits applied to construction projects, visiting jobsites and coordinating internal green training for Swanson Rink employees. She works daily with people of all professions and from every trade.

“Every day brings something different,” she says. “It is inevitable that I am going to learn something new, either about my job, the disciplines I serve, or both.”

Upon hiring Epke, Swanson Rink’s first green client was itself, says Gary Orazio, president. She helped the firm develop internal green initiatives that include comprehensive recycling programs, a hybrid company-pool car and firm-sponsored RTD Eco-passes for employees.

“I am Swanson Rink’s recycle queen,” says Epke, referring to the questions she gets throughout the day from co-workers about what is and isn’t recyclable. “But externally, I am the LEED-design point person, and I work with all aspects of the industry, including owners, designers, contractors and their subs.”

Every other Monday, Epke hosts training sessions on green practices for Swanson Rink employees—sessions that include everything from how to bring green practices home to preparing employee bikes for Colorado’s annual Bike to Work Day.

“My message is mostly a how-to,” Epke says. “I want them to be able to make choices that will set themselves up to be more green at home. It is really about bigger lifestyle decisions.

Central Park Tower, being built by The Weitz Co. in Broomfield, is one of the many projects Epke is coordinating for LEED certification through Swanson Rink’s sustainable consulting services. (Photo courtesy of The Weitz Co.)

“My job really consists of knowing about LEED and correlating programs and effectively applying them to sustainable building and business practices throughout the industry,” she says. “At the completion of any given project, be it a construction project or a company-wide meeting, I know that there are a number of people who are more aware of building sustainably, and they will bring that information with them to their next project team.”

Sustainable Future

Before entering the field of sustainable coordination, Epke worked as an interior designer with a degree from Colorado State University. She started her career working for a Denver architecture firm but after two years decided to go back to CSU for a graduate degree in construction management.

“Both my interior design and construction management degrees had an emphasis on sustainability,” says Epke, who worked with CSU’s Dunbar during both her undergraduate and graduate degrees.

In 1998, Dunbar invited a Swedish designer to lecture at the Fort Collins campus, which is where Epke discovered sustainable design. “As I was walking out of that lecture, everything I heard just seemed so obvious,” she says.

Since 1998, sustainable design and construction has grown significantly in the industry.

Construction material recycle and trash bins at the Central Park Tower jobsite in Broomfield are part of LEED Gold criteria requirements and are monitored regularly by Epke as part of her sustainable design coordination of the project.

“Sustainability within the construction industry is here to stay,” says Orazio. “If anything, it will grow in importance and become more integrated into the overall design and construction process.

“That integration will require a higher degree of sophistication in design solutions, which will require sustainability consultants with ever-more-specialized knowledge.”

And though demand for construction services has decreased in the current recession, Epke, Orazio and Dunbar say the demand for green projects remains strong and will continue to be strong when the market recovers.

“With the competition that is currently out there and the need and demand for something unique, I don’t see sustainable building dwindling anytime soon,” Epke says.

Dunbar adds: “As we continue to climb out of this downturn, it seems that the green projects are coming out faster and stronger than they have in the past. The stimulus will continue to bolster these projects, creating more green buildings, green retrofit opportunities and, ultimately, green jobs.

“The future is very green.”