Seattle, Washington, United States
Knowledgeable and passionate BUILDING DECARBONIZATION & ENERGY EFFICIENCY EXPERT with over 15 years of experience in building technical compliance, policy improvement, and performance metrics. Expert in developing and implementing technical tools, educational materials, and regulatory frameworks to enhance energy efficiency and sustainability in commercial and residential buildings. Proven track record in consulting, data analytics, and managing complex projects from inception to completion. Strong leader with a background in community planning and extensive experience in stakeholder engagement, customer support, and regulatory compliance.
Serve as Building Technical Compliance Lead for energy efficiency regulation under the City of Seattle’s Commercial Building Tune-Up ordinance. Provide technical and compliance guidance to non-profit, private, and institutional building owners and their service providers. Review building tune-up summary reports, benchmarking profiles, and alternative compliance requests. Propose and implement changes to tune-up policy and internal workflows. Manage the tune-up help desk, quarterly e-newsletter, and webpages. Use the RSE indices to conduct priority outreach to owners in greatest need of support. Flag complex issues and propose solution options for leadership review. Relevant Highlights: - Proposed and implemented changes to building tune-up ordinance and internal workflows. - Conduct outreach and advise building owners and service providers on the City of Seattle’s Building Tune-Up Ordinance requirements, achieving an overall 97% compliance rate. Prioritized support to building owners with the highest Race and Social Equity (RSE) indices. - Serve as Building Energy Efficiency & Electrification subject matter expert, publishing tune-up e-newsletters to communicate key ordinance deadlines, policy updates, and training opportunities; and maintain 6 web pages and 4 resource guides to update building tune-up program changes. - Identified improvements to customer process workflows in front-end application (Accela). - Review tune-up summary reports, alternative compliance requests (e.g., ASHRAE Level II Audits, Low EUI, etc.), extension requests (e.g., high vacancy rate), and waivers (e.g., new construction, planned demolition, etc.). Vetted submission validity and raised sensitive cases to Dept. Supervisor. - Accurately tracked compliance status of 900+ buildings subject to tune-up ordinance and processed large volumes (~100) of tune-up records on time. - Fielded 500+ tune-up help desk inquiries each year; 3 business days or less response 95%.
Conducted home energy audits and provided retrofit project management for single-family and/or multi-family homes with low-income homeowners and tenants, including BIPOC residents. Partnered with owners to deliver retrofits in affordable housing. Executed comprehensive multifamily energy retrofit projects (from $10k to $500k) to expend $1 to 2 million in grant funds serving more than 200 low-income households each year. Relevant Highlights included: - Served as a rulemaking member of the WA Dept. of Commerce multifamily weatherization committee. - Designed new SOP to implement the Weatherization Plus Health program, serving customers with asthma. - Defended projects to WA Department of Commerce auditors 11 times with 0 audit findings. - Organized CO2 refrigerant heat pump installation training for local contractors to create a pool of bidders on future projects. - Advocated internally for program-wide heat pump water heater measures and developed internal workflows to streamline the process. - Authored white paper proposing new policy to account for the cost of carbon emissions in low-income weatherization projects. - Wrote energy audit reports with a prioritized list of measures, a non-technical narrative explaining the benefits of the proposed work, and resources to help. - Interpreted State and Federal Weatherization policies, utility incentive requirements, relevant building codes and EPA hazardous material regulations, and developed procedures to ensure project compliance. - Analyzed building energy consumption history, created energy models to estimate savings, and produced financial valuations of proposed measures. - Contracted the installation of the country’s first commercial-grade CO2 refrigerant heat pump water heater. - Piloted high-efficiency heat recovery ventilation system installation to eliminate gas-fired make-up air units. - Led and coordinated resident engagement with property managers and outreach coordinator.
Conducted 2,000+ comprehensive residential energy and water audits. Highlights include, but not limited to: - Participated as a stakeholder in Mayor McGinn’s High Road Employment and Contracting Standards Committee. - Acted as a sub-consultant for Cascadia Consulting, advising the City throughout the Community Power Works Residential Energy Efficiency program. Served as SME and Advisor on technical issues and program design. - Converted 38% of energy audit clients to significant energy efficiency measures, 141% over peer group average. - Produced a 15-page homebuyers guide educating home purchasers on energy efficiency and comfort-related factors to consider. - Appeared live on KUOW, Q13 Fox, and King 5 to present the benefits of residential energy efficiency and promote City incentive programs. - Introduced energy audit process in Community Power Works promotional video alongside Councilmember Richard Conlin. - Authored white paper proposing new policy to improve uptake of market-rate residential energy efficiency measures.
Developed curriculum and taught weatherization workers to perform building diagnostic testing.
Conducted weatherization audits, repair inspections and manage contractors during retrofits.