Special Episode: Top 10 Ways to Green Your Construction Site 2024

The Green Building Matters Podcast with Charlie Cichetti

Jennifer Taranto brings more than 20 years of experience in the commercial real estate and construction industry. She joined Structure Tone in 2001, where she served as a superintendent and project manager before becoming STO Building Group’s Vice President of Sustainability. She ensures that environmental, social and governance (ESG) principals are incorporated into client projects and STOBG organizational strategy.

As a passionate advocate for reducing the environmental impact of the built environment, Jennifer gets involved in the early stages of design and construction to define the client’s ESG goals and help the project team create an internal roadmap to achieve them. With her guidance and expertise, organizations around the world have been able to improve people’s health and wellbeing while reducing the construction and operating impacts of facilities.

As a founder of the non-profit, Built Environment Plus, and the current Chair of the organization’s Board of Directors, Jennifer is a recognized sustainable construction leader and frequent speaker. She has been recognized by the International WELL Building Institute with their WELL AP award in 2018 and the WELL Faculty award in 2019, 2020 and 2021. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Construction Engineering from North Carolina State University.

Show Highlights

• Overview of the integration of green building programs such as LEED, WELL, Fitwel, and BREEAM into construction practices.

• Key strategies of the benefits of forming a green team, promoting ride-sharing, enforcing no-idling policies, and using electric vehicles on construction sites.

• The importance of green materials, prefabrication, temporary systems like LED lighting and solar power, and technologies such as drones

• Attention was given to reducing embodied carbon and future green construction trends, followed by a Q&A session.

• Discussion on the importance of LEED credentials and the growth of the green building movement.

• Discussion on the importance of certifications for corporate sustainability and green financing.

• Introduction to the top ten ways to green a construction site.

• The role of technology in construction, including drones and virtual meetings.

• the evolution of green materials and the importance of EPDs and HPDs

• Examples of innovative materials and construction methods being used in the industry to reduce waste.

“You're going to start to see a lot of designs that are going to shift toward lower embodied carbon materials. A lot of our clients are getting savvier and asking those questions. I think the other, the pie chart that maybe you don't have, Charlie, in the deck is the fact that 49% of the embodied carbon is in the building the day that the contractor hands over the keys to the client. So half of the lifetime amount of carbon is in the building before anybody even occupies it. There's a big opportunity there in order to really ratchet those numbers.”

-Jennifer Taranto

Get the episode transcript here!

Show Resource and Information

• Jennifer Taranto - STO Building Group

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