Materials Matter

Suzanne is a Research Director in Perkins+Will’s San Francisco office, co-directing the firm’s Materials Performance Lab. The Lab is the conduit for healthy materials knowledge, research, firm-wide dissemination, and implementation into projects. Her career has focused on commercial interiors, specializing in creating healthy environments, and she draws on over two decades of experience to support client initiatives and environmental goals. Suzanne develops content for the Transparency site, and was instrumental in developing the current Precautionary List, and has Her book EcoSoul: Save the Planet and Yourself by ReThinking your Everyday Habits was published in 2013, and she co-authored three installments of the Healthy Environments whitepaper series, including Strategies for Avoiding Flame Retardants in the Built Environment, What’s New (and What’s Not) With PVC, and Understanding Antimicrobial Ingredients in Building Materials.

Amanda Kaminsky is Founder of Building Product Ecosystems—multi-disciplinary collaboratives that evolve code, infrastructure, and field logistics for optimal systemic health and performance of major building materials. Improvements to product and process are carefully piloted on projects under current development via regular convening of buyers and their manufacturers, recyclers, contractors, designers/engineers, policy makers, and academic researchers.

Before and during the early stages of BPE, Amanda led sustainable construction and procurement efforts at The Durst Organization. Amanda has collaborated extensively with project teams and supply chains on new and existing commercial and residential buildings to optimize materials and systems design, procurement, and building processes from project inception through construction and into ongoing operations. In collaboration with DSNY, she also managed New York City’s first high rise residential organics collection/compost program. Amanda Chairs the Health Product Declaration Collaborative board, and is a director on the board of Healthy Building Network.

buildingproductecosystems.org

Mikhail Davis is Director of Restorative Enterprise at Interface, the world’s largest manufacturer of modular carpet. He is responsible for advancing Interface’s globally recognized Mission Zero and Climate Take Back commitments in the Americas by building internal leadership capacity and creating external partnerships. He also chairs the LEED Materials & Resources Technical Advisory Group for the US Green Building Council.

Previously, Mikhail served as environmental icon David Brower’s manager, and spent five years with Blu Skye Sustainability Consulting building sustainable business strategies for Fortune 500 companies. He holds a B.S. in Earth Systems from Stanford University and is a certified Biomimicry Specialist.

Ken Geiser is Professor Emeritus of Work Environment at University of Massachusetts Lowell, and a founder and past director of the Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Institute and the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production. His research and writing focus on cleaner production, pollution prevention, toxic chemicals management, international chemicals policy, safer technologies, and green chemistry. He is the author of Materials Matter: Towards a Sustainable Materials Policy and Chemicals without Harm, Policies for a Sustainable World. Ken was also one of the lead authors of the 2013 United Nations Global Chemicals Outlook.

Ken is a founding board member of National Toxics Campaign,Environmental Health Strategy Center, Healthy Building Network, International Campaign for Responsible Technologies, and Story of Stuff. He is currently the Chair of the Board of both Clean Production Action and Coming Clean, and has served as a Co-Chair of California’s Green Ribbon Science Panel and a Senior Fellow with the U.S. Green Building Council.

As the leader of Vidaris’ Green Services department, John Amatruda specializes in environmentally conscious design and the evaluation of “green”materials and systems. He has worked as a consultant on over 100 LEED projects nationwide and internationally, using all variations of the LEED commercial program. He has also authored a number of green building studies and publications, including the GSA LEED Cost Study for the US General Services Administration, the NYC Department of Buildings’ Energy Code Compliance Study, the Green Material Selection Guidelines for the web-based Whole Building Design Guide, and the Carbon Reduction Study for the United Nations Headquarters Renovation.

Mr. Amatruda is accredited as an International Assessor under the United Kingdom’s BREEAM green building rating system, and has been a LEED Accredited Professional since 2001. He was the first LEED AP registered in the State of Connecticut, as well as one of the first 30 faculty members hired by the USGBC, and was named a LEED Fellow in 2013.

Suzanne has 20 years of experience in design research and fashion, including being an early pioneer and proponent of biotechnology in textiles. She started growing microbial materials in 2003 and went on to establish Biocouture, the first biocreative consultancy. In 2014 Suzanne founded Biofabricate, a now annual summit uniting design, biology, and technology. She is a graduate of the celebrated design school Central Saint Martins in London, and her work has been featured widely in the media and exhibited globally. She is the author of Fashioning the Future: Tomorrow’s Wardrobe, and has been named a TED Senior Fellow and a Launch Material Innovator.

Martha Lewis is a senior architect and Head of Materials at Henning Larsen Architects, where she established an office-wide material database with the firm’s sustainability department and implemented material strategies for projects with a focus on healthy, ethically viable, and environmentally tenable materials. With two decades of professional experience in Copenhagen and Berlin, Martha is currently involved in establishing a Danish/Nordic material declaration, and was a member of the Buildings as Material Banks shareholders network, which has worked to establish an EU material passport. In 2016, she participated in the advisory group for the Danish Environmental protection Agency’s“Undesirable Substances in Sustainable Buildings”, and she has been involved in the Danish Green Building Council’s adoption of the German building certification system since 2011. Martha holds a MArch from Washington University and a BA from Vassar College.

henninglarsen.com