Hugo Neu Corporation Sustainability Seminar Series: Inside the Sustainability Director’s Playbook: What It Really Takes to Deliver High-Performance Projects
Department of Civil, Environmental, and Ocean Engineering
Speaker: Allison Wilson, AIA, LEED Fellow, WELL AP, LFA, Associate Principal, Sustainability Director, Ayers Saint Gross
ABSTRACT
What does it actually take to move a project from good intentions to verified high performance? In this session, we’ll go behind the scenes of the sustainability process and unpack the real strategies, decisions, and trade-offs that shape today’s most resilient and energy-efficient built environments. Drawing on the presenter’s experience over the last 15 years, this talk will reveal common tools and frameworks used to guide design teams, align stakeholders, and keep carbon, cost, and community outcomes focused throughout planning and construction.
Through a series of compelling case studies we will examine how performance modeling, materials transparency, post-occupancy evaluation, and integrated design practices tangibly influence project success. Attendees will learn how early-phase goal setting, interdisciplinary collaboration, and data-driven decision-making can elevate design outcomes and avoid the pitfalls that commonly derail sustainability ambitions.
Designed for students and emerging professionals, this session will also offer insight into careers in sustainable design: what the work really looks like day to day, the skills that matter most, and how individuals across architecture, engineering, and planning can shape a more climate-positive built environment. Participants will leave with a clearer understanding of how high-performance projects happen—and the leadership mindset needed to deliver them.
BIOGRAPHY
Allison Wilson, AIA, LEED Fellow, WELL AP, LFA is an architect and the Sustainability Director of Ayers Saint Gross, a nationally recognized leader in high-performance design for colleges, universities, and cultural institutions. In this role she is a trusted leader who guides clients to make inclusive, enduring investments in their built environments. She has served nearly 50 clients through analytical design processes and the integration of sustainability into campus plans and sustainability plans. She has also supported over 45 projects in achieving third-party sustainability certifications. She has led and contributed to sustainability plans at Texas A&M University, UCLA, and Montclair State University.
Allison deeply values mentorship and teaching, having delivered over 50 conference presentations and participating in college and university studio reviews and juries across the country.
Allison is a 2022 recipient of the American Institute of Architects Young Architects Award for her notable contributions to the profession within her first decade of licensure. She was also a student leader of the U.S. Department of Energy’s winning Solar Decathlon 2011 project, WaterShed.
Zoom Link:
Website:
https://www.stevens.edu/sustainability-seminar-series
Jointly Sponsored by:
HUGO NEU Corporation
WSP
HDR
NOMADICS
Brown and Caldwell
H2M Architects and Engineers
Dewberry
Contact:
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