For the latest episode of our Design the Future podcast, Lindsay Baker and I talked with the inimitable Barbra Batshalom. Barbra is the founder and CEO of BuildingEase and Sustainable Performance Institute (SPI). She's an industry leader whose innovative vision drives market transformation from public policy to professional practice. Her work focuses on the intersection of systems, processes and culture.
With a diverse background of fine arts, social psychology and nearly 30 years in architecture and sustainability consulting, Barbra brings a perspective that engages the human dynamics of decision-making and creative collaboration to technical work. She has always been most interested in the how.
Her advice for those who want to be effective working on sustainability in the built environment is to "develop enabling skills." Because, she says, "Technical knowledge is necessary but insufficient. Any work in sustainability requires systems thinking, understanding of change dynamics and change management, communication, facilitation skills, and negotiation skills."
She calls SPI her "heart work" but doing that work has given her a lens on what's missing in the movement and the industry. And this includes the seeds for her latest venture, Building Ease, which is focused on materials and what she calls the "data mess in the industry." Building Ease is a public benefit corporation and a software start-up, a tool to connect the dots from design through procurement to streamline the flow of critical information and harness purchasing power.
Listen at www.designthefuturepodcast.com/epsiodes/barbra-batshalom or on your favorite podcast platform. (Please consider leaving a review on Apple or Spotify; it helps people find us.)
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Kira Gould Hon. AIA
Kira Gould CONNECT
Mission Hills KS
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