Erica Weeks
“The sustainability consulting profession requires a dedication and willingness to challenge ideas, to question “business-as-usual” thinking, and to own the risk of rejection. Doing the right thing for the environment is not every project’s priority; it may not even be on a client’s radar at the start. My approach is always to empower decision makers with the information they need to consider strategies that will support sustainability.”
#WomenWhoBuild, meet Erica Weeks!
Erica is an Associate Principal and Director of Sustainability for HASTINGS Architecture, a nationally recognized Nashville-based design firm. Erica’s path in Sustainability started in 2006 when she was one of the first 100 people in the country to earn the Evidence-Based Design Accreditation and Certification credential. In 2011, when Erica joined HASTINGS Architecture she became a full blow sustainability expert. In her current role, as Director of Sustainability, Erica educates the HASTINGS studio team about sustainability and the overall LEED process. This effort has gained her recognition as Nashville Business Journal’s 2017’s Women of Influence in the category of Inspiration/Mentoring.
ArchNative sat down with Erica, virtually of course, to discuss her journey in Architecture and Sustainability, her day to day routine, what her thoughts are on the future of Sustainability, and her advice for women entering the field.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey in Architecture? What made you decide to pursue it as a career choice?
I was lucky to go to a high school that offered drafting. I loved that class so much that I took it for three years. I found the act of putting pen to paper, creating something from nothing, and solving design problems incredibly satisfyingly. Even then, I knew I wanted to spend my life learning and creating. Architecture provides endless puzzles to solve and constant opportunities to learn and teach every day. Architecture has also offered me an opportunity to blaze my own path – with creativity balanced by science, metrics and a perpetual re-invention of how to communicate to clients, the public, and policy makers.
You are currently an Associate Principal and Director of Sustainability for HASTINGS, what led you to integrate Sustainability into your career?
In 2007, while my husband was completing his post-doctoral studies, we relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area for four years. That was more than 10 years ago, and even then, the “green architecture vibe” was different there. There was never a question about why to do something sustainable. There was always an understanding that even if something might cost more on the front end, it was just the right thing to do. During that time, I worked on projects that reinvigorated my sense of the importance of my work as well as my sense ofaccomplishment for the sustainable strategies we were able to implement.
When we returned to Tennessee in 2011, I joined HASTINGS and pivoted from being an architect with an interest in sustainability to a full-time sustainability expert. My background in architecture and construction was critical to understanding how projects develop and I understood exactly how and when to inject sustainability strategies into the design of our projects.
Today, I am both a Director of Sustainability for HASTINGS, and the director of HASTINGS’s sustainability consulting services, working on projects by other architects. As a consultant working on broad range of projects across all scales and typologies, I am uniquely positioned to consider broader industry trends. My understanding of architecture and well as my knowledge of what is happening across the country supports me in introducing new ideas and strategies to this market.
What does your day to day look like?
My day starts early, with an hour of quiet time, after my husband leaves for work in the morning and before I need to head out to the office. I spend that hour organizing the tasks I need to tackle to have the day run smoothly.
Once in the office, every day is a flurry of meetings, questions, and project work. Beyond project deadlines, I dedicate myself to educating our staff, colleagues, clients on sustainable design. Currently, that means a lot of time on Zoom!
After work, I go home to play with and train our two giant dogs. We work with them on agility and canine nose training.
How do you approach each project you work on? Where do you draw inspiration?
Each project is different. Before starting on a project, I investigate the client/developer/end user to understand where they stand on climate-related issues, how they support building occupants, and how they are thinking about individual buildings as well as their entire portfolio. This deep dive gives me a sense of where the challenges and opportunities might be.
In the resurgent conversation about well-being for end users and occupants, the sustainability conversation is going beyond considerations of low-impact,environmentally conscious design and shifting from“savings” of operational items like energy and water into offering built solutions that adjust occupant behaviors for productivity and well-being. It is exciting for me that sustainability is taking on a more holistic definition that includes WELL standards, biophilic design, and more. I find the whole conversation incredibly inspiring and interesting.
What has been your favorite project to work on and why?
I think I might want to reframe the question. Within almost every single project, I have one or more “wins” – that is places where we were able to achieve something that was an uphill battle or examples where we were able to exceed the owners’ expectations without impact to budget or schedule. Sometimes, our triumph is tackling something that the A/E/C industry thinks of as “difficult.” For example, we were fortunate to have two similar office buildings developed in one office park where we were able to compare and contrast the USGBC’s credit criteria for LEED v4 to LEED v4.1, which is in beta. From that exercise, we are better positioned to implement on future projects as the v4.1 rating system evolves and then gets adopted.
If I had to cite one project, I would pick 225 Polk, which is the HASTINGS office, and only because I am the end user of this project and I see how amazing it is, every day. Here we adaptively reused the 1965 former Main Public Library building, which had been vacant for years. The exterior of the building and aspects of the interior were restored to the original design intent, even as we gave the building new life as our firm’s studio. From a sustainability perspective, I know that adaptive reuse is incredibly important as we have building stock across the country that can be revitalized to have extended life.
What has been the biggest challenge of your career? What has been the biggest triumph?
Every project comes with its own challenges and everyone has its triumphs as well. The sustainability consulting profession requires a dedication and willingness to challenge ideas, to question “business-as-usual” thinking, and to own the risk of rejection. Doing the right thing for the environment is not every project’s priority; it may not even be on a client’s radar at the start. My approach is always to empower decision makers with the information they need to consider strategies that will support sustainability. This requires vision, dedication, and consistency.
What do you see for the future of Sustainability, especially as it relates to the built environment?
Sustainability is a broad term and public literacy really needs to increase, not just around climate science, but about human factors and every-day behaviors such ascomposting, recycling, and our choices as consumers. For the built environment, transparency regarding how much energy a building uses will help, ultimately, create a demand to reduce that energy. Many cities have started this reporting, but it needs to be national and wide-spread. This will lead to owners/developers making different decisions about how projects emerge from a first-cost and operational targets. We need immediate action but also need to invest in long-term thinking and policy changes that will result in better behaviors.
How do you ensure that you are always growing in your role/position?
Mentorship is very important to me. It benefits the mentor as much as the mentee. I counsel staff of all ages and learn and grow from the questions they ask and the varied problem-solving approaches they take.
What advice do you have for women entering the field?
My advice is not to let anyone or anything define you. When I became an architect, I had no idea that the path I am on was even available to me. If you see a need – on a project, in a business, in your community – try to figure out how to create a response. Just because something hasn’t been done before doesn’t mean it can’t, or shouldn’t, happen.