Inside Our Program / EventsBuiltX
Thursday, January 29, 2025
7:30 a.m. - 9:30 a.m.
Several times a year, the Master of Science in Executive Management for Design and Construction (EMDC) program hosts Northwestern’s Built Environment Exchange (BuiltX) - an idea forum and networking event for members of the built environment – which benefits both EMDC students and professionals working in the built environment.
BuiltX is designed for attendees to network, openly discuss best practices, and gain objective insights on industry trends. The forum covers a broad range of industry topics through fireside chats, panel discussions, and keynote speakers and encompasses participants from all industries within the built environment to foster a network of knowledge across disciplines and forge meaningful professional connections.
In partnership with the Illinois Green Alliance, the January 29 event will feature the panel discussion, "Collaborative Strategies for Net-Zero: Uniting Industry Commitments in the Built Environment."
The panel will be moderated by EMDC faculty member Lois Vitt Sale, with a Getting to Zero Illinois Report 2024 overview by Deana Haynes and will feature:
- Nathan Kipnis, Principal, Nathan Kipnis Architect
- Luke Leung, Sustainable Engineering Studio Principal, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill
- Patty Lloyd, Director of Sustainability, Leopardo Construction
- Max Puchtel, Director of Sustainability and Government Relations, American Institute of Steel Construction
REGISTER
AGENDA
7:30 a.m. - Continental breakfast and networking
7:50 a.m. - Opening remarks and introductions, EMDC director Shelley C. Finnigan
8:00 a.m. - Getting to Zero Illinois Report 2024, 2025 Illinois Green Alliance Chair, Board of Directors, Deana Haynes
8:10 a.m. - Panel discussion and Q&A
9:00 a.m. - Networking
Featured Speaker
Deanna Haynes, LEED AP BD+C
Founder and Principal Consultant - REsolve Strategy Studio
2025 Chair, Board of Directors - Illinois Green Alliance
Deana Haynes, LEED AP BD+C, is a real estate executive with 20+ years of industry experience. She is the Founder and Principal Consultant of REsolve Strategy Studio where she provides consulting services that empower organizations and teams to innovate, optimize operations, drive business growth and achieve sustainability goals.
Throughout her career, she has led global and domestic transformative business initiatives and strategic projects for high-profile clients and multi-national corporations. Her professional career includes tenure at leading organizations including JLL, Lendlease, ChargePoint and Ernst & Young. And she has worked with a number of clients across industries, including financial services, insurance, technology, consumer products, public sector, and non-profit, among others.
At ChargePoint, she expanded its leadership through the development of new technology solutions and business models that allow real estate organizations of all kinds to capitalize on EV charging at their properties.
As a consultant with JLL and EY, Deana advised Fortune 500 executives on industry best practices and led consulting engagements to provide sustainability, change management, workplace and real estate portfolio solutions that contributed to achievement of enterprise strategies and goals. Additionally, she advised internal stakeholders on sustainability trends and best practices for real estate portfolio and capital projects.
While at Lendlease, Deana led the development and implementation of key corporate sustainability and green building transformation initiatives for the Project Management & Construction division in the U.S. She also consulted on high-profile construction projects to meet client sustainability and green building requirements, including several LEED Platinum certified projects. She began her career in construction management on an iconic, 92-story skyscraper, the second tallest building in Chicago.
Dedicated to serving the community, Deana serves on the board of several Chicago-based non-profits focused on decarbonization, homelessness and affordable housing, including Illinois Green Alliance, StreetWise and The Boulevard. She is also a member of ULI's Responsible Property Investment Council (RPIC). She was previously a long-time mentor with Big Brother Big Sisters and the ACE Mentor Program Chicago affiliate.
Deana holds an M.B.A. from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and earned a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Studies and a Spanish Minor from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Panel Participants
Moderator
Lois Vitt Sale, FAIA, LEED Fellow
Adjunct Professor - Northwestern University Master of Science in Executive Management for Design and Construction Program
Recently retired, Lois’ 34-year career as a practicing architect focused on sustainability as intrinsic to design aided by the application of green technologies and sustainable planning. First joining Wight in 1995, Lois led Wight’s efforts to embed sustainability in all facets of this innovative design-led, design build firm as its Chief Sustainability Officer. Recently, Lois led the effort to design several buildings to meet the criteria for Net Zero Energy. Her work raised the bar for high performance, healthy buildings for the work designed and built by Wight.
Lois is an accomplished clay artist. After a hiatus to focus on architecture and family, she is now focused full time on expressing her love of nature and art in clay.
Lois has also been adjunct faculty at Northwestern University since 2005 where she continues to teach masters level courses on sustainability. She recently joined the Board of The Center for Humans and Nature. She has educated, volunteered and lent her energies to promulgate an understanding that creating places where people thrive demands deeply sustainable solutions for the built environment.
Panelists
Nathan Kipnis, AIA Fellow
Principal - Nathan Kipnis Architect
Nathan Kipnis is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and principal of Kipnis Architecture + Planning, based in Evanston, Illinois and Boulder, Colorado.
A founding member of the AIA’s 2030 Commitment Working Group in 2009, Mr. Kipnis served as the national co-chair from 2018 to 2019. He has also served on the AIA’s national Sustainability Leadership Group and the Committee on Climate Action and Design Excellence. He now serves at the national level on the Executive Committee of the AIA’s Small Firm
Exchange.
Mr. Kipnis is the founder of NextHaus Alliance, a new, premium design/build concept to provide ‘net zero’ sustainable resilient and healthy homes that seamlessly merge ‘High Design’ with ‘Low Carbon™’. NextHaus recently completed its first Passive House, located in Evanston, which has to date won local, state and international design awards.
A graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder, he received his Environmental Design degree in 1983. Mr. Kipnis obtained his Master of Architecture degree from Arizona State University, with emphasis in Energy Conscious Design. He designed his first solar home, in Boulder, in 1983.
Luke Leung, LEED Fellow, ASHRAE Fellow
Sustainable Engineering Studio Principal - Skidmore, Owings and Merrill
Luke is a LEED Fellow; ASHRAE Fellow; ASHRAE Center of Excellence for Building Decarbonization (CEBD) ExCom; ASHRAE Directors-at-Large; Carbon Leadership Forum MEP 2040 founding member and steering committee; City of Chicago Decarbonization Task Force; ASHRAE Distinguished Lecturer. He is an Industry Advisor for the Incubator Startups IN2 program with Wells Fargo and NREL.
He is the wide firm Principal of the Sustainability Engineering Studio for Skidmore, Owings and Merrill LLP. His work includes Burj Khalifa, the current world’s tallest building; Master planning of XiongAn – the millennium plan of China, and numerous other significant tall and large projects.
Patty Lloyd, LEED Fellow, WELL AP, LFA
Director of Sustainability - Leopardo Construction
Patty has more than 19 years of experience advancing sustainability in the built environment. She is an advocate for green building and healthy-high performing construction both within her firm and in the industry at large. She serves as the Director of Sustainability at Leopardo Construction and oversees corporate sustainability and ESG, in addition to working on the bulk of the companies’ sustainable projects. She has served on numerous boards and organizations to advance green building and sustainable construction. She currently chairs the LEED Design & Construction Consensus Committee and is an at-large director on the AIA-Illinois Board of Directors. She participates on the Building Green Sustainable Construction Leaders peer network and founded the Chicago Sustainable Construction Leaders. Previous roles include membership and leadership roles on the USGBC Materials & Resources Technical Advisory Committee, the LEED Technical Advisory Committee, and regional leadership roles for the International Living Future Institute. She also served on the board of the Illinois Green Alliance in a leadership position. She has served on numerous task forces and working groups and holds several credentials, including LEED Fellow, WELL AP, and LFA. She earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental management from Columbia Southern University and a Masters in Sustainable Management from the University of Wisconsin – Parkside.
Max Putchel
Director of Sustainability and Government Relations - American Institute of Steel Construction
Max Puchtel is the Director of Sustainability and Government Relations for the American Institute of Steel Construction, and he works tirelessly to see a world in which the U.S. is a global leader in decarbonized structural steel. Max often represents the structural steel community on state and federal government affairs, including Buy American policies, trade, transportation funding, and Buy Clean legislation. He leads many of AISC’s sustainability efforts, including the development and publication of three industry-wide EPDs for structural steel.
He is active in many professional, standards, and industry groups, spanning the engineering, steelmaking, life cycle assessment, and green building sectors. Max holds degrees from the University of Michigan and Illinois Tech, and he is a licensed structural & professional engineer.
