San Francisco Sustainability: Green Building Revolution

Logan Soya is the founder and CEO of Aquicore, the leading IoT-driven smart asset management platform for commercial real estate operations. With a background in physics, technology, systems management and business, Logan founded Aquicore in 2013 on a mission to create a global impact by helping clients connect to and understand the built environment. By leveraging advanced IoT technology combined with a cloud-based information platform, Aquicore enables property managers, asset managers and building engineers to cut operational costs, improve tenant relations, increase energy efficiency and boost asset value. Logan earned a bachelor’s degree in physics and a master’s degree in systems management from the Florida Institute of Technology, before attending both London Business School and Georgetown University where he received his MBA. During his free time, he is a competitive rower and runner, and enjoys playing both the saxophone and guitar. Logan currently resides in Washington, D.C.

San Francisco’s Climate Action Strategy is: 0, 50, 100, Roots. That means Zero Waste, 50% of all trips via sustainable modes, 100% renewable energy citywide and carbon sequestration through urban geochemistry. San Francisco’s Green Built Environment team is a key element of this strategy – tasked with ensuring every building in the city supports the health of the community, the environment, and the economy. Barry manages the Existing Commercial Buildings Energy ordinance, which requires annual benchmarking of energy performance and an action plan for cost-effective energy efficiency improvement. He manages Dept of Environment’s renewable energy efforts, leads development of the San Francisco Green Building Code, and serves on the Green Team awarding the city’s Priority Permit Processing incentive to LEED Platinum projects. He is an active member of the C40 Cities Private Sector Energy Efficiency Network, US DOE State and Local Energy Action Network (SEE-Action), Green Cities California, and represents local governments on California’s statewide Energy Data Access Committee. Prior to joining SF Environment, Barry served as Green Building Coordinator for the City of San Jose and managed the Silicon Valley Energy Watch energy efficiency program. At the University of California at Santa Barbara he earned master’s degrees in Environmental Science and Management, as well as Geography.

Sara Neff is a Partner and General Manager of Sustainability for Microsoft's Cloud Operations + Innovation team. Prior to joining Microsoft, she was Head of Sustainability, Lendlease Americas, where she provided leadership and management oversight in developing, implementing and driving Lendlease's corporate sustainability framework in the Americas region. Prior to that role, she served as Senior Vice President, Sustainability at Kilroy Realty Corporation. Under her leadership, Kilroy was recognized as a leader among publicly traded real estate companies on sustainability in the Americas by GRESB for seven of the last eight years as well as being recognized by NAREIT, and achieved carbon neutral operations at the end of 2020. She is a LEED Fellow and holds a BS from Stanford and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Through hard work and diligence, my objective is to learn every day, improve every day, help build lasting business relationships, add value and help others be successful in their businesses and careers. Work in commercial real estate in a position that offers the challenge to develop, acquire, operate, maintain, repair, modernize and improve the sustainable areas of the built environment. Provide long range value through thoughtful planning, implementation and execution of the day’s work. Employers deserve this level of commitment from their investment in its employee's, and it is what makes companies fundamentally succeed. Your work should be your resume and it should speak to the success of the business as well. Specialties: I have extensive experience in facility operations, maintenance, repair and construction as well as operating & capital improvement projects, bidding and execution of construction projects. I have performed multiple due diligence exercises for acquisition and disposition. I have an eye on sustainability and the USGBC LEED goals and objectives, processes and projects. I also have experience in labor negotiations and contracts.

Ms. Treaster is a Senior Vice President in The John Buck Company’s Development Group. As co-head of the West Coast office, she identifies and executes new investment opportunities. She leads the development team through feasibility, design, entitlements, site acquisition, budgeting, and project execution. Prior to joining The John Buck Company, Ms. Treaster spent 9 years at Hines as Director who was responsible for managing the development of Salesforce Tower in San Francisco, California. In addition to her work on the Tower, She also contributed to the development, acquisitions and leasing of more than 3M square feet of commercial real estate representing value in excess of $1.5 billion.

Product Solutions for Lendlease. Mr. Van Belleghem presents 26+ years of development and financing experience in real estate development. He joined Lendlease in 2010, where as Head of Development and Infrastructure, he was involved in over $26 billion of urban regeneration projects including the Elephant & Castle in the United Kingdom, Barangaroo in Sydney, Australia and Victoria Harbour in Melborne, Australia; all part of the C40 Carbon Neutral Program. Prior to joining Lendlease, Mr. Van Belleghrm led Windmill West, a sustainable development company, based in Canada.

Specializing in Real Estate Strategy for stok, Warren helps clients realize sustainability goals throughout their entire real estate portfolio, allowing for maximum impact through the sustainable built environment. Having worked with major corporations and NGOs to develop, retool, and implement sustainability programs across the globe, Warren has industry insight that spans corporate, retail, hospitality, and governmental sustainability and strategic real estate programs. He applies his international experience in high performance buildings and project management to enable stok’s clients to realize their most ambitious sustainability goals. As trusted advisor to the world’s most iconic and innovative companies, he is working on the design of some of the most ambitious buildings globally.

Greg Cunningham, AIA, LEED AP, is a Principal and co-founder of Enovity, an engineering firm that operates, maintains, and optimizes facilities to assure higher-performance places. Greg has more than 35 years of experience in the design and construction industry, with the past 15 years focused on commissioning and energy efficiency solutions for high-performance buildings. He has recently spoken at events such as Greenbuild and CoreNet Global on Google’s initiative to develop, implement, and validate indoor environmental quality (IEQ) practices that enhance occupant health and the user experience. A Registered Architect and LEED AP, Greg holds a Bachelor’s in Architecture from UC Berkeley and a Master’s in Environmental Planning from Arizona State University.

Aliza Skolnik focuses on strategic leadership, sustainable solutions and healthy environments. As Vice President and Director of the ESD San Francisco Office, she is responsible for managing the business development, recruitment and operations for the West Coast. She is a registered Professional Engineer as well as a LEED and WELL Accredited Professional, Green Globes Professional and Fitwel Ambassador. Aliza is also an active leader in the real estate industry through her involvement in the local USGBC and CoreNet chapters. She specializes in improving the well-being of the people who occupy the communities, buildings and workplaces we design.

Katherine leads all business development, origination and contract negotiations for AMS.She has a decade of targeted experience in wholesale energy market transactions, power and capacity sales, deal structuring and market entry strategies. Prior to AMS, she served as Director, Structured Transactions, at Evolution Markets, where she led the firm's renewable and conventional power marketing businesses in the West. Before Evolution, Katherine was a Principal with Pacific Gas and Electric Company where she was responsible for leading negotiations on utility-scale power purchase agreements. Earlier in her career, Katherine worked in finance at RBC Capital Markets and UBS Warburg. She holds an MBA in Finance from Duke University and a B.S. in Finance from the University of San Francisco. Katherine lives in Lafayette with her husband and two sons.

Bill Strang serves as President of the Americas’ Operations for TOTO USA and Chairman of TOTO Mexico. In these capacities, he is responsible for all of TOTO’s North American operations, including supply chain, design and development engineering, quality, ISO, environmental resource management, and management of TOTO’s five North American plants with 1.8 million sf under roof. Under Bill’s leadership, TOTO has received numerous awards and recognitions for its leadership in environmental resource conservation, including the U.S. EPA’s Water Efficiency Leadership award (TOTO is the only plumbing manufacturer so honored); former Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue’s Water Conservation Leadership award; the South face Sustainable Homebuilders’ Argon* award; the City of Atlanta’s Phoenix Award, and the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper’s River Sustainability award. Recently, the Brookings Institution distinguished TOTO for its leadership in Clean Economy jobs creation.

INDUSTRY LEADER AND “ECOVANGLIST” Donald founded Build It Green and the U.S. Green Building Council's Northern California Chapter. He is general counsel to both organizations, the California Solar Energy Industries Association, Efficiency First and ICLEI. He hosts the annual West Coast Green conference, co-directed the UN’s largest urban sustainability summit and established the first law firm practice group dedicated to green business. His passionate leadership in the sustainability / green business movements has earned him the moniker "Ecovangelist." He presently co-chairs the California legislative effort to create a new form of corporation called “benefit corporations” that promotes the triple bottom line of society, environment and profits. GREEN BUILDING Because of his green building industry expertise and extensive experience as a construction litigator and transactional attorney, Donald provides holistic solutions that make green building projects a success for all parties. He orchestrates the RFP and competitive bidding process, drafts plain English contract documents to mitigate and allocate green building and traditional risks, provides strategic claims advice, and when necessary, litigates vigorously to defend his clients. COMMERCIAL-SCALE SOLAR PROJECTS Donald represents project owners, developers and integrators on all solar, construction, tax and public contracting issues. He drafts and negotiates power purchase agreements, leases and direct purchase contracts and resolves claims. GENERAL COUNSEL TO GREEN BUSINESS Donald provides clients comprehensive and strategic solutions by drawing from his diverse legal expertise and Wendel Rosen's numerous specialty areas. Forming and financing companies, employment compliance / claims, trademark and intellectual property, contracts of all types - Donald and Wendel Rosen together provide green business a total legal solution for succeeding in a competitive and changing world.