Seattle Sustainability

Brett Phillips is an award-winning sustainability leader and advocate, whose private and public work on decarbonization is shaping how the built environment is addressing climate change. He is Vice President of Sustainable and Responsible Investments at Unico Properties, a subsidiary of Unico Investment Group, where he manages high-performance green building and renewable energy projects for Unico’s national real estate portfolio. He is also co-founder and Vice President of Unico Solar Investors, a Unico subsidiary that develops, operates, and supplies solar energy for commercial real estate and business portfolios across the United States. Since 2008, Brett has overseen sustainable development and operations projects for over 25 million square feet of LEED-certified real estate. Notable projects include the Bullitt Center (the world’s largest commercial “Living Building”), LEED Platinum Stone34 in Seattle, and the award-winning LEED Platinum development of Circa Building in Denver. In a personal venture, he is developing Inspire, Seattle’s first zero-carbon multifamily building which is drawing the blueprint for net-positive residential developments in the region. Brett is a co-founder and the current board chair of the 2030 Districts Network, a nonprofit organization devoted to creating a global network of low-carbon cities. He authored the update to Seattle’s Living Building Challenge Pilot and the creation of the 2030 Challenge Pilot which provide critical land-use incentives for new and existing buildings in exchange for delivering low-carbon buildings. He is also an Architecture 2030 Senior Fellow, where he is promoting the adoption of the 2030 Challenge to rapidly decarbonize the built environment as a central solution to stemming the climate crisis. Brett’s work has earned Unico and his projects numerous industry accolades including Washington’s Green Company of the Year in 2011 and Multifamily Executive’s Sustainable Development of the Year in 2017 for his work on The Commons at Ballard. In 2019, Commercial Property Executive named him one of their “Stars to Watch.”

Jon Buerge is the President and Partner at Urban Villages, Inc. In this capacity, Jon is responsible for operations, real estate development, and strategic positioning for all real estate assets. He also manages the research and analysis of new company acquisitions and corporate growth strategies. Jon currently serves as the Chair of the Denver Business Improvement District and is on the Board of Directors for the LoDo District. He is also a member of Denver’s Public Realm Committee and 16th Street Mall Redevelopment Steering Committee.

Stacy has a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from the University of Washington, and over 15 years in the architecture and construction professions. Her resume includes the first LEED for Homes Platinum certified project in Washington State as well as the first project in the world to be certified under Living Building Version 2.0 standards. At Skanska, Stacy leads sustainable initiatives, and is considered a subject matter expert in LEED, Living Building Challenge and carbon emissions associated with buildings and construction. In her role at the newly established nonprofit, Building Transparency, Stacy leads the continued management and development of the free, open-access Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3) tool and works to educate and engage the building industry on actionably reducing embodied carbon emissions of building materials. Stacy has served in various advisory and leadership roles, including: Co-Chair of the Washington Businesses for Climate Action; Advisory Board Member for the University of Washington Carbon leadership Forum; Construction Taskforce Chair for the Embodied Carbon Network; Advisory Group Member for AIA Materials Working Group; and Emerging Professional Regional Chair for USGBC. She is a 2020 Grist 50 Fixer, a 2019 ENR Top 25 Newsmaker, and a Living Building Challenge Hero.

Duane Jonlin FAIA | Energy Code and Energy Conservation Advisor, Seattle Department of Construction and Inspection Duane Jonlin is the “Energy Code and Energy Conservation Advisor” for Seattle, and leads the Technical Advisory Group developing the state energy code as a member of the Washington State Building Code Council. At the national level, he’s been appointed to both the ASHRAE 90.1 Committee and the 2018 ICC Commercial Energy Code Committee. Prior to taking his position at the City of Seattle, Duane was a principal at NBBJ, and has 30 years’ experience working on large-scale projects as a technical architect. Last year he was elected to the American Institute of Architects College of Fellows.

A Seattle native, Susan Wickwire is thrilled to return to the area to lead the Seattle 2030 District after working to advance sustainable solutions to address climate change for over 20 years with the federal government in Washington, DC. Susan directed three national climate change programs at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – the Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Partnership, the Green Power Partnership, and the Center for Corporate Climate Leadership. She has seen first-hand how performance benchmarks motivate action and the successes that come out of effective public-private partnerships. Earlier in her career, Susan managed international climate change projects and was a member of U.S. delegations to the negotiations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change both at EPA and the U.S. Department of State. Through those experiences, she gained a deeper understanding of how to work productively with others who have different values and beliefs and stoked her keen interest in international travel. Susan has a Masters in Public Administration from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University and a BA in Political Science from Whitman College.

Matt is leading the charge in energy management and high performing buildings software as VP of Yardi Energy at Yardi Systems. He was previously Vice President of North American Sales at Tesla Motors where he led the 450-member sales team to record sales and gains in market share. Before Tesla he was VP of Operations and Product Management at Sunrun Inc. (NASDAQ: SUN) where he led the operations as Sunrun grew from 30 employees and 2,000 residential solar customers to 1,200 employees and 55,000 customers. Matt also led the software team that created and designed the industry’s leading solar sales toolkit (“BrightPath”), customer website, and solar fleet management tools. Prior to Sunrun, Matt was Director of Product Management at fuel cell manufacture Bloom Energy and worked in product management at Genentech. Matt graduated magna cum laude with a B.S. from Duke University, and has an MBA from Stanford. He is on the Board of Ecology Project International, the Advisory Board for the Duke University Center for Energy, Development and the Global Environment (EDGE) and sits on IREM’s sustainability advisory board and the utilities committee at NAA.

Jared is a sustainable real estate strategist with 16 years of experience leading and managing green building and energy efficiency efforts. He started Silliker + Partners in 2009 to help organizations achieve green building certifications, benchmark and optimize building operations, and develop communication, education, and marketing strategies. His clients have included REI, HOK, New Buildings Institute, Puget Sound Energy, and the US Environmental Protection Agency. Jared earned his MBA in Sustainable Business from the Bainbridge Graduate Institute and is a board member of the Seattle 2030 District.