Join AIA New York and the International Society of Sustainability Professionals (ISSP) – NYC Chapter for a panel discussion on New York City’s recent large-scale and innovative sustainable design initiatives, including Rebuild by Design, PLUS POOL, and more. With a focus on public relations, policy, and communications across various scales and audiences, panelists will endeavor to use these projects as a framework through which to discuss best practices for designing and implementing impactful sustainable projects in New York City. 

This event aligns in support of United Nations Sustainable Design Goal (SDG) 11.

Moderator:
Mark D. Wolf, CEO, LavaFish Advisors; Founder and Co-Lead, International Society of Sustainability Professionals, New York City Chapter (ISSP-NYC)

Speakers:
Adrian Benepe, President & CEO, Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Amy Chester, Managing Director, Rebuild by Design
Archie Lee Coates IV, Co-Founder and Designer, PLAYLAB, INC.
Stephen Whitehouse, Partner, Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects and Planners 
Varun Kohli, Head of Sustainability, Buro Happold (New York)

About the speakers:
Mark D. Wolfis a sustainability consultant and executive coach who works with leaders to integrate sustainability into business strategy, operations, and culture.He is the Founder and Co-Lead of the International Society of Sustainability Professionals, New York City Chapter (ISSP-NYC), the largest global professional association for leaders across the sustainability sector. He has been published in the Journal of Sustainable Banking and Finance and ANA Magazine. He is the co-author of the recently published book “Thriving in the New Business Environment – Why the Strategic Supply Chain Matters.”

Adrian Benepe, president and CEO of Brooklyn Botanic Garden, is one of the nation’s foremost experts in parks and open green spaces. He has led a variety of nonprofit and governmental organizations, with a focus on providing parks and open space for underserved communities. As senior VP and director of national programs at the Trust for Public Land from 2012 to 2020, Benepe led efforts to ensure that every city resident has a high-quality park within a 10-minute walk of home. He worked for NYC Parks & Recreation for 27 years, including 11 years as commissioner.

Amy Chester is the Managing Director of Rebuild by Design has spent more than 20 years in municipal policy, community engagement, real estate development and communications advocating for the urban environment. Prior to her work at Rebuild, she was the Chief of Staff to the Deputy Mayor of Legislative Affairs and a Senior Policy Advisory for Sustainability for the Bloomberg Administration.

Archie Lee Coates IV is a co-founder and partner at PLAYLAB, INC., an extremely multi-disciplinary Los Angeles-based creative studio founded with Jeff Franklin in 2009. With no particular focus, the studio explores themes using art, architecture, and graphic design to initiate ideas including Plus Pool, an initiative founded in 2010 with Dong-Ping Wong and Oana Stanescu to build a water-filtering, floating swimming pool in the East River.

Stephen Whitehouse is a landscape architect and planner who focuses on the environmental quality and social vitality of places. With Laura Starr he founded Starr Whitehouse, an interdisciplinary practice in New York which is committed to making urban density livable. His award-winning work includes the LEED-Platinum Bushwick Inlet Park on the East River in Brooklyn, Southwest Park in Hoboken which combines public space with stormwater management, outdoor social spaces at new urban residential communities, and public space and resilience planning on the Rebuild by Design BIG U plan for Lower Manhattan.

Varun Kohli joined Buro Happold as the Head of Sustainability in New York. He is an associate principal with previous experience on projects globally incorporating a multitude of sectors including commercial, retail, multi-residential, master-planning and hospitality. Varun has worked on projects throughout the United States, Asia and Central America. He has nearly two decades of work experience with New York based architectural firms, where he played a key role in integrating environmental analysis to the design process.Organized byAIANY Marketing and Communications Committee and International Society of Sustainability Professionals, New York Chapter

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