Design the Future

Lauren Alger is vice president and national director of sustainable design at STV, a multinational  company focused on the design, engineering, and planning of infrastructure at all scales. 
Lauren, a civil engineer by training, is dedicated to transforming how infrastructure is designed, built, and measured, so it becomes a driver of climate solutions for our communities. She leads ASCE Infrastructure 2050, an industry-wide initiative to reduce embodied carbon emissions of infrastructure assets. 
She has been a leader with the New York Embodied Carbon Working Group (an AIA New York State effort) focused on actionable recommendations for reducing embodied carbon across the built environment. The group is issuing a key report this month. “It has been incredible to see this group evolve,” Lauren says. “It has shown me how much is possible when we make a choice to collectively show up. We all had the same belief: that we could, together, shape better outcomes for future generations.”

At Living Future 26 in Seattle, Lindsay Baker’s address was interrupted by a fire alarm. It was a false alarm, but it also persisted for a while, so the entire community got to witness Lindsay’s humor and grace as she continued her remarks. 

We decided to share them here. Lindsay re-recorded the talk for us without the aggressive interruption (such an on-the-nose metaphor for our times that it seemed surreal). 
Every year on this stage, Lindsay brings wisdom about the movement building that is under way. This year’s message is especially crucial. She talks about the signals in the world, what people in power do when they feel threatened, and what we can do right now to stay together, stay focused, and scale our progress.

For developer Jill Sherman, buildings are not just assets, they are support systems for a thriving future. Jill leads Edlen & Co.’s public-private partnerships and build-to-suit projects. Jill sources new deals and manages all aspects of the development process, with a depth of expertise at integrating non-conventional sources of financing including low income housing tax credits, new market tax credits, historic tax credits, tax-exempt bonds and urban renewal funds.

“We are focused on developing work that is community focused, impacts underserved communities, and pushes the boundaries of sustainability to try to bring that to scale,” she says. One such project, the PAE Living Building, was “the world’s first developer-led Living Building” and the approach (it was a conventional capital stack model) will be studied for some time. 

Jill shared about her path to becoming a developer, which germinated in noticing needs in the community and a desire to do positive things. The key attributes for development work, she says, are deep curiosity, comfort with math, and a high tolerance for unexpected challenges. 

We were at the Living Future conference, surrounded by the community, so our question about “being part of the movement” resonated. “When I'm able to meet with like-minded developers and architects and contractors and engineers,” she says, “I do feel like we are all trying to, yes, move our industry forward, but more importantly, create some positive change in the world.”

Beth Heider is a thought leader at the intersection of high-performance buildings and sustainable design, global business strategy, and organizational leadership. 
As founder & CEO of Heider Sustainability Advisors, Beth supports businesses, organizations, and start-ups create more resilient, healthy, and just-plain-better solutions for the built environment. 

She led at Skanska USA for nearly two decades, including a six-year stint as the company’s Chief Sustainability Officer. Beth has been at the forefront of the green building movement since its early days in the mid-90s.

A Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, LEED Fellow, and Living Building Hero, she has served on multiple organizations, notably as the Board Chair for the U.S. Green Building Council and Living Future.
We talked with Beth about how she got interested in architecture, how she came to work in construction, and what it takes to “keep tough pups on the porch.”

Miranda Gardiner is Executive Director of the iMasons Climate Accord (iCA), a non-profit trade association focused on decarbonization of digital infrastructure. She has an architecture background and has worked in a range of organizations -- design firms, associations, and tech companies -- giving her a special perspective. She sees herself as part of multiple industries and communities.  
Her leadership is marked by commitment to fostering collaboration and facilitating progress, highlighted by successful partnerships with Open Compute Project and RICS Tech Partner Programme, frameworks like the iCA’s Maturity Model, and volunteer engagements. In 2025, Miranda was recognized in Data Centre Magazine’s “Top 100 Women in Data Centers” and Capacity Media’s Most Influential People. 

We asked her about what advice she has for young professionals, especially as someone who has navigated into a field at the vanguard. She quoted the late Dr. Paul Farmer, who summarized his approach to intense, worldwide healthcare work as “doing hard things with friends.” Miranda says, “That’s it. We get up knowing that it is a challenge every single day. The advice I give is to remain consistent -- keep learning and asking questions and sharing and telling the stories.” 

Miranda shared some of the challenges in the digital infrastructure realm right now, and mentioned some data center work that she is watching with interest right now, including urban sites in existing buildings and with aggressive water and ecology strategies. “One issue that we’re looking at right now is water and the water-energy nexus,” Miranda says. “I am excited about the potential of this focus and how it relates to how these buildings are designed and how they relate to their communities.”