Towards Zero Emission Business Operations: How to Reduce the Climate Impacts of Offices - 1.0 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

Julie Donofrio is an urban planner and community engagement specialist with nearly 20 years of experience in urban planning and design on a variety of scales, with a focus on creating equitable processes for community engagement. Currently she serves as the Co-Coordinator of OLIN Labs furthering research and development to support practice, and build a community of research and learning within the design community. Prior to OLIN she was the managing director of PennPraxis at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design, where she also served as a faculty member in the Department of City and Regional Planning, teaching graduate students for over 8 years. Prior to PennPraxis, she was an associate urban designer and planner at WRT in San Francisco and Philadelphia. She began her career as an urban planner with EDAW (now AECOM) in San Diego. Julie holds a Masters in City and Regional Planning and a Masters of Science in Historic Preservation from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Bachelors of Arts from Wake Forest University. 

Hussein Sayani is Senior Project Manager within Langan’s ESG Advisory practice and is part of Langan’s Sustainability Committee. He is a climate scientist with 10+ years of experience in climate change research, data analytics, and carbon accounting. He specializes in ESG strategy and disclosures, greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting, and climate risk assessments. He has assisted clients across a variety of industries, real estate, manufacturing, oil and gas, and agriculture, with developing GHG emission inventories, product carbon footprints or life cycle assessments, ESG disclosures and has advised clients on climate change projections and associated risks.

Ronnie Siegel received a B.A from Colgate University and an M.LA. from the University of Pennsylvania.  She founded the firm Swire Siegel Landscape Architects in 1984, and has promoted sustainability with the use of native plants, conservation of water, and storm water recharge in her work in Southern California for 40 years.  Most of her projects also focused on the design of nature-based play and learning environments for children in urban areas.  She has promoted the benefits of open space design for children was a guest lecturer for the World Forum on Nature Education in Nebraska and for similar conferences around the world.  In addition, Ronnie created a Global Interactive Art Project called Carry the EARTH, which inspired action and collected environmental action stories from around the world from 2018-2023.  She has written and illustrated an award winning fictional children’s book DISPLACED: A Story About Climate Change and How Displaced Animals Ring the Alarm.   

Ronnie is currently working with the US Green Building Council California to facilitate a collaboration with the ASLA on climate action by helping to organize a full day of nature-based solutions sessions at their annual conference in May 2024.  She is on the Biodiversity and Climate Action Committee of the ASLA and  helping to prepare resources for its members to facilite action.  

Amy Syverson-Shaffer is passionate about connecting people to nature and to each other. Her past work as a landscape architect and in business development frames her collaborative approach to taking on big challenges. Today, she is lending her design acumen and contextual understanding to leading sustainability for the modern craft manufacturer, Landscape Forms. Since 2023, she’s served on the ASLA Biodiversity and Climate Action Committee, working to bridge between key efforts by Landscape Architects and their industry partner community. On any given day, you'll most likely find her working in the garden.

Tamar works with Sasaki teams to develop sustainability and resilience goals appropriate for each project and access critical resources to reach those goals. She enjoys collaborating to integrate sustainability considerations throughout the design process, from preliminary programming through construction management practices.

In this era of climate change, she believes that every project is an opportunity to make a healthy and resilient contribution to our clients, our communities, and our planet.

Tamar works across all Sasaki disciplines, on projects as varied as net-zero campus buildings, resilience and sustainability strategies for cities and corporate clients, and minimizing carbon emissions from buildings and landscape projects.  She directs Sasaki’s Sustainable Leaders, training the individuals embedded in each project team responsible for project sustainability metrics and goals.

Tamar came to Sasaki with 25 years of experience designing educational and community buildings, both in the United States and with the Green Architecture Studio that she founded in Israel. She completed her master of architecture and bachelor of architecture at Harvard.