Saloni Baral
Connor Chignell
Case Western Reserve University - Weatherhead School of Management
Chris Laszlo
Gabriela Cuconato
Keep this story going! Share below!
Emerald Built Environments is a sustainability consulting firm that focuses on helping companies build greener buildings. They are based in Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States of America. They have worked on numerous projects with entities such as Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland Clinic, The Ohio State University, Big River Steel, etc. They have helped clients construct everything from university centers and residence halls to apartments and retail stores while promoting sustainability throughout the design process. Their main services include helping companies receive sustainable building certifications, creating sustainability roadmaps, and assisting in carbon reporting.
Laura Steinbrink, Principal & Managing Member at Emerald Built Environments, and her team have been able to develop unique sustainability solutions that provide their clients with long-term financial and performance success. They believe that sustainability has the ability to add value to businesses, and their two main offerings to achieve this are sustainability initiatives and net zero planning. In order to effectively assist their clients, they have a solidified innovation process that helps them design and implement their products.
Listen and strategize: In order to be of service to their clients, consultants must first ask questions to understand the company’s goals and design constraints. Then, they can help build an action plan to achieve those goals. While creating these strategies, the consultants must consider budgets, stakeholder input, use cases, and financing requirements.
Evaluate and plan: After defining a client’s goals, the team can now define the scope in which they operate and define objectives that their service should achieve. Defining these design components will help the team assess their progress and keep the project on track. They also keep their stakeholders involved throughout the design process, increasing the likelihood of success during design implementation.
Implement: Throughout the entire design process, the team will continually ensure that the overall goals are being met. They also ensure that the metrics effectively measure the design’s ability to meet the objectives.
Test and measure: Lastly, accredited commissioning professionals will ensure that all the design systems and components are implemented in a way that fulfills the client's requirements. Their team also uses analytics to gather performance metrics and actively improve their current design. They will typically participate in a Continuous Improvement process to validate building designs, installations, and operations.
Steinbrink, a founding member of Emerald Built Environments, originally wanted to pursue a legal career and studied political science for her undergraduate studies in college. After working at a paralegal law firm for a while, she pivoted to a role within the nonprofit sector, where she worked for about 15 years. She worked in program management and development within that nonprofit and then found herself leading it. However, she did not feel like she was on a journey; she was just doing things rather than having a purpose behind doing them. But after she switched jobs and started working in the Community Relations department of University Hospitals, she finally found inspiration for a company like Emerald Built Environments.
When the Seidman Cancer Center and the Ahuja Medical Center of University Hospitals were being constructed around 2011, students from Case Western Reserve University started writing letters to the University Hospitals administration advocating for them to be built sustainably. Basically, they wanted those buildings to achieve human and economic development goals without depleting natural resources and disturbing the environment. Steinbrink received many of these letters and ended up writing a business case for the sustainable development of these buildings. However, she saw this opportunity as a new opening for her career. She also found inspiration from her friends who ran a business centered around social responsibility. After gaining the support of a colleague who oversaw the new University Hospitals buildings' construction, they joined forces. They founded Emerald Built Environments in 2012, making this their 11th year in operation.
Through the founding of this company, Steinbrink has seen that “business is an agent of change” and is able to see the tangible impact of her work on the environment as well as her clients; as a result, she is able to “wake up every day and feel connected to work” she does.
A large portion of the work that Emerald Built Environments does involves LEED certifications. A LEED certification bolsters a company's credibility as it is a globally recognized symbol of sustainability and leadership. On a global scale, buildings with these certifications help reduce the overall amount of waste produced, decrease the number of environmental resources used, and promote a healthier external environment for humans. LEED-certified buildings typically have better indoor conditions, improving the internal environment that individuals may have to work and reside in. For example, office buildings that Emerald Built Environments has worked on typically include wellness rooms, ergonomic desks, and meditation rooms, which are meant to promote human health and productivity.
Emerald Built Environments also helps its clients create a sustainability roadmap in order to plan a sustainable future. Often, a company must take many steps to transition into more sustainable practices, so they may feel overwhelmed or not know how to best achieve their sustainability goals. However, with Emerald Built Environments’ consulting services, clients can receive advice on how to reach their goals while also getting a feasible timeline to achieve them. Helping companies create their vision makes understanding and effectively implementing any necessary changes easier. As a result, the services that Emerald Built Environments provides help even more companies and buildings achieve sustainability goals and do their part in preserving the environment.
Lastly, Emerald Built Environments’ services in carbon reporting help companies understand their current carbon footprint and production levels. This initial report can display how well a company promotes sustainability while also showing areas where it must improve. After gathering this initial information, Emerald Built Environments can help the company identify the changes it must make and create the sustainability roadmap. All three of these services promote building sustainability, which then reduces the damage done to the environment and promotes human health globally.
Emerald Built Environments takes pride in the services and communication they can provide their clients. The overall outcomes of their services are innovative, but Steinbrink sees the most innovation stemming from how they approach their work. They excel specifically where business and buildings intersect. By using a diverse team, they can give first-class service with first-class execution. Half of the team consists of the typical people you'd find in building sciences. This team includes mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, and certified energy managers. These people have the technical skills needed to perform the services they advertise. However, they believe that the other half of the team is where they can really stand out. This other half of the team comprises people with liberal arts backgrounds, business degrees, and master's degrees. Business education allows them to speak the business language and communicate better with customers but still have the technical abilities one would expect. Steinbrink herself had a strong background in political science through her undergraduate degree. Still, she also received a Master’s Degree in Sustainable Business, strengthening her business acumen and making her an effective leader.
Steinbrink also emphasized the importance of “doing to ourselves what we want others to do.” Emerald Built Environments' mission is to promote sustainable development, so they take great pride in making their own offices LEED certified and “being a good steward to our employees” through fair practices. Implementing their practices into their own business has strengthened their credibility in the eyes of their customers, providing them with more opportunities for growth and a greater scale of impact throughout the whole world.
The companies they collaborate with also see clear economic benefits from Emerald Built Environments’ innovation. At each phase of a building's existence, distinct resources can be leveraged to achieve sustainability goals. Taking advantage of these opportunities can bring added value to buildings in various forms. For instance, they can yield economic advantages such as reduced energy expenses, access to tax breaks, and the potential for increased rental rates. Furthermore, these efforts can bolster the project's and company's reputation, as businesses prioritizing social and environmental responsibility are more attractive to investors and community members. Not only does this drive commerce, but it also fosters a positive relationship between a developer or owner and the surrounding community.
One specific project that Emerald Built Environments worked on was with Big River Steel, helping them become the first-ever LEED-certified steel production facility. Upon opening in 2017, Big River Steel achieved two Gold and two Silver LEED certifications on its Osceola production site. This achievement was challenging as all of their competitors have limited their LEED efforts to executive buildings and R&D offices. A steel mill consumes so much energy and water as part of the manufacturing process that LEED certification seems impossible. But with the combination of Big River Steel’s Flex Mill™ technology and Emerald Built Environment’s expertise, they made it happen. With this technology being so new, it wasn't easy to quantify the savings that it created, which were needed to apply for certification. By engaging the review team in a discussion about the mill and what makes it unique, Emerald was able to help them evaluate the new technology. This review process compared patent filings and process designs to existing energy documentation guidelines to create a model of the mill’s energy and water baselines and projected savings. When it came to the mill and the other three buildings on the campus, Emerald implemented an integrated design process. This process allowed all those involved in the project to focus on the final product requirements and ensure the best outcome possible. Through this, the company met 14 standards and design parameters in producing the facility and its modular spaces.
Two of the four main buildings on campus earned Silver, and the other two earned Gold. Big River Steel also committed to several sustainability practices on their 1,300-acre site, which included the following outcomes: protection of an ancient Quapaw Burial Mound, a minimum of 30% recycled material on buildings constructed, over 5 acres of new trees planted, over 80% of the construction waste produced diverted from landfills, 100% off the process waste and stormwater captured, retreated, and returned to the Mississippi River, 30% of the wetland acres were mitigated and protected, over 50% of the natural areas on the property were preserved and protected, and over 40% of the building materials sourced locally. These actions exemplify to many companies that LEED certification is worth it and can be achieved: they need to put effort into promoting sustainability.
Emerald Built Environments also fulfills its social responsibility by gearing part of its marketing strategy towards climate change awareness. They see it as their corporate duty to help people find their way into making a difference in the world. In Steinbrink’s words, “Everybody has an opportunity to do their part in reducing global emissions in their home, work, and purchases.”
Get stories of positive business innovations from around the world delivered right to your inbox.
Laura Steinbrink, Principal & Managing Member
