Project Manager, The Commonwealth Club of California
As an architectural designer, Piper Kujac advocated for clients to make their projects more sustainable, but she didn't always win the argument—cost being the biggest barrier. Today, she is about to finish her work as the owner representative of the Commonwealth Club’s new headquarters building in San Francisco and is proud to say it has many energy-efficient, sustainable design features.
Piper received a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Oregon, where she developed an interest in sustainable design. Soon after moving to San Francisco, she began consulting on sustainable design projects and volunteering with the US Green Building Council Northern California Chapter as co-chair of both the Emerging Green Builders and the Residential Green Building Committees, and a test writer for the inaugural LEED for Homes accreditation exam in 2009. To help build the business case for green building, Piper chose to pursue an MBA focused on sustainability management from Presidio Graduate School.
Piper became an EDF Climate Corps fellow in 2012, consulting with the New York City Housing Authority, where she and her co-fellow developed six different solutions to cut energy and cost from 334 housing developments. She worked on low-hanging fruit opportunities, such as lighting retrofits and resident engagement programs, as well as more complicated projects, including energy models for power purchase agreements (PPAs) to size natural gas fuel cells on Staten Island, where energy rates are high. Piper’s approach to the fellowship was to “go in and fix what was immediately obvious, but also try to understand the bigger challenges.”
Piper's current project, converting an old, gutted warehouse along the San Francisco waterfront into the Commonwealth Club’s new, public HQs building has had its own unique challenges, but it has also been a great application of Climate Corps practices. While the narrow site is in the shadow of a taller building and is not a great candidate for renewables like rooftop solar, many energy conservation measures were taken throughout the building. These include LED lighting and plumbing fixtures on sensors, and sophisticated trickle vents integrated into the glass façade, coupled with ceiling fans to cut down on HVAC energy use.
Building for a non-profit means every dollar was raised from donors, and fortunately the Board has been fully supportive of the investment in sustainable design. Piper has enjoyed the stakeholder engagement process that has been tedious at times, but in the end, has made for a better project. “After this, I want to apply my skills to larger building portfolios, where energy efficiency and resource conservation can be achieved at scale.”
Piper's advice to EDF Climate Corps fellows
"Figure out what your host wants out of this and clarify the deliverables, then see what else you can do. Don’t expect people to tell you what to do, a lot comes from teaching yourself. Other EDF fellows and alumni are also really helpful. It’s a deep dive in a short amount of time. Go all in, and have fun with it!