Uploaded May 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago
Globally, the building sector's heating, cooling, and lighting energy demands result in the most fossil carbon emissions. Individuals, companies and builders generally don’t know about the many transformative options for making low carbon, healthy green homes and workplaces. Without a demand for sustainable choices and examples to see in your community, builders, contractors, sustainable designer and equipment will not flow through supply chains to markets.
Margaret Reynolds, MAR ’81 will take us through her eco-retrofit project for a house in Cambridge, England using Passive House methods. The Passive House method is the subject of excellent free weekly international Zooms on Passive House Accelerator, funded by NYSERDA (New York State Energy Research and Development Authority). She will discuss how the case study of this house is used, along with some 100 other projects, by a local climate organisation to encourage, inform and demonstrate ways of making buildings into climate solutions.
Melissa Marsh, MAR ’04, will discuss how her company designs sustainable, next-gen choices for existing and new workspaces, both corporate and remote.Sustainability factors are an important consideration. Many options are available for renovations and new designs today, but owners and inhabitants need to be aware of and ask for them.
Allison Friedman, MBA '05, founded Rate It Green, a business that shares green building information and experience in a community of online and regional groups. She has collected a directory of green building professionals and products, and the website posts a calendar of events from many sources. She'll tell us about how she finds, vets and gets information about building green and sends it out to the world.
Speaker Bios:
Margaret Reynolds, MAR ’81, a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects, started her advocacy for low-energy building design and eco-retrofit while finishing her M.Phil in Environmental Design at Cambridge University. She has worked alongside numerous research groups and charities, including Cambridge Carbon Footprint, Transition Cambridge Energy Group, and the UK Association for Environment-Conscious Building. A recipient of grants and fellowships, she has worked for several local firms but has worked from as a sole practitioner for many years.
In addition to her MIT Masters of Architecture and M.Phil from Cambridge University, Margaret holds a B.S. from Harvard University, and studied at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris.
Melissa Marsh, MAR '04, Founder & CEO of PLASTARC, applies social research and encourages occupant engagement to design workplaces that help clients leverage their real estate for optimal value. She has also developed coursework, lectured and offered presentations on integrated workplace design in Europe and North America. She is currently the President of the MIT Club of NY.
Allison Friedman, MBA '05, founded and runs Rate It Green. Inspired by early work in consumer research and restaurant design, she is dedicated to helping improve access to green building products, services and construction.
Globally, the building sector's heating, cooling, and lighting energy demands result in the most fossil carbon emissions. Individuals, companies and builders generally don’t know about the many transformative options for making low carbon, healthy green homes and workplaces. Without a demand for sustainable choices and examples to see in your community, builders, contractors, sustainable designer and equipment will not flow through supply chains to markets.
Margaret Reynolds, MAR ’81 will take us through her eco-retrofit project for a house in Cambridge, England using Passive House methods. The Passive House method is the subject of excellent free weekly international Zooms on Passive House Accelerator, funded by NYSERDA (New York State Energy Research and Development Authority). She will discuss how the case study of this house is used, along with some 100 other projects, by a local climate organisation to encourage, inform and demonstrate ways of making buildings into climate solutions.
Melissa Marsh, MAR ’04, will discuss how her company designs sustainable, next-gen choices for existing and new workspaces, both corporate and remote.Sustainability factors are an important consideration. Many options are available for renovations and new designs today, but owners and inhabitants need to be aware of and ask for them.
Allison Friedman, MBA '05, founded Rate It Green, a business that shares green building information and experience in a community of online and regional groups. She has collected a directory of green building professionals and products, and the website posts a calendar of events from many sources. She'll tell us about how she finds, vets and gets information about building green and sends it out to the world.
Speaker Bios:
Margaret Reynolds, MAR ’81, a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects, started her advocacy for low-energy building design and eco-retrofit while finishing her M.Phil in Environmental Design at Cambridge University. She has worked alongside numerous research groups and charities, including Cambridge Carbon Footprint, Transition Cambridge Energy Group, and the UK Association for Environment-Conscious Building. A recipient of grants and fellowships, she has worked for several local firms but has worked from as a sole practitioner for many years.
In addition to her MIT Masters of Architecture and M.Phil from Cambridge University, Margaret holds a B.S. from Harvard University, and studied at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris.
Melissa Marsh, MAR '04, Founder & CEO of PLASTARC, applies social research and encourages occupant engagement to design workplaces that help clients leverage their real estate for optimal value. She has also developed coursework, lectured and offered presentations on integrated workplace design in Europe and North America. She is currently the President of the MIT Club of NY.
Allison Friedman, MBA '05, founded and runs Rate It Green. Inspired by early work in consumer research and restaurant design, she is dedicated to helping improve access to green building products, services and construction.
