Ask the Expert: Joanne Perdue

Joanne Perdue is this year’s winner of the CAGBC Lifetime Achievement award, in recognition of her 30-year career advancing green building in Canada.

Under Perdue’s leadership, the University of Calgary has been recognized as the top ranked school in Corporate Knights’ 2017 Greenest Campus Index and among the world’s top 5% of institutions advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in 2020 and 2021 by the Times Higher Education University Impact Ranking. Outside of her work at the University, Perdue is Co-Chair of The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s Climate Action Engagement & Enablement Plan Steering Committee and sits on their Committee on Regenerative Environments. She also served on CAGBC’s National Board of Directors from 2014 to 2020. We recently interviewed her to honor her successes and contribution to the advancement of green building practice.

Tell us about how you became involved in green buildings and sustainability

Growing up, I spent a lot of time in the forests of central British Columbia. This instilled in me a deep connection to the beauty and abundance of the natural world. I saw first-hand the splendor of nature from the height of summer to -40C days of winter. I also saw the vast environmental degradation associated with extractive resource industries.

Buildings are incredibly resource consumptive in their construction and over their lifespan, seeing the environments impacts of this consumption and from climate change is a powerful motivator for change. This commitment has been inherent in my career path from the beginning. A pivotal project earlier in my career was the C.K. Choi building at the University of British Columbia. This pre-LEED project completed about 1996 established a North American model for what defined a sustainable building. It was not only the innovative sustainable design and material features that set this project apart, but also the team of women that co-led and brought this project to life. This project transformed the career trajectories of every member of the project team, including myself. After 15 years of specializing in ‘sustainable’ building and community design, I transitioned into the post-secondary education sector for the opportunity to lead a much larger scale of change towards human and ecological health.

The University of Calgary has been recognized for its adoption of sustainable practices and ranks highly among post-secondary institutions for its advancement of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Tell us about a project or initiative for which you are most proud and why.  

For the past three years UCalgary has been ranked among the top 5% of global universities for progress in advancing the SDGs. This outcome reflects the collective leadership and innovation of a large campus community. This spans our research and partnerships, teaching and learning, and campus operations. What I am most proud of at UCalgary is the foundation we have laid through our focus on building leadership capacity. This encompasses staff across campus as well as experiential learning opportunities in sustainability projects – including green buildings – for thousands of students. We are preparing a new generation of sustainability innovative leaders for the critical work that lies ahead.

Specific to the area of green buildings, back in 2007, UCalgary was the first university in Canada to attain a LEED platinum building certification and last year they were the first university in Canada to attain certification under the Net Zero Carbon Building Standards. Between these milestones UCalgary has undertaken many certified projects and continuously progressed in the decarbonization of our campuses. Our Climate Action Plan commits to carbon neutrality by 2050 and to date we have reduced campus GHG emissions by about 36% representing close to 90,000 tonnes. Our next big step is the decarbonization of the main campus district energy system and we will complete our plan for this early next year. Universities play an important role in modeling sustainability pathways and I am proud of the leadership UCalgary is demonstrating.

Did you have any mentors or role models that helped shape your perspective on the green building industry? Have you taken on a mentorship role at this stage of your career and, if so, what advice do you give your mentees?  

I was fortunate early in my career to work closely with two amazing women leaders – Eva Matsuzaki and Cornelia Hahn Oberlander. They modelled vibrant and values- centred leadership and in retrospect I recognize how influential this was for me. I view mentorship as bi-directional. Good insights come from everywhere and the complexity of our global challenges requires many and diverse perspectives. I learn so much from younger leaders. In terms of advice to offer, take time to clarify your values and your unique strengths, then create a leadership development plan that honours your values. If your work is not yet aligned with your values, change your direction. The other piece of advice is get involved outside of your organization. Over my career I have consistently volunteered. I have learned so much and I am part of an amazing national network of colleagues.

The industry has undergone many changes over the last decade with an increased adoption of sustainability and green building practices. What are some of the challenges / opportunities you see the industry facing in this next crucial decade? 

A big challenge I think a lot about is the trap of incrementalism and quick fixes, particularly in climate action efforts. Notwithstanding the many efforts to date, over this next critical decade the industry needs a much different scale and pace of change to decarbonize the sector while concurrently building resilience to the increasing severity of impacts from climate warming. We also need to do this within the finite carrying capacity of our planet. We need to look critically at our approaches and supporting tools and ask, are these enabling the transformation we need?

The risk of incrementalism is that it creates complacency with simply doing less bad, which distracts from the larger and more complex problems at hand. This substantially increases risk and cost to future generations who will be left facing far greater challenges than us today. It also allows the continued rapid degradation of our natural world upon which we and future generations fully depend. The climate and biodiversity crisis are not a technology, policy, or procedural crisis. We have the information and knowledge to act thus I think the challenge we have is fundamentally an ethical dilemma. This is both the challenge and the opportunity that we hold.

You were recently presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award as part of CAGBC’s Leadership and Green Building Excellence Awards. What does it mean to you to be recognized in this way? 

It is a tremendous honour to receive the CAGBC Lifetime Achievement Award as it recognizes contributions over the arc of one’s career. It was a big surprise to me, and I am humbled to be recognized in this way. At the same time, it does not feel like a time of celebration. The pace of climate change and biodiversity loss is vastly outpacing our collective response and the built environment is a very large contributor. The scale of these changes is unprecedented in the timeline of human civilization. We have a once-in-a life-time opportunity in our hands, what will we choose to do with it?