Design the Future

Hosted by Lindsay Baker & Kira Gould

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Episodes

128

Latest episode

Aug 2026

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EN-US

About the show

Women are living, learning, and leading towards a sustainable future. Their stories can help us all accelerate toward that vision in the built environment. Design the Future is a podcast created to elevate and explore the voices of women driving sustainable practices in the built environment and related fields. Lindsay Baker, a sustainability and social impact leader, and Kira Gould, a writer and communications strategist, host these conversations.

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60 recent

September 17, 202646 min

Gayathri Unnikrishnan on the social dimension of sustainability

Gayathri Unnikrishnan has spent her career working at the intersection of design, human health, and sustainability. Today, she is the founder and CEO of Liveable, where she helps design teams, manufacturers, and organizations understand the human impact of their work and make a stronger case for solutions that are better for people. Her new book, People Positive , offers a practical framework for bringing human impact into decisions about buildings, products, and communities. She also hosts the Changing Tomorrow podcast. She’s focused on the social dimension of sustainability. This arena has been underserved, she says, but also notes that progress is going to be swift, she says, “because the infrastructure is in place. We are making the case for people positive solutions.” Gayathri talked about learning to trust her judgment (and making it available to the room!), finding her voice (and building platforms that require her to practice using it), how regulation has receded (and how we can respond), and where we are going from here.

August 27, 202642 min

Pauline Souza on curiosity and always asking “why can’t we?”

Pauline Souza, FAIA, LEED Fellow, LFA, WELL AP, and LEED AP BD+C, is WRNS Studio’s Director of Sustainability and co-lead of the firm's K-12 and Civic Studio. Her curiosity is her superpower. Pauline has led numerous projects with a passion for health, inclusivity and beauty--and for advancing the role of design as a medium for building a more sustainable, resilient, equitable future. Many of her projects are considered important case studies, such as the Sonoma Academy Guild and Commons, a LEED Platinum, Living Building Challenge Petal and Net Zero Carbon project, and AIA COTE Top Ten winner. Pauline says that she was initially drawn to school design because it is a project type where equity and advocacy for healthy conditions are considered primary conversations--and these were the conversations that she wanted to have as part of the design dialogue. She brings a tenacious leadership approach rooted in the idea that good design and sustainable design are synonymous and can be achieved at any scale and any budget. She is a member of the Architecture 2030 Board of Directors. And she is a generous sharer and collaborator who has dedicated time and effort to many peer networks and other groups that have been essential to progress in the AEC space.

August 20, 202645 min

Heidi Creighton on persistence, optimism, and building the case

Heidi Creighton is Principal Design and Planning Manager at the City of Santa Monica, California. She is spearheading circular economy initiatives, including the creation of Circular SoCal in coordination with AIA Los Angeles, CLF-LA, and USGBC California. Heidi is FAIA, a LEED Fellow, WELL AP, a Fitwel Ambassador, and creator of the Collective Impact speaker series. Heidi was intentional about her non-linear career. She has worked in architecture firms; in engineering, consulting, and construction organizations; in a nonprofit; and now she’s on the owner side with a municipality. She has a deep understanding of the industry and movement and insights about how to be effective. One tip is that we should “not get too comfortable in our roles, she says. And she has guidance about how we communicate: “Being a good listener, being inquisitive and curious about any project or any client that you're working with is always good to help you build your case. Talking about resiliency, health and well-being, and the circular economy are great gateways to broadening the conversation and getting buy-in. People want lower utility bills and to improve health and well-being. Communities want local job opportunities and economic growth.” Heidi works in the City of Santa Monica’s City Services Building (known as City Hall East) . It’s a Living Building project, of which she is justifiably proud. She invites us all to visit, and indeed, there is much to learn from the project. “We have an irresistible staircase with artwork and daylighting,” she says. “I love coming to work every day in this beautiful building. And achieving net zero water in a region that’s typically in drought nine months of the year, that was a big lift as well.”

June 4, 2026Episode 12640 min

Lauren Alger on infrastructure as climate solution driver

Lauren Alger is vice president and national director of sustainable design at STV, a multinational company focused on the design, engineering, and planning of infrastructure at all scales. Lauren, a civil engineer by training, is dedicated to transforming how infrastructure is designed, built, and measured, so it becomes a driver of climate solutions for our communities. She leads ASCE Infrastructure 2050, an industry-wide initiative to reduce embodied carbon emissions of infrastructure assets. She has been a leader with the New York Embodied Carbon Working Group (an AIA New York State effort) focused on actionable recommendations for reducing embodied carbon across the built environment. The group is issuing a key report this month. “It has been incredible to see this group evolve,” Lauren says. “It has shown me how much is possible when we make a choice to collectively show up. We all had the same belief: that we could, together, shape better outcomes for future generations.”

May 25, 2026Episode 12524 min

Lindsay Baker at Living Future 26

At Living Future 26 in Seattle, Lindsay Baker’s address was interrupted by a fire alarm. It was a false alarm, but it also persisted for a while, so the entire community got to witness Lindsay’s humor and grace as she continued her remarks. We decided to share them here. Lindsay re-recorded the talk for us without the aggressive interruption (such an on-the-nose metaphor for our times that it seemed surreal). Every year on this stage, Lindsay brings wisdom about the movement building that is under way. This year’s message is especially crucial. She talks about the signals in the world, what people in power do when they feel threatened, and what we can do right now to stay together, stay focused, and scale our progress.

April 30, 2026Episode 12432 min

Jill Sherman on developing buildings for a thriving future

For developer Jill Sherman, buildings are not just assets, they are support systems for a thriving future. Jill leads Edlen & Co.’s public-private partnerships and build-to-suit projects. Jill sources new deals and manages all aspects of the development process, with a depth of expertise at integrating non-conventional sources of financing including low income housing tax credits, new market tax credits, historic tax credits, tax-exempt bonds and urban renewal funds. “We are focused on developing work that is community focused, impacts underserved communities, and pushes the boundaries of sustainability to try to bring that to scale,” she says. One such project, the PAE Living Building , was “the world’s first developer-led Living Building” and the approach (it was a conventional capital stack model) will be studied for some time. Jill shared about her path to becoming a developer, which germinated in noticing needs in the community and a desire to do positive things. The key attributes for development work, she says, are deep curiosity, comfort with math, and a high tolerance for unexpected challenges. We were at the Living Future conference, surrounded by the community, so our question about “being part of the movement” resonated. “When I'm able to meet with like-minded developers and architects and contractors and engineers,” she says, “I do feel like we are all trying to, yes, move our industry forward, but more importantly, create some positive change in the world.”

March 26, 202644 min

Beth Heider on a career in the movement

Beth Heider is a thought leader at the intersection of high-performance buildings and sustainable design, global business strategy, and organizational leadership. As founder & CEO of Heider Sustainability Advisors, Beth supports businesses, organizations, and start-ups create more resilient, healthy, and just-plain-better solutions for the built environment. She led at Skanska USA for nearly two decades, including a six-year stint as the company’s Chief Sustainability Officer. Beth has been at the forefront of the green building movement since its early days in the mid-90s. A Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, LEED Fellow, and Living Building Hero, she has served on multiple organizations, notably as the Board Chair for the U.S. Green Building Council and Living Future. We talked with Beth about how she got interested in architecture, how she came to work in construction, and what it takes to “keep tough pups on the porch.”

February 19, 2026Episode 12147 min

Miranda Gardner on decarbonizing digital infrastructure

Miranda Gardiner is Executive Director of the iMasons Climate Accord (iCA), a non-profit trade association focused on decarbonization of digital infrastructure. She has an architecture background and has worked in a range of organizations -- design firms, associations, and tech companies -- giving her a special perspective. She sees herself as part of multiple industries and communities. Her leadership is marked by commitment to fostering collaboration and facilitating progress, highlighted by successful partnerships with Open Compute Project and RICS Tech Partner Programme, frameworks like the iCA’s Maturity Model, and volunteer engagements. In 2025, Miranda was recognized in Data Centre Magazine’s “Top 100 Women in Data Centers” and Capacity Media’s Most Influential People. We asked her about what advice she has for young professionals, especially as someone who has navigated into a field at the vanguard. She quoted the late Dr. Paul Farmer, who summarized his approach to intense, worldwide healthcare work as “doing hard things with friends.” Miranda says, “That’s it. We get up knowing that it is a challenge every single day. The advice I give is to remain consistent -- keep learning and asking questions and sharing and telling the stories.” Miranda shared some of the challenges in the digital infrastructure realm right now, and mentioned some data center work that she is watching with interest right now, including urban sites in existing buildings and with aggressive water and ecology strategies. “One issue that we’re looking at right now is water and the water-energy nexus,” Miranda says. “I am excited about the potential of this focus and how it relates to how these buildings are designed and how they relate to their communities.”

February 5, 2026Episode 12243 min

Lara Kaufman on embedding sustainability in design

Architect Lara Kaufman is a Design Principal based in Studio Gang’s New York office. As the firm's Sustainability Lead, she directs teams on implementation of holistic design approaches for decarbonization, water conservation, site ecologies, and healthy materials. An advocate for urgent climate action within the building industry, Lara is currently co-lead for the Carbon Leadership Forum’s NYC hub and engaged with other working groups promoting environmental policy, best practices, and education. Touching on reuse, Lara talked about “the alchemy of taking something that nobody cares about and turning it into something incredible that is transformed through adding on to it or collaging it with something else.” She shared about how she and Studio Gang teams get from big topics to benefits to people: “Often, we think about decarbonization, wellness, and biodiversity as these large priorities. But what’s powerful about the design process is that it makes sustainability tangible. We’re talking about real benefits that you can see and feel at the human and community level. If you integrate sustainability into the design concept, you'll have a better chance at implementing it and realizing it.”

December 18, 202546 min

Anjanette Green on being there and making change

Anjanette Green has more than two decades of architecture, design, and material research experience. She launched A Greener Space in 2016, the same year she ventured into the Peruvian Amazon to lead a team in a zero waste project. An advocate for alternative building solutions, she has travelled the world promoting research for bio-based materials. Address-independent, Anjanette can be found in remote areas of the world building with bio-based materials and learning from local communities. We talked about all the things: bio-based materials … indoor air quality … the importance of certifications … the big moves forward … and the big gaps that remain. When we talked about might guide others and Anjanette mused about how we learn about our industry and how we show up in our movement: “Nothing can replace the in-real-life experience,” she said. “And for me, that is incredibly important to show support, especially for the manufacturers that I want to prop up, but also for the job sites that need a helping hand. I'm the one who shows up with a backpack to a job site and says, “Where’s the hammer? Where is the earthbag?” I think that that’s the best way that a person can learn, and then I can be enough of an authority on a subject that I can then share that with other people.”