Deirdre McDonnell - Atlas Architectural Services
Nominated by: Gary Cole, Blue Sky Energy
Deirdre McDonnell’s business is one of the most sustainable oriented businesses in the area. She provides consulting services as ‘owner’s representative’ to people who are having a significant institutional or commercial construction project done for themselves. She has a tremendous knowledge of the various possibilities of sustainability from social implications in master planning of the usage of a site and a building, to the formal green building principles. With this in mind, she provides guidance to clients from beginning to end of the design and construction process assuring foremost that the client gets what they want and at the timeline and budget that they want, but always introducing sustainable possibilities in a timely and thorough manner.
Her contribution to large picture of implementation of sustainable practices is huge though her business. She carries a license in architecture, is LEED accredited, and ask her to see her poster she made as a child illustrating the ecosystem interrelatedness. It shows how far back awareness of sustainability has been in her thinking.
Nominated by: Deborah, Ruffing Montessori School
Deirdre McDonnell has a contagious passion for sustainability. Deirdre has inspired the Ruffing Montessori School community - our staff, faculty and especially our students - to embrace the opportunities that extend sustainability beyond bricks and mortar.
Deirdre McDonnell has worked with Ruffing Montessori School as our Owner`s Representative throughout an extensive campus redevelopment project since May 2005. While Ruffing has always considered itself to be "environmentally responsible," Deirdre`s passion and expertise on high performance building techniques and incorporating "green" into our curriculum have shown us we can do so much more in our quest to be a good global citizen and a model for other schools. With Deirdre`s expertise and guidance, she is helping Ruffing to become a living laboratory. Our building and grounds are becoming teaching tools where learning extends beyond walls and provides enormous potential for students to connect what they are learning in the classroom to the real world. In large part because of Deirdre, at Ruffing Montessori School we are doing as much as we possibly can with our own little corner of the universe to be a champion of "green" buildings and sustainability, and to send our students into the world as messengers of sustainability.
