Lori Ferriss named Goody Clancy’s Director of Sustainability and Climate Action

Lori Ferriss, AIA, PE, LEED AP BD+C, a leader in sustainable stewardship for the built environment, has taken on a newly created role as Goody Clancy’s Director of Sustainability and Climate Action. In this role, she will lead firmwide research and project initiatives, and will advocate within the broader profession for policies and practices that advance climate action goals.  

“Lori’s leadership in this role will be critical to enabling us to accelerate innovation in sustainability across the firm,” said Goody Clancy president David Spillane, AICP, RIBA. “Her leadership will help us deepen our support of education clients who share our commitment to the practice of ecologically and socially sustainable design—a key goal of the firm’s strategic planning initiative.”  

At Goody Clancy, Lori plays a leadership role on projects at educational institutions that are renewing heritage campuses while advancing climate action goals. She serves as project manager and forensic specialist on numerous Goody Clancy projects, including building renewals at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, and UMass Lowell. She also acts as a firmwide resource on sustainable design, including serving as the sustainability and building performance lead through early design of the Irving Institute for Energy and Society at Dartmouth College—a net zero-ready project.  Her sustainability leadership includes incorporating life cycle assessment as an integrated step of the design process. Prior to joining Goody Clancy, Lori’s work as an architect and structural engineer included leadership roles on notable institutional projects such as the renovation and addition to the historic Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University.   

In addition to the many contributions Lori has already made to Goody Clancy’s work, she plays an important role in leading the broader design community in understanding building reuse as a key measure towards meeting climate change mitigation goals. At the national level, she serves as a founding member and co-chair of the Zero Net Carbon Collaboration for Existing and Historic Buildings (ZNCC), a collaborative committed to achieving a zero net carbon built environment through responsible reuse of existing buildings that was formed by APTI, AIA, RAIC, ICOMOS, and Architecture 2030. Most recently, the City of Boston asked Lori to serve on its carbon mitigation policy Technical Advisory Group. In February, her article for ArchitectureBoston on embodied carbon attracted significant attention both locally and nationally.