Building a Sustainability-Driven Career

Maya DeHart is an Energy & Sustainability Specialist in CRB's Rockville, Maryland office. Her work is devoted to supporting sustainability across CRB and our clients. She also leads the Sustainable Design and Construction Community of Practice. In this LinkedIn article, in honor of Earth Week, Maya shares her journey toward her sustainability-focused career – from her childhood love of nature and the earth to her participation and leadership of sustainability initiatives at CRB.  

Read more from Maya on CRB's Insights blog:

How to successfully plan and execute your next sustainable building design

Zero carbon considerations for biotech facilities and operations

An Early Start to Sustainability 

I grew up in the mountains of Virginia, spending the first five years of my life in a home that was very sustainably focused. One example of this is a composting toilet that fed nutrients to our small orchard. Sustainability will always be grounded in this for me — the joy of a mutualistic relationship with the earth. It was not long before the reality of what it means to sustain healthy earth came to the forefront for me. At age seven, I became the youngest water quality monitor in Virginia, netting and counting species of bugs to assess the pollution levels that had entered the two creeks whose confluence was in my backyard. I learned science was a tool to enable our understanding and care of the world and as I grew from camper to camp counselor at the local nature camp, I knew my passion for the earth was something I wanted to base my life around expanding and sharing with others.

I chose my school based on bringing the fascination of chemistry and the environment together at Washington University’s Department of Energy, Environmental, and Chemical Engineering, knowing a “traditional” environmental engineering approach focused on measuring and mitigating pollution was not for me. I wanted to be involved in the up-front design of systems that could impact the world in positive ways. 

While sustainable career opportunities were growing at the time, I interviewed with CRB during my senior year of college and joined the company as a process engineer. I did not know what involvement sustainability would take in my work, but I did know that CRB had passion for people and making a positive impact on the world. Joining our Sustainable Design Expert Team (SDET) and working with people like Dean Landers who were using technical and creative skills to incorporate sustainability into our work, I found an opportunity that has only continued to grow. 

Sustainability Work at CRB 

In the seven years I’ve been here, CRB has grown to respond to both my own and other employees' passion for sustainability, as well as growing societal, market and policy demands. Sustainability has taken many forms that I have been lucky to be a part of — an expert team, a task force, a part of environmental social and governance initiatives, grassroots incorporation into projects, and most recently, carbon targets and expanding sustainability consulting for our clients. I am proud to say that we are now joining the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and are committing to science-based targets in 2023. While we develop these goals internally, we are also growing our sustainability services consulting that Jeff Wegner, PE, CEM, LEED AP started at a grass roots level more than six years ago - founding a growing team of CRBers who work with our project teams and clients to achieve innovative sustainability goals. 

CRB is focused on industries that are grounded in improving the health of the world, specializing in life sciences and food & beverage manufacturing facilities. While the end products of the manufacturing benefits the health of individuals, the impact of getting those products to market has not always been a focus. The built environment has an undeniably large carbon footprint and every lab, research and development, and manufacturing building makes an impact on the world. Acknowledging these realities, the definition of the health of the world has expanded to include the broader UN Sustainable Development goals in recent years. Life sciences & food & beverage companies are increasingly acknowledging the reality of climate change, tracking carbon emissions, and setting carbon reduction goals. These goals are expanding to water, waste, biodiversity, and equality and equity. The definition of sustainability is broad, focusing on people, planet, and profit to ensure all aspects of the world are sustained for the next generation. Sustainability is becoming proudly touted as a priority and demanded across existing and new buildings.

We have a unique challenge across these industries to step up to realistically meet and exceed these goals to support the future of the world.

These challenges are not staying siloed but being recognized as a place where a rising tide lifts all boats. Conferences are adding sustainability tracks and industry groups are creating Communities of Practice to share best practices. We will not overcome these challenges alone.

I am proud to have been a part of projects at CRB where we are designing and building net zero buildings and buildings aiming for water neutrality, and laying out realistic roadmaps for existing manufacturing sites to achieve zero carbon, zero waste, and minimize water. These are not small challenges, and they are more possible than ever as technologies improve, incentives increase, and priorities include keeping the earth a livable place. This is a world where we are seeing more natural disasters, more health challenges, and more human crises that are linked to climate change. Patients, consumers, and policy setters are expecting more and the earth is demanding that we recognize what it means to live in a mutualistic relationship with it. I am proud that CRB is ready to step up and not only face reality but be a part of making it better. I am lucky to be working with our teams and our clients every day to move towards a healthier planet.  

Read more from Maya on CRB's Insights blog:

How to successfully plan and execute your next sustainable building design

Zero carbon considerations for biotech facilities and operations