Dan Ackerstein, Principal
LEED Faculty, LEED AP - O&M

Dan Ackerstein has based his professional career on making the concept of sustainability accessible, useful, and meaningful in the business world. For the last decade that pursuit has been focused on sustainable building operations and the development, implementation, and application of the LEED for Existing Buildings. 

In 2008, Dan formed Ackerstein Sustainability, LLC providing sustainability consulting, training and LEED certification project management for a wide variety of clients including commercial properties, municipalities, private companies, and educational institutions.

Dan has been involved with LEED for Existing Buildings at every level since the program's origination. In addition to assisting the US Green Building Council in the implementation of the LEED-EB Pilot Program, Dan also worked with the USGBC to complete the draft and finalization of the LEED-EB Version 2.0 Rating System and Reference Guide as well as a host of additional guidance documents and support materials. Dan provided technical support and project consultation to many of the original EB Pilot projects and was the lead certification reviewer for 35 of the first 45 certified LEED-EB projects, including the first 30 projects to achieve certification.

When Dan isn't saving the environment, he is likely to be found surfing at Cowell's with his daughters, running the mountain trails outside Santa Cruz, or reading about sustainable seafood.

Risto Beatty, Sustainability Consultant

Risto Beatty is a sustainability consultant and decarbonization specialist based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Driven by his love of the outdoors and a compulsion to protect the natural environment, Risto leverages his expertise in architectural engineering, data analysis, and sustainable building design to daylight zero-carbon pathways for buildings, campuses, and portfolios.

Versed in all aspects of sustainable building design, Risto specializes in energy efficiency and decarbonization strategy. As a Certified Energy Manager and LEED BD+C Accredited professional, Risto has a deep understanding of the technical, economic and legal aspects of decarbonization, and is passionate about helping clients achieve their sustainability goals. He is committed to working with clients to develop and implement long-term, cost-effective solutions that will reduce their carbon footprint and improve their environmental performance.

Prior to joining Ackerstein Sustainability, Risto spent 8-years cutting his teeth at leading international sustainability consulting firms, Arup and Atelier Ten. He has supported a wide range of projects across a multitude of sectors and has lent his expertise to many of the nation’s preeminent corporations and universities including Google, JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, Harvard, Yale, and NYU.

Outside of work, Risto is likely to be found deep in the backcountry, exploring the mountains and rivers of Wyoming on his skis or in his kayak. 

Kelly Douglas, Sustainability and Visual Communications Consultant

Kelly Douglas is a sustainability and visual communications consultant based in Seattle. She blends her experience in urban ecology and sustainable design with her background in fine arts and writing to drive sustainability outcomes in the built environment.

Kelly started her career in sustainability at the University of Washington’s Integrated Design Lab, where she contributed to research on the health impacts of high-performance buildings and orchestrated all graphic communications. During her time at the Integrated Design Lab, she was awarded a grant to create a masterplan for sustainable exterior lighting for the UW Seattle campus. Collaborating with stakeholders from the lighting design industry and Seattle City Light’s Lighting Design Lab, Kelly developed a roadmap to sustainable lighting that integrates user experience, wildlife impacts, and energy efficiency. 

Prior to joining Ackerstein Sustainability, Kelly worked with Google’s Real Estate sustainability team on a range of initiatives, encompassing topics from climate resilience to healthy materials. Her accomplishments include establishing a process for achieving the Living Building Challenge’s Red List imperative on a major ground-up office development and publishing a public-facing booklet on Google’s Urban Ecology Program.

Kelly is a graduate of Whitman College and holds a master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Washington. Outside of work, Kelly can be found exploring the endless landscapes of the Pacific Northwest or happily immersed in an art project.

Shantala Gurjar, Sustainability Analyst

Shantala Gurjar is an analyst and researcher based out of Bangalore. Shantala is an engineer with a Masters degree in Systems and Industrial Engineering from the University of Arizona, Tucson. Prior to joining Ackerstein Sustainability, she worked in the manufacturing and supply chain software sector; her primary area of expertise is process efficiency and analytics. Her current work extends to a range of projects for commercial and institutional building operators. Shantala is an enthusiastic supporter of green and clean causes. She spends her weekends and holidays amidst nature photographing wildlife, birds and insects along with her husband and 14 year old son.

Adrienne Johnson, Building Performance Lead

Adrienne is an engineer and building energy professional working towards equitable building decarbonization. Adrienne joined Ackerstein Sustainability after working with Google’s Real Estate Design Performance team developing systems to ensure Google’s portfolio of ground-up buildings and development districts meet performance targets for energy, carbon, water, ecology, and circularity. She holds a BS and MS degree in Civil Engineering from Stanford, and is a licensed professional Mechanical Engineer.

Prior to working with Google, she was an Associate Mechanical Engineer at Point Energy Innovations in San Francisco, where she leveraged her mechanical design and energy analysis expertise to ensure the success of all-electric and other high performance building projects. She is the co-author of PEI’s UC Carbon Neutral Buildings Cost Study, and helped teach building decarbonization classes taught at both Stanford and Howard University. She is also the co-founder of the Building Decarbonization Learning Accelerator, which provides free building decarbonization teaching materials to professors at HBCUs around the country.

She has previously worked at the US Green Building Council, where she was a MAP (now Schneider) Sustainable Energy Research Fellow. From 2015-2017, Adrienne led an all-woman team of engineers to design and build a Net Positive Energy community center at a primary school in an underserved community in Cape Town. The project received the Malcolm Lewis IMPACT! Award, presented by the USGBC at the GreenBuild Leadership Awards ceremony in 2017. 

Adrienne is also one of the GreenBiz 30 Under 30, ES Magazine’s 20 to Watch: Women in HVAC, and an Environmental Leadership Program Senior Fellow.

Dior Meyers, Sustainability Intern

Dior Meyers is an undergraduate student at San Diego State University majoring in Sustainability and minoring in Business Administration. In her current position at Ackerstein Sustainability, Dior is responsible for providing the necessary research, tools, and data to advance the sustainability goals of our clients. Dior collaborates on larger-scale projects, including compiling data to understand corporate facility performance, updating issue briefs and slide decks, conducting research into sustainable furniture production and working with stakeholders to ensure that their sustainability practices are aligned with company goals. In addition, Dior manages a number of operational tasks at Ackerstein Sustainability, including building and managing tracking tools for internal projects as well as marketing and communications initiatives.

As a part of this company, Dior is thrilled about making positive and lasting changes to the environment and is eager to work her way towards her ultimate goal of becoming a Chief Sustainability Officer. Outside of her responsibilities at Ackerstein Sustainability, Dior also adores her position as a Community Assistant, where she oversees and mentors her floor of second year residential students. And, in her free time, she loves working on her small business selling handmade bracelets and cooking new recipes. Overall, Dior chooses to live by the motto: "Everything happens for a reason" and is not afraid to put her best foot forward.

Jennifer Pahua, Sustainability Intern

Jennifer Pahua is a current San Diego State University undergraduate completing her geography degree with an emphasis on the environment, sustainability, and policy. As an active member of the Geography Club she encourages responsible outdoor recreation amongst the student body. Her passion for environmental sustainability has led her to join Ackerstein Sustainability as a LEED-EB O+M Intern assisting in LEED recertification for SDSU’s Student Union, Aztec Recreation Center, and the Mission Bay Aquatic Center. Outside of her academic and professional endeavors she enjoys camping across National Parks and hiking with her Australian shepherd in tow.

Hannah H. Sokol, Sustainability Consultant

Hannah H. Sokol is an independent urban planning and sustainable real estate management consultant. Hannah previously spent five years with U.S. Equities Realty where she oversaw the firm’s Sustainability Program for their Asset Management Group.  As part of this work she directed the implementation of best practices in sustainable building management & operations for the portfolio and partnered with the City of Chicago on their sustainable initiatives for the commercial real estate sector.  

Additionally, Hannah has applied her multi-disciplinary background on a variety of real estate, development, and planning projects, including project management for LEED Certification, land use planning analysis, master planning and redevelopment studies for public, private and non-profit agencies.  Together with U.S. Equities’ Argentina office Hannah has consulted on LEED Certification projects in Buenos Aires, working with colleagues there to overcome the challenges of an emerging green building market and to advance environmentally sound practices in real estate. 

Prior to joining U.S. Equities, Hannah worked as a researcher with the U.S. EPA Region 5, the Delta Institute, and the University of Illinois at Chicago, collaborating on projects that examined sustainability and the built environment through the lens of market and policy influences.  Her work on Market Analysis for Construction and Demolition Material Reuse in the Chicago Region has informed policy decisions related to C&D waste diversion in the City of Chicago and Cook County and is referenced by a number of similar studies for other cities and regions. 

Hannah is a graduate of Earlham College and went on to receive a Master’s in Urban Planning and Policy with a focus in Environmental Planning from the University of Illinois at Chicago.  In her free time she enjoys time outside with her family, traveling, and exploring the streets of Chicago – and other cities - by bike.

Emma Taylor, Sustainability Program Manager

Emma Taylor is a Sustainability Program Manager based in Redwood City, California. Her work in the built environment is driven by her love of the natural world. She's most inspired when engaged in projects that enable people to live and work in joyful, sustainable environments.  

Before joining Ackerstein Sustainability, Emma worked with Google’s Real Estate Sustainability Team. Her primary function was to ensure that construction design teams, and building facilities teams, participated in Google's sustainability standards program. She led dozens of training sessions with global stakeholders and supported teams throughout the life cycle of project delivery. Emma also worked on initiatives involving indoor environmental quality research and sustainability data analysis. Previously Emma was a Project Coordinator for CBRE where she supported environmental compliance and wildlife preservation projects at Moffett Federal Airfield.

Emma received a degree in Environmental Studies from California State University Monterey Bay. When Emma is not hard at work driving sustainability initiatives in the built environment, she's likely on a hike, visiting a local coffee shop, or training at her Brazilian Jiu Jitsu gym.

Iunona “June” Harris, Sustainability Analyst

June was a part of our team from 2015 to 2018 as the student lead on multiple projects with the City of Chula Vista’s City Hall and San Diego State University’s Aztec Student Union, the Children’s Center and the Viejas Arena while completing her degree in Environmental Biology with emphases in Sustainable Tourism Management and Anthropology. Her passion for the environment led her to join the Mid-Atlantic Invasive Plant Management Team with the National Park Service as a Biology Technician in 2018. Today, she is pursuing LEED AP accreditation and works as Physical Scientist/Oceanographer at NASA’s Stennis Space Center.

Michelle Perez, Senior Engineer

Michelle was an engineer, project manager, and lead consultant for Ackerstein Sustainability from 2013-2016. While leading projects at AS, Michelle worked with clients like UCSD, SDSU, and the County of Ventura. In 2016 Michelle departed AS to return to UCSD, where she is presently the Interim Director of Campus Sustainability & Carbon Neutrality.

Sustainability doesn't end with buildings or a LEED plaque; it is a life-long conversation with the people, places and systems (natural and otherwise) around us.