Free SEAOC Webinar Series: Sustainable Design 

Wednesdays • 12:00–1:00 PM PT • April 22, May 20, and June 24, 2026

About the Series
SEAOC invites you to join expert speakers as we dive into a three-part webinar series on Sustainable Design. The series dates will be Wednesday, April 22, Wednesday, May 20, and Wednesday, June 24. Each webinar will be held from 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. PT via Zoom. In the spirit of driving awareness and education of sustainable design, the SEAOC Education Committee and Sustainable Design Committee is now offering this webinar series at no cost to attendees. Please invite friends and colleagues to join and listen in on this topic that affects us all.

Zoom link for Wednesday, April 22 can be accessed here:April 22 Zoom 

AIA can self-report for learning credits via the form linked here. 

Schedule

State of the Industry

Date: Wed, April 22, 2026 | 12:00–1:00 PM PT

In the opening webinar of our three-part embodied carbon webinar series, we will be joined by four industry professionals from various fields. They will provide participants with a summary update on the current state of structural engineering and sustainability in the industry. Attendees will hear about AIA CA's proposed AMMR to simplify compliance via the CALGreen WBLCA performance pathway, updates on SE2050, CLF's brand new policy calculator, and updates on CARB's progress regarding their proposed embodied carbon reporting framework.

Mike Malinowski, FAIA
Consultant, American Institute of Architects of California
Michael F. Malinowski, FAIA, is a consultant to the 11,000 member  American Institute of Architects California.  He helped spearhead the four-year effort that culminated in the adoption of the first mandatory code requirements for embodied carbon with three alternative compliance paths, maximizing impact as well as flexibility.  This success provides a guiding light for similar measures evolving across the country, shifting the complex building industry in making embodied carbon part of ‘business as usual’.

Malinowski’s work with a diverse team of subject matters drew on leadership skills gathered in his multidimensional background: Leading Sacramento’s Applied Architecture in work on existing buildings; Founding the Streamline Institute to work on permit streamlining regionally and nationally; Community leadership including Chairperson of Sacramento’s Development Oversight Commission and Design Review commissions; AIA leadership including presidency of AIA California, AIA Central Valley, service on the AIA National Board, ICC IEBC Committee two terms, and past and present service on the AIA National code committee. 

John O'Hagan
Engineer, Forell | Elsesser
John is an Engineer with Forell | Elsesser and a part of the firm’s Carbon Neutral initiative and SE2050 Commitment.  He has been a member of SEAONC since 2020, and is the past chair of both the SEAONC and SEAOC sustainable design committees. Under his leadership, the committee published a resource hub to better inform SEAONC membership on how to design with sustainability in mind and worked to form relationships between SEAOC and other sustainability focused groups such as CLF, AIA COTE, and CARB.

Luke Lombardi, PE

Luke Lombardi advocates for the evolving role of structural engineers in the built environment. Luke’s background as a practicing engineer is central to his understanding of materials and the construction industry. He has become an emerging leader on embodied carbon as co-chair of the SE 2050 Program and co-lead of the CLF Los Angeles Hub. He hopes to empower others to be curious and collaborate on today’s solutions to the industry’s biggest challenges.

Mel Chafart, PE
Lead, Carbon Leadership Forum
Mel Chafart is a licensed engineer and research Lead focused on Low Carbon Buildings at the Carbon Leadership Forum. He is focused on data-driven insights into decarbonization strategies and helping practitioners have up-to-date, clean data at their disposal to make accurate and impactful design decisions. Prior to joining the CLF, Mel was a structural engineer at Buro Happold where he assisted in the design of steel and concrete structures in the US and abroad, helped develop internal embodied carbon assessment tools, and built out Buro Happold’s portfolio of benchmarked projects in the US. At CLF, Mel’s recent work includes leveraging Python and other data science tools for the preparation and analysis of WBLCA tool outputs for the CLF WBLCA Benchmark Study and California Carbon Report. He is also a major contributor to SE 2050’s Data Science Team and their work on the SE 2050 Database. Mel helped analyze over 500 projects submitted by over 100 firms through the SE 2050 database. The Data Science Team’s work has been published in Structures Magazine and in an upcoming Technical Report for the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Myth Busting: Case Studies to Ease Your Anxieties

Date: May 20th, 2026 | 12:00–1:00 PM PT

The second webinar in SEAOC's three-part embodied carbon webinar series will focus on myth busting inaccurate preconceived notions or perceived risks associated with specifying and designing with lower-carbon materials. Attendees will hear from three industry experts who have successfully demonstrated embodied carbon reductions through their case studies. The webinar will focus on the City of Boulder Hospital deconstruction and reuse project, LC3 use on the California Science Building, and the prefabricated straw-insulated wall by Verdant Panel.

Anthony Dente
CEO, Verdant Structural Engineers and Verdant Building Products
Anthony Dente, PE, is licensed across the US, CEO of Verdant Structural Engineers and Verdant Building Products and is the vice president of the Cob Research Institute. Verdant Building Product is deploying their carbon-storing, straw insulated, structural wall panels, developed under an EPA SBIR grant. Verdant Structural Engineers assists with permit acquisition as well as product, research, and code development for low carbon structural solutions. He was the lead engineer for the Cob (Monolithic Adobe) Construction Appendix in the International Residential Code, as well as the Hemp-Lime (Hempcrete) Appendix, both the first of their kind in the US. Anthony is the chair of the structural sub-committee of the TMS Earthen Modular Masonry Standard Committee developing a needed adobe code. Anthony authored Essential Cob Construction with New Society Publishers.

Alexis Feitel
Senior Manager Mass Timber, Cambium Carbon
Alexis is a strategy-focused embodied carbon leader with 10+ years of experience in structural
engineering and vertical construction, motivated by innovation and at-scale climate impact. She has
engineered over 2.5MM sqft of floor area, delivered North America’s largest salvaged steel traceability
program, and published comparative WBLCA case studies. Now leading Mass Timber Strategy at
Cambium, Alexis leverages her expertise in building systems, timber, and material reuse to transform
mass timber sourcing. She is dedicated to connecting underutilized wood to building projects, enabling
modern, transparent, and community focused results.

Branden Dong
Associate, Arup
Branden is an Associate on the structural engineering team in the Los Angeles office. Since joining Arup, Branden has designed and delivered on a wide range of multidisciplinary projects utilizing advanced structural analysis and performance-based engineering for structural and seismic design applications. These include a wide array of building types such as arts and culture, commercial, education, government, healthcare, research labs and residential. He values working closely with architects, builders, and other engineering disciplines to develop holistic and pragmatic design solutions within the built environment. Branden also has a passionate interest for developing integrated design solutions which are realized through collaborative and multidisciplinary efforts across entire project teams.

Bring It Home: Resources For The Community

Date: Wed, June 24, 2026 | 12:00–1:00 PM PT

In the last webinar of SEAOC's three-part embodied carbon webinar series, we will focus on resources available to the structural engineering community to help inform and standardize sustainability principles in practice. The first part of the webinar will focus on SEAONC's intricately developed Resource Hub, a self-made wiki focused on sustainability in structural engineering resources. The second part of the webinar will focus on the recently released ASCE SEI Prestandard, which details standardized ways to model structural elements in WBLCA.

Marisa Nolasco
Speaker Title and Company
Speaker Bio Coming Soon!

Marissa Visconti
Structural Engineer, Arup
Marissa is a Structural Engineer at Arup and Chair of the SEAONC Sustainable Design Committee. She serves as a sustainability champion within Arup’s Structural Engineers Sustainability Hub and Implementation teams, where she helps integrate embodied carbon reduction strategies into project workflows and design practice. Her work focuses on translating carbon accounting frameworks into practical, buildable structural solutions that align with project constraints and contractor realities.

Luke Lombardi, PE

Luke Lombardi advocates for the evolving role of structural engineers in the built environment. Luke’s background as a practicing engineer is central to his understanding of materials and the construction industry. He has become an emerging leader on embodied carbon as co-chair of the SE 2050 Program and co-lead of the CLF Los Angeles Hub. He hopes to empower others to be curious and collaborate on today’s solutions to the industry’s biggest challenges.