Kristen Dotson, Sustainability Services Director at The Miller Hull Partnership

We got to sit down and chat with Kristen Dotson, Sustainability Services Director at The Miller Hull Partnership. Kristen takes her passion and knowledge for sustainable designs and incorporates that into her work. The Miller Hull Partnership is an architecture firm known for their work in sustainable buildings, they designed the Bullitt Center in Seattle that is known as “the greenest office building in the world.” They are leaders in their industry as evident by earning the top spot in Architect Magazine’s Top 50 Sustainable Design Firms. See how Kristen got into the space and get her perspective on sustainability. 

How did you get involved with sustainability?

I always knew that I was interested in architecture, but I didn’t really know what I wanted to do in it. A friend of mine had seen a lecture by Sim Van der Ryn, who is an architect known for his sustainable designs. I read his book, Ecological Design, and I had my aha moment, it really resonated with me. I went to architecture school with the intention of pursuing a program with an ecologically green focus, but ended up in a program that didn’t really value it as much as I would have preferred. I debated with myself whether or not to switch programs, but ended up finishing it and ended up pursuing a second degree with the school of natural resources. It ended up working out pretty well because I was able to get a really deep education in architecture and also sustainable systems with ecological considerations. 

After I graduated from both programs, I ended up going into consulting for architecture on sustainable designs. It turns out that I actually loved consulting, more than I loved actual design. I’ve been doing that ever since and have consulted for non-profits, various architecture firms, and now I am an in-house sustainability consultant for The Miller Hull Partnership.

How do you define sustainability?

I would stick to the Bruntland Commission definition of sustainability which is, “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” However, I don’t actually like to use the word “sustainability” because it has this really complicated history, and everyone had their own definition. I actually like to think more about regenerative design, which I define as “building our environments symbiotically with our ecosystems.”

This forces us as humans to think about how we are taking the resources of our locations but also how can we give resources back in return, when compared to sustainability which is only using as many resources that the system can support. Regenerative design can be thought of as net positive versus sustainability which is net zero, and I truly believe we should be thinking in terms of regenerative design because we have so much degradation that already exists and we are fighting a deficit. 

What do people misunderstand or get wrong about sustainability?

From my experience, the biggest misunderstanding that people have is that they equate sustainability with rating systems. I think those rating systems are great, but being sustainable is much more complex than checking off boxes to become LEED certified. I believe rating systems are inherently flawed because they are limited in what they let you do and what they are thinking about. 

In order to truly be on a path to sustainability, we need to fundamentally change the way we do everything, and when companies/buildings get certified, they don’t actually change their behavior, it is treated as a one-off event. They got LEED certified, but they didn’t address any other areas that can be improved on, and they are not taking those lessons to their next project or any other aspect of their life. Sustainability should be treated like an ongoing journey, rather than checkboxes to tick off. 

What do you oversee in your role as soon as Sustainability Services director?

My work is split 50/50 between organizational initiatives and project specific work. For organizational initiatives, I spend a lot of time on just making our firm more regenerative, which encompasses aspects such as how we as a firm operate, how our office operates, how our culture moves, educating our people and doing research. 

For my project specific work, my overall goal is to help move them down the road towards more sustainable outcomes. That can include many different things such as helping them get LEED certified, providing several options to meet the clients’ needs, educating the project team so they can make more educated decisions. There is always something to do, it just depends on what the project requires at the time. 

There's a team of us that works on this, not just me. We have a diverse group of expertise that tries to work cohesively and have as many touch points as possible to make every outcome slightly better than it would have been otherwise or sometimes hopefully significantly better than it would have been otherwise, but we will take the small wins too.

When working with your clients, do they come to you with specific sustainability goals or do they rely on your guidance to set goals?

Both.  We’ve been very fortunate at Miller Hull, in that we've kind of been in the sustainability space since inception. The very first projects done by Dave Miller and Bob Hull were earth sheltered houses and semi off-grid structures so we've had that as part of our DNA from day one. Clients come to us for that reason, but we will get clients that come and say “I want a living building certified project and you guys have done that,” or “I like the Bullitt Center, I want something like that” or will have clients say, “You guys are known for this tell me what to do.” We basically have clients from all across the spectrum, those who know exactly what they want to those who seek us out for our expertise in the field.

Does The Miller Hull Group have its own company sustainability plan?

Yes, our sustainability plan is linked up on our website. It is our living document and is very much a work in progress, but it sets out our regenerative goals and our projects to achieve those goals. Our plan touches on a wide range of sustainability initiatives such as our project work, our office operations, and our design work. Unlike most other companies who have a publicly available sustainability action plan, we also include our implementation strategy so you have full transparency in how we are approaching our goals. We put a lot of effort into writing our action plan, so if we can shortcut that effort for anybody else, we are happy to do that. 

How does technology play a part in your sustainability efforts?

You know the old adage, “You can't manage what you don't measure.” So design technology is all about how do we measure where we're at and where we want to be, to see if you're making any progress. That could be from running whole building life cycle analysis, energy model analysis, daylight analysis, redlist case studies, etc. Any kind of technological analysis tool that lets us get data, puts us in a better position so that we can measure and therefore manage to better outcomes.

In terms of building performance technology, there's a lot out there right now and we're game to try the things that make sense and are proven to have benefit. I would say culturally Miller Hull is a little bit risk-averse, we're not going to just jump right into making a hemp-crete building, we want to know that it's not too risky. We really are trying to balance our culture for beautiful aesthetically pleasing buildings with new technologies that are coming out in the building industry to make them better.

Are there any challenges your firm is facing when it comes to implementing your Sustainability Action Plan?

Our plan is insane, our end goals across our plan are like a utopian vision of the future.  We're challenged on meeting all of those goals, because rather than setting our goals to be things we could achieve now we wanted them to be the best thing we could possibly think of. I would say that our biggest challenge is economics, it is always really hard to make a case for sustainability interventions because they currently are not the most cost effective options. We are forced to choose between the option that is better or the option that fits the budget we are given. Sometimes we can find solutions, but it is rare.

What actions can companies take now to address their sustainability efforts?

There are a ton of resources out there now, but I would recommend looking at the UN Sustainable Development Goals to see where it makes sense for your company to take action. Other than that, the most important thing any company can do is talk to your people. Start with your people, treat your people right and solicit their ideas. Ask your employees “What do you want us to do? Where as a company can we do better?” You have to ensure there is equity before you can start tackling sustainability. 

Whom do you admire in the sustainability industry?

I think a really great organization in this space is BuildingGreen, they are a non-profit based in Vermont, who are a reputable source for innovative green building news and product research. They are essentially a hub for all the great sustainability work happening in the built environment across the United States. All roads for building sustainability essentially lead back to BuildingGreen.