Grow. Connect. Thrive. This year’s “Women’s History Month” theme—“Leading the Change: Women Shaping a Sustainable Future”—captures the momentum behind leaders redefining how communities and the built environment evolve.
Nowhere is that shift more evident than in the green building movement, where women are helping reshape an industry long associated with a different narrative. At U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) California, that progress is more than a talking point—it is embedded in the organization’s structure. With a woman-majority staff, a C-suite that is three-fourths women and a Board that has been guided largely by female leadership for more than a decade, the nonprofit reflects the future it is working to build.
The impact is measurable. Research from McKinsey & Co. shows companies with at least 30% women in executive roles outperform their peers by double digits. Here, that leadership comes into focus through the voices shaping it day to day. Our conversation brings together USGBC professionals Melanie Peck, Chief Programs Officer; Robyn Eason, Senior Advisor of Policy & Advocacy; and Carrie Hester, Chief Development Officer—three leaders translating vision into measurable impact across the built environment.
Peck oversees program strategy and delivery, connecting sustainability goals to real community outcomes through a people-first approach informed by more than two decades of experience, including leadership roles at Seattle City Light and The Energy Coalition.
Eason leads policy and advocacy efforts with a systems-driven lens, drawing on deep experience in equitable development and sustainability strategy. She previously built an award-winning program for the City of West Hollywood and held key roles in LEED certification and program leadership.
Hester guides development and advancement, bringing more than 20 years of experience growing mission-driven organizations. Her work centers on aligning people, partnerships and purpose to accelerate impact.
What do you think women bring to the movement around sustainability, resilience and equity?
Peck: When we talk about the climate crisis, we have to recognize that it’s deeply intertwined with the existing cracks in our social fabric. In the U.S., women often face a “double burden,” where systemic economic inequality meets a heavy responsibility for caregiving; when a climate emergency hits, it’s usually women who have to forgo paid work to keep their families afloat.
We see this play out in the data—take California, for example, where nearly a third of women-led households are ‘energy-burdened,’ meaning a massive chunk of their income goes just to keeping the lights on. Because women also make up nearly 60% of the elderly population most sensitive to extreme heat, these risks aren’t just theoretical; they are life-and-death.
But the most inspiring part of this story isn’t the vulnerability—it’s the leadership. Women have become the absolute nucleus of environmental justice because they tend to lead through collaboration, trust-building and a holistic view of how systems work.
The results are actually staggering: research shows that companies with gender-diverse boards are 60% more likely to cut their energy consumption, and on a national level, increasing women’s political empowerment leads to a significant double-digit drop in carbon emissions.
By reframing ‘care work’ as a vital form of climate resilience, women are moving us past short-term fixes and toward a long-term, equitable vision for the future. They aren’t just participating in the movement; they are the blueprint for how we’re actually going to solve this.
Eason: When we think about our grandmothers, our mothers, our sisters, our aunties, our daughters and even Mother Earth herself, the through-line connecting them all is that they are nurturers. Women bring an inherent ability to love–to lead with love, to care with love, to inspire with love, to co-create with love, to design with love, to protect with love and to love fiercely.
This capacity for great attunement with the environment, for designing with dignity, for seeking values-driven community-led solutions, and for centering perspectives and lived experiences often overlooked yield outcomes in the built environment that are multi-faceted and multi-layered.
Frequently holding multiple roles in a household (parent, elder caregiver, daily household duty holder, income earner outside the house, etc.), women regularly bring viewpoints from these roles into the intersectional sustainability movement, be it in building design, policymaking, advocacy, community programming and other pathways for impact.
Hester: Women are foundational to community engagement, often driving initiatives through volunteering, social networks and grassroots organizing. Studies show us women are more likely to participate in civic activities. They are crucial for building healthy communities, serving as change agents, and fostering social cohesion.
Our sustainability work across industries relies deeply on stakeholder engagement and women play a critical role.
Why is Workforce Development at the center of so much discussion today? How has your path helped you connect all the dots and envision pathways?
Peck: At its core, workforce development is more than just job training—it is the intentional alignment of human potential with the economic needs of the future. In California, we are standing at the intersection of a massive green boom and a rapid technological shift.
While sustainability already supports hundreds of thousands of jobs, meeting our 2030 climate mandates requires preparing nearly one million new professionals.
This is the single most important investment we can make: creating a future-proof ecosystem of workers who are as adaptable as the technology they manage, from smart grids and predictive analytics to the essential construction trades.
My own path—spanning roles as a teacher, climate disaster volunteer, and apprenticeship leader, to executive positions at Seattle City Light and The Energy Coalition—has taught me that high-level strategy only works when it connects to the individual. Now, as Chief Program Officer at USGBC California, I’ve seen firsthand that everyone deserves the dignity of a family-sustaining career.
As an architect of human systems, my goal is to ensure this pipeline is inclusive, especially for those historically sidelined. We aren’t just fixing buildings; we are rebuilding the middle class through the lens of environmental and economic justice.
By reframing community care as a form of climate resilience, we aren’t just reacting to the future—we’re leading it.
How does the strategic investment in and integration of workforce development and advocacy-driven policy create a “force multiplier” effect for your mission?
Peck: At its core, our work is about playing the role of the ultimate connector and convener in California’s green transition. By tying workforce development directly to our advocacy, we create a “force multiplier” that turns high-level policy into real-world community wealth.
We aren’t just pushing for tougher building standards in a vacuum; we’re simultaneously building the “talent bridge” through programs like our Green Building Corps, which provides hands-on internships to students and early-career professionals.
A big part of that impact is building capacity for the long term—we aren’t just training individuals; through our California Building Performance Hub, we are helping organizations and businesses scale up so they actually have the infrastructure to support and mentor this incoming wave of workers.
We also bridge the gap for innovators through our Net Zero Accelerator, ensuring that as new technologies emerge, we have the human systems in place to deploy them.
This approach flips the script: instead of climate policy feeling like a regulatory headache, it becomes a shared engine for economic mobility. By bringing together building owners, policymakers, and a diverse, future-proof workforce, we’re making sure the shift to net-zero is a deeply human win that lifts up our entire ecosystem
What do you appreciate about policy as a change agent in this space? What got you interested in policy+sustainability?
Eason: Policymaking is not for the faint of heart. It is a potent avenue for change at a broad scale and requires a thoughtful approach that considers the complexities of multiple scenarios all at once. In sustainability, the complexities of policymaking are amplified because of how intertwined and interconnected the sectors are.
Policies on energy use in buildings can be impacted by policies on indoor water use. Policies on outdoor water use can be impacted by policies on site design. And on and on. So it takes a massive amount of knowledge and know-how to successfully design and subsequently implement policies that yield intended outcomes.
I became interested in policymaking after working on the project planning and implementation side of the work for many years. During that time, I often realized there were so many decisions that were made upstream that impacted what one can or cannot do downstream. This made me really curious about working at the policy level, where I can collaborate with community members, industry experts, knowledge holders and other leaders to influence the built environment at a macro scale.
The rewarding parts of this work are the constant lessons learned, the need to constantly update policies, keeping up with industry trends and maintaining consistent feedback loops with those implementing the policies. Nothing remains static and if we are lucky, we see the ripple effect of impact over time.
When considering your area of development, what are the most important characteristics women bring to this field? What’s most important to consider about development in today’s world?
Hester: Women bring a relationship-based transformational approach to development, focusing on trust, transparency and long-term engagement rather than just transactions. They drive innovation through impact-focused giving and storytelling, often leading in areas like sustainability, social justice, education and health.
This research also shows that women bring high emotional intelligence, empathy and active listening to donor stewardship—focusing on the donor’s priorities instead of the organization’s.
This type of leadership has real results of impact. The results show us executive teams with at least 30% women outperform those without gender diversity by double digits. Women make an impact.
Women are also largely the ones who make the decisions regarding donations. Women are either the sole decision maker or at least an equal partner in charitable decision making in nearly 90% of high-net-worth households. Women also hold a significant and rising share of corporate sustainability leadership roles, with 54% to 63% of sustainability executive positions at large companies held by women.
If you’re not yet convinced of the growing philanthropic power of women, female-controlled assets are now projected by McKinsey to nearly double to $34 trillion, representing about 38% of total U.S. assets, by 2030. There is a moral and financial case for women in leadership.
