Buildings + Beyond Podcast
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Charlotte Matthews
Charlotte Matthews is the Head of Affordable Electrification at Google. Her career spans building design, construction management, real estate development and tech, always with the goal of finding scalable solutions to reduce the climate impact of buildings.
At Google, Charlotte leads a cross-functional team developing a product to help utilities address the competing pressures of energy affordability and transitioning homes from fossil fuels to clean electricity. Charlotte moved to Google from Sidewalk Labs, an Alphabet startup focused on urban sustainability and affordability. Prior to that, Charlotte was the Vice President of Sustainability for Related Companies, a large owner-developer of mixed-use neighborhoods.
Charlotte taught for several years in Columbia University’s Masters in Real Estate Development program and holds a BSc in Environmental Science from Brown University.
Fun fact: Once upon a time, Charlotte Matthews worked for Steven Winter Associates as a Sustainability Consultant!
It’s not every day we get to interview someone with such a diverse background of project experiences. Whether it was working for an architect, developer, construction manager, or tech startup, our guest for this episode has leveraged her passion and expertise as a sustainability professional to come up with some pretty impressive solutions for buildings.
In this episode, Robb and Kelly chat with Charlotte Matthews, Head of Affordable Electrification at Google. Charlotte reflects on her experience working for different firms as a sustainability professional and shares some of the challenges she faced when attempting to improve the operational efficiency of buildings. Throughout the episode, the group discusses why buildings don’t perform as expected, the importance of benchmarking and normalizing, and the impact of dynamic energy pricing.
This episode marks our first ever video podcast! Check it out on SWA’s YouTube page and let us know what you think.
We hope the video component brings our listeners closer to the conversation and provides a sneak peak into our lives as building science nerds podcasters. Let us know what you think!
Performance Gap Studies:
“The P3 Higher Education Summit examines campus infrastructure challenges faced by colleges and universities nationwide, and how new approaches to procurement, risk, planning, and asset management are helping campus planners and facility managers deliver critical projects nationwide.
Join over 600 college and university representatives, developers, and design-build professionals for two days of project delivery discussions and networking. Check out P3HigherEducation.com to learn more and to register. Opportunities for sponsorship are still available.
Register with code SWINTER for $100 off your registration!
Send your feedback and questions to podcast@swinter.com
Buildings and Beyond is the podcast that explores how we can create a more sustainable built environment by focusing on efficiency, accessibility, and health.
Buildings and Beyond is a production of Steven Winter Associates. We provide energy, green building, and accessibility consulting services to improve the built environment. For more information, visit swinter.com.
Hosts: Robb Aldrich | Kelly Westby
Production Team: Heather Breslin | Alex Mirabile | Dylan Martello | Ian Slakas
