This is a part of a series of blog posts amplifying community voices.

Nicole Isle is the Chief Sustainability Strategist at Glumac, a mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) firm employing 320 engineers and building sciences consultants across 10 offices. She is responsible for leading the firm’s 2030 Climate Commitment Action Plan to decarbonize its design portfolio and business operations, and she leads the firm’s Sustainability Team in their work to create innovative, high-performance solutions for the built environment at all scales. Together, they have led hundreds of new and existing building, campus and portfolio projects to achieve advanced climate and sustainability goals.

You have a degree in biology, which seems to uniquely complement working in sustainability at an engineering firm. What led you down a science-based path for college?

I spent a lot of time outdoors when I was growing up. Our family went camping a lot, which built my interest and fascination with nature. I’m grateful to my parents for making it a central part of my upbringing. It’s important to be in those spaces to build reverence and a stewardship mindset.

I volunteered at the Oregon Zoo during middle school, and then in college I studied biology at Oregon State because I had become interested in water systems, specifically fish and watershed ecology.

And this led to a career at a MEP design engineering firm?

Not right away. At first, I was at a natural resource consulting firm but became disenchanted with the permitting process. I wasn’t seeing any tangible results related to protecting nature. I decided to go back to school at Portland State to get a master’s degree in urban planning, so I could learn exactly how energy and water use can be reduced or improved.

That is what opened the door to urban development and the early days of green building and getting involved with LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design).

What is it like to lead an entire team of sustainability strategists, as it relates to the built environment?

Glumac is a unique place in that we have a dedicated Building Sciences Group comprising sustainability, energy, commissioning and enclosures teams. Collectively, that’s 65 people supporting a large portfolio of clients and a lot of the company’s work led by our Engineering Services Group. Our sustainability strategists have broad expertise in civil and environmental engineering, architecture, computational design, operations, construction, biology and urban planning and that brings a breadth of sustainable solutions to help clients advance their climate and sustainability goals.

Is it mostly new buildings you consult on, or is it existing structures as well?

New and existing buildings. We have clients that want to take their whole portfolios towards climate neutrality, and we help them achieve their climate goals first by learning about their energy use, so we can create a clear path to reducing environmental impact.

It sounds exciting and incredibly practical at the same time.

We get to do very exciting work. We have motivated clients, and we help them find real solutions – and that includes what it will cost, how long it will take and even potential funding sources.

What are the challenges in your work?

A big challenge is helping clients move faster and go further in the actions they’re taking to achieve 2030 or 2050 climate goals. We try to help clients find a clear path forward and move more quickly towards their sustainability goals than they might on their own, when time is of the essence.

Access to funding can still be a challenge too, even with the Inflation Reduction Act, which has a lot of funds earmarked for buildings. Our clients are asked to do more with less. They have to be really smart about prioritizing investments in new construction and modernizing existing buildings.

Have these challenges forced you to evolve your approach to the work?

It has forced us to pull from a larger suite of tools to understand how to prioritize our clients’ work. We use interactive dashboards to show clients the options they have. They can interact with the dashboard to gain many perspectives on the variables in a short amount of time.

It does seem that more needs to get done faster, and so hopefully people are taking more measurable action.

That’s true. I’m really excited about the acceleration in the market to reduce carbon and the focus on healthy environments. These priorities have more momentum across the industry than I used to see.

There was a time when we could provide a client with a decarbonization plan, but then no action would be taken because it felt like there was plenty of time to implement it. Now there is a sense of urgency, and clients are asking not just for a plan but strategy and timeline and costs and financing options. We’re tying planning to strategy to engineering and getting the work done, and that is really exciting.

Do you have any advice for women considering your field, or for those who are new to it?

Glumac has been a very supportive environment, and we have a significant number of women in leadership roles, including our sector leads, business development and marketing directors, our engineering services director, people and development director and CFO.

I have found that women are generally very supportive of each other. But in any business the days can fly by, and people can forget that collaboration is needed from everyone to move forward. We all fall into our habits, and it’s good to remind ourselves to advocate for each other.

For example: If a colleague speaks up in a meeting with an idea, another person can acknowledge it and maybe even expand upon it – in effect, amplifying the voice of the first person who spoke up.

All that to say it’s really important to believe in yourself and stand up for your ideas and the ideas of others.