As Director, Sustainability at NORR, Blake leads the firm’s global program to achieve the AIA 2030 Commitment and the Structural Engineering (SE) 2050 Challenge. It’s a tall order, but he believes the alignment of clients, cities and countries adopting the UN Sustainability Development Goals will help to advance the ultimate objective of decarbonization. Over the past 20 years, Blake has been ingrained in change agency, from traditional sustainability (resource conservation, smart planning, density, walkability) to resiliency (mitigating the risks of severe weather due to climate change) to health and well-being (designing to promote physical, emotional, and cognitive optimization) to equity (universal accessibility and beyond). His professional footprint has helped to humanize architecture.
Urban heat is harming our cities and the people who live in them. A phenomenon called the urban heat island effect is on the rise and local-level decision-makers must act expediently to execute place-based resiliency strategies to mitigate the impacts.