Consulting

Introduction

SHAC Consulting wears many hats! Broadly, we focus on policy projects related to sustainable design, architecture, and construction– basically, we cover everything surrounding the design-build projects SHAC’s other divisions (Tiny House in my Backyard [THIMBY] and Solar Decathlon [SD]). From curriculum design, to writing a handbook, we take on diverse projects related to the intersection of environmental design, city planning, the affordable housing crisis, homelessness, and architecture.

Past Projects

INTERNAL PROJECTS

    • Produce a simple yet robust framework for assessing the sustainability of (SHAC and external) projects across 4 categories (environment, health and wellness, social justice, operations)

      • Rationale: Many existing frameworks are costly, confusing, or don’t address the breadth of issues that SHAC projects aim to do

    • Increase accessibility, understanding, and accountability

      • Past design-build projects have suffered from a lack of reflection, critique, and insight into ways to improve workflow, collaboration, and outreach 

    • Use framework to create a master documentation template for projects 

      • In order to streamline the permitting and construction phases

    • Learning opportunities 

      • Members on this team have gained insight into building certification programs, which has allowed for enhanced preparedness when taking LEED exams!

    • Act as a living document, one source of truth for all SHAC members to use

    • Formalize SHAC knowledge/insights from past projects, and identify areas for improvement

      • Amassing best practices, and experience-informed into a single document/source

      • Conducting outreach post-publishing, and work with other organizations to make further improvements 

    • Core guidance/principles/values to THIMBY and SD design

      • Providing a brief historical survey of SHAC, and identifying core values and motivations that catalyzed our projects 

    • Encompasses framework and project life cycles

      • Tracking how each project developed month by month based on interviews, and archival research (ON HOLD)

INTERNAL PROJECTS

    • SHAC x CoE’s Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) x McClymonds High School in Oakland (MACK)

      • Developed a 4-month module-based curriculum to be taught at McClymonds High School in Oakland in collaboration with their upper division teaching staff and doctoral students from UC Berkeley’s Earthquake Engineering Research Institute EERI

        • A pilot program Consulting was a part of building from the ground up, and hope it will provide inspiration and guidance for future structural engineers and architects, particularly from BIPOC communities

        • Long-term goal of potentially scaling this program up to other local high schools as well (TBD)

      • UC Berkeley’s College of Engineering outreach coordinator, wanted to leverage SHAC’s insights around regenerative design, sustainable materials use, tiny home construction, and social justice

      • Contributed to three of eight modules

        • Module 1: SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS 

          • Based on the Living Future Certification Program’s Materials Petal

        • Module 2: PRINCIPLES OF REGENERATIVE DESIGN PT. 1 

          • Critique and analysis of how regenerative design was incorporated into past THIMBY projects  

        • Module 3: PRINCIPLES OF REGENERATIVE DESIGN PT. 2

          • Critique and analysis of how regenerative design was incorporated into past SD projects  

    • CYPLAN 98: Living Futures (Decal)

      • Initiated by Consulting founder, carried on by the Consulting team 

      • The Living Future framework, created by the International Living Future Institute, radically transforms the paradigm of design from one of doing less harm to one of actively doing good for the world

        • We created a course based on this framework 

        • Guest lectures from CED faculty and EBALDC

      • Course that walks students through the seven petals of the Living Building Challenge and the Living Community Challenge as a guide to envision a future that is socially just, culturally rich, and ecologically restorative

        • Discussion surrounding bold methods for going beyond sustainability, looking at topics such as urban agriculture, net-positive design, healthy and happy neighborhoods, universal inclusion, and biophilia. 

        • Examination of case studies regenerative design’s implementation within the built environment

    • C40 Competition

      • “Through this competition, cities identify under-utilised sites that are ready to be released and transformed and invite creative multi-disciplinary teams, to submit proposals that can serve as a model for city landmarks of the future.”

      • Our team (The Berkeley Builders), provided recommendations on transforming Vale de Pinhão, Curitiba’s primary industrial area, into a green innovation hub

        • The Berkeley Builders won first place in the competition 

    Check out the press release for our project!

    • Small House Inc. 

      • Collaboration with an early-stage nonprofit based in Boston that works with foster youth that have had experience with being unhoused/are in temporary housing placements 

      • Developed a life-skills handbook

        • Based on first iteration of a life skills handbook developed by the nonprofit earlier 

          • Critiqued, researched, and revamped every page and recommendation

          • Developed evidence-based activities to engage life skills handbook users 

        • 70 pages, 9 sections on various life skills (e.g. Self-Care, Career Development, Nutrition, Budgeting) 

        • Collaborated with media division on designing each page

    • City of Berkeley Public Works x Zero Waste Commission

      • The Commission

        • (1) Create a revised Zero Waste Strategic Plan for the City of Berkeley

        • (2) Advise council on zero waste and sustainability measures

        • (3) Collaborate with the Public Works Department on efforts to innovate in the management of unsustainable waste streams

      • Past Projects 

        • Brainstorming ideas for writing up a space allocation ordinance 

        • Green roof/living wall ordinance so that the Public Works Department’s Zero Waste Division can meet its SB 1383 compost procurement requirement 

      • Ongoing Project: Enforcement of CalGreen’s C&D Waste Diversion 

        • Currently, CalGreen, the agency in charge of all green building policy in California, has a 65% diversion requirement for all construction and demolition (C&D) waste

          • Diversion includes all waste streams aside form landfilling (examples: salvaging, recycling, reuse, etc.) 

        • The City of Berkeley has no enforcement mechanisms for holding contractors accountable to complying– this has led to most contractors being non-compliant (which doesn’t include all the landfilled waste from illegal contracting) 

          • C&D accounts for between 33 and 36 percent of all GHG emissions in the Bay Area 

        • SHAC has been tasked with researching and codifying enforcement mechanisms that would make it easier for staff to track and manage compliance

    • Upcoming: City of Berkeley Zero Waste: Space Allocation Ordinance and Planning 

    • Upcoming: City of Berkeley Stormwater: Mapping Equity of Waste Mitigation Services