Day on the Job as a Sustainability Manager
We have full-time sustainability managers at all our divisions. By sharing their sustainability expertise with their colleagues and local trades and suppliers, evaluating our sustainability performance at a division level, and providing data and insights to sustainability leaders across the organization, they play an essential role in enabling Mattamy to achieve our sustainability commitments.
We spoke to three of our sustainability managers – Melanie (Ottawa, Ontario), Matthew (Raleigh, North Carolina), and Ben (Tucson, Arizona) – about their role and their contribution to Mattamy’s sustainability performance.
What does your typical workday look like?
Melanie:
A typical workday starts bright and early to meet with our build team and trade partners at one of our sites. We do site inspections, training sessions and testing to ensure we are maintaining a high standard of work.
Matthew:
Each day is something new. Frequently, I communicate with our trade partners on waste, energy efficiency and products in our homes. Internally, I’m always looking at future projects to see what can be implemented before going to my team to advocate for sustainability-based upgrades.
Ben:
A typical day starts with emails, then I’ll run down my checklist to ensure projects are moving forward. I get out in the field frequently for trash and safety udits, SWPPP (Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan) inspections, and collaboration with builders for process improvements and assistance implementing sustainability strategies.
What is particularly challenging about building homes in your region?
Melanie:
In Ottawa, we are in a slightly different climate region than our counterparts across North America, which often means that we can’t use the same products that are available to them, and we are required to set up additional channels and source new products.
Matthew:
Raleigh has hot and humid summers and cold enough winters where the construction of our homes must be able to handle everything. Design, materials and techniques must be picked out carefully because there is no such thing as a sustainable home that’s not built to last.
Ben:
The biggest and most overlooked details impacting sustainability are quality of installations and how each system or component of a home works with the others. The challenge is to ensure consistent quality, performance and interfaces between and across the work done by your trades.
How do you help your division work toward Mattamy’s sustainability goals?
Melanie:
We are currently pursuing licensing through the ENERGY STAR® for New Homes program, which ultimately is our first step in lowering our operational carbon footprint; this will be further reduced when we bring more communities into our Net Zero Ready portfolio.
Matthew:
The first thing we did in Raleigh was set up tracking systems for all our sustainability metrics so we could establish a baseline for our current practices. After seeing where our higher GHG emissions spots were, we’ve been able to prioritize and find alternatives.
Ben:
I identify methods and materials that can reduce GHG emissions, analyze costs and performance, and ultimately implement solutions that drive our homes to higher quality and more sustainable buildings.
As a local sustainability manager, how do you help maintain a company-wide standard of sustainability achievements?
Melanie:
I participate in weekly meetings with the Canadian team and monthly meetings with the North American team. Ultimately, we are all facing different challenges, but it has been so beneficial to run ideas by everyone and gain different perspectives on various challenges.
Matthew:
All the sustainability managers work in different markets with different challenges, but we’re all chasing the same thing. We are all looking at similar technologies or techniques, so sharing of findings occurs frequently. I’ve worked with colleagues across North America, and we’ve been learning together, trying different things, and celebrating our successes.
Ben:
Arizona is ahead of many parts of the U.S. in terms of building code adoption. I can share what I call “the recipe” for things like ENERGY STAR certification. We all meet monthly to discuss various nationwide topics and share both successes and failures with each other.
What has been your biggest sustainability achievement so far?
Melanie:
Providing direction and support to our team, which has taken us from Ontario building code to ENERGY STAR and Net Zero Ready communities in our first year.
Matthew:
I’d say my biggest contribution to Mattamy is coordinating the onboarding, training, and our development of using Ekotrope as a tool across the U.S. The software allows us to evaluate our homes for potential upgrades and measure GHG reductions.
Ben:
Mattamy Tucson has become the first production builder in our market to achieve U.S. Department of Energy Zero Energy Ready Homes certification. We have also diverted more than 1.5 million pounds of concrete and masonry waste away from local landfills and into the recycling stream.
Get to know Mattamy
What’s it really like to work at Mattamy? Hear from our team members as they share their own Mattamy stories.