Cara Carmichael: Senior Consultant

Contact Information

Rocky Mountain Institute
Attn: Built Environment Team
1820 Folsom Street
Boulder, Colorado 80302

e-mail: BET@rmi.org
phone: 303-245-1003

With a unique blend of architectural and engineering experience and education, Cara Carmichael has a diverse portfolio of skills ranges from technical daylighting and energy modeling and analysis to big picture sustainability goal setting and integration for large-scale developments. She has contributed to a wide variety of project types, including commercial, large-scale retail and residential developments, educational facilities, and other mixed-use projects around the world. At RMI, she focuses on project management and creating and applying integrated, whole-system solutions.

RMI Projects

Some of Cara’s key to projects at RMI include:

• Irving Oil Headquarters – A new headquarters for Irving oil that will house 1,000 people located in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. The project has established aggressive sustainability goals including achieving carbon neutrality and LEED Platinum. RMI is providing sustainability consulting and technical analysis and Cara is leading the team as the project manager.
• The Canyons – A 3,500 acre mixed use development located in south Denver that will provide residents a plan that focuses on community based principles including integrated sustainability, rural character and the preservation of open spaces. RMI is providing sustainability consulting and visioning and Cara is managing this project.
• Summerlin Centre –  A 107 acre mixed use development in Las Vegas NV. This development consisted of primarily retail space and targeted LEED for Core and Shell Silver. RMI is providing Sustainability consulting and LEED coordination and Cara is managing this process.
• Makena Resort Development – 1,800 acres of high-end residential development in Maui that has an expansive, sustainability vision. RMI provided charrette coordination and facilitation to discuss the sustainability vision for the project and Cara led this process.
• Fort Collins Police Services Facility – A new, 98,000 SF police headquarters for Fort Collins. This project is targeting LEED Gold and was able to achieve aggressive energy efficiency measures and waste diversion targets. RMI provided sustainable design consulting, daylight and energy analysis and LEED consulting. Cara managed this process.
• Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority – The Hawaii Gateway Energy Center at NELHA is a 3,500 SF, net energy visitor center that that engages in various distributed and renewable energy research, generation, development, demonstration, education, and outreach activities. RMI provided LEED consulting and sustainable design consulting and Cara led the LEED consulting portion.

Background

Cara previously worked at ENSAR Group, a sustainable design consulting firm that merged with RMI to form the Built Environment team. While at ENSAR Group, Cara gained experience with climatic design strategies, energy analysis, charrette development, computer modeling, and daylighting design techniques. She consulted on a range of projects including daylighting and energy studies for K-12 schools, universities and national park facilities, and assisted with the development of sustainable design guidelines internationally. Cara also managed project data for an in-depth laboratory case study evaluated by the Green Building Tool, an international green building rating system.

Past Projects

• Fossil Ridge High School
• Palolo Chinese Home
• GB Tool Project Development
• University of Denver College of Law
• University of Colorado Memorial Center

Education

• Bachelors of Environmental Design, University of Colorado, 2003
• Masters of Civil Engineering, Building Systems Engineering, University of Colorado, 2009
  

Qualifications

• LEED Accredited Professional (both 2.1 and 2.2 NC)
• Green Points Certified
• American Institute of Architects IDP Program
• ASHRAE Student Member

Professional Affiliations/Recognition

• Colorado College, Presidential Advisory Council on Sustainability
• LEED EB Core Committee 2005-2007
• Sustainable Travel International 2005 (assisted with the development of training material for auditors)

Presentations

• “Barriers and Opportunities for Energy Efficient Buildings,”USGBC Colorado Chapter Conference, May 2009.
• “Integrated design process,” Guest speaker at the University of Colorado AREN 3010 course, Mechanical engineering, November 2008.
• “Integrated design and how it affects the HVAC engineer,” ASHRAE Rocky Mountain Chapter Conference 2008, August 2008.
• “LEED Overview and innovative project case studies”, Guest speaker at the University of Colorado AREN 3010 course, Mechanical engineering, December 2007.
• “Fort Collins Police Services-a LEEDing perspective to integrated design,” Colorado Chapter of the USGBC annual conference, Fort Collins, Colorado, September 2007
• “Institutional Applications of LEED,” Rocky Mountain Sustainability Summit, February 2007
• “LEED for Commercial Interiors in Action,” Greenbuild conference, November 2006 (voted in the top 10 presentations at the conference)
• “LEED Platinum for Rocky Mountain Institute,” Solar 2006 conference, July 2006
• “Hawaii Gateway Energy Laboratory,” Solar 2006 conference, July 2006
• “Daylighting strategies and case studies,” Guest speaker at the University of Colorado Daylighting Class, September 2005
• “Integration in LEED,” Women in Design, August 2005
• Moderator, Sustainable Resources, Sustainable Building Solutions, October 2004
• “Daylighting Design,” USGBC Colorado Chapter Fall Greening Conference, September 2004
• “A Sampling of LEED projects,” AIA COTE, July 2004

Publications

• “ Analyzing the real cost for green solutions in Labs,” Environmental Design and Construction, July 2008, Roundtable participant
  
• “Barriers and Breakthroughs for multi-tenant developments” Solar 2008 conference proceedings
  
• “LEED Platinum for Rocky Mountain Institute,” Solar 2006 conference proceedings
  
• “Hawaii Gateway Energy Laboratory,” Solar 2006 conference proceedings
  
• “Sustainable Innovation Design Strategies” Article in FMJ November/December 2004, Coauthor