March 2023
March 2023
Lotus Engineering & Sustainability
For my entire career, I have either worked in the public sector or directly supported the public sector in its environmental work. I know, firsthand, how important the work of the public sector is for sustainability. I also know that so many public sector sustainability professionals work on an island, either by themselves or with a small team, to promote initiatives and policies that have widespread, community impact. This can lead to frequent exhaustion or even burnout for people in roles where the work always feels urgent in the face of climate change.
In early March, I attended the USGBC Green Schools Conference. This one felt different than any other before. While I felt the energy and excitement of colleagues learning from one another, I also experienced a renewed enthusiasm for the work as a result of the conference. There was a sense of revitalization that my peers and I had been missing after so many years of remote connection. The sense of renewed purpose was palpable for all those in attendance.
At Lotus, one of my greatest joys is helping our clients feel like they have a skilled and passionate team behind them to accomplish their sustainability goals. Having a sense of community when we face the collective crisis of climate change is one experience that I know will help us achieve our goals to reduce emissions and build a thriving world for the future. As we move into Spring, I look forward to collaborating with my colleagues and clients as we make our communities more equitable and sustainable.
We are in this together!
Hillary
Welcome to the team!
Natalia Carminelli
Natalia was born and raised in Puerto Rico, surrounded by beaches, amazing food, and rainforests. This exposure instilled in her a fierce respect and appreciation for the natural environment. She later moved to Raleigh to pursue her bachelor’s in Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management. While in college, she was introduced to sustainability and realized all the work that needs to be done. This led her to move to Colorado to pursue her master’s in Sustainability Planning and Management at the University of Colorado Boulder. Through her program she was able to explore and develop skills around stakeholder engagement, business sustainability, and community development.
Natalia has worked in both the private and public sector. As part of her capstone project, she led the efforts to achieve B Corp Certification for a small coconut water company. Through this project, she evaluated every aspect of the business and the impacts on its stakeholders. Her work in the public sector includes developing a sustainable design report for future affordable housing developments and assisting with community engagement in the reimagining process of a sustainable business program.
Natalia is excited to join the Lotus team to support clients set and reach their climate goals while ensuring these are done from an equity lens.
FAVORITE THINGS: Long dinners with loved ones, summer nights, playlists that reflect your mood perfectly, the excitement on a powder day, quiet mornings, a cold coca cola after a hot day, Christmas in Puerto Rico.
molly Marcucilli
Molly earned her B.S. in Geographic Science from James Madison University in 2013. Soon after, she left the east coast and moved to Colorado, chasing her love for nature and the outdoors. While living in Aspen, she was dazzled by the natural beauty, as well as the City's progressive planning and transportation systems. Her fascination with the intersection of natural and built environment inspired her to pursue a master's degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Colorado-Denver.
After graduating from CU Denver, Molly joined Boulder County's Long-Range Planning & Policy team where she facilitated updates to the County's comprehensive plan and land use codes. From Boulder County she moved to the City of Denver's Community Planning & Development department, building upon her land use planning and zoning skills by conducting zoning review for commercial development around Denver. In her free time, Molly serves as a board member for her local RNO and also volunteers on the RNO's sustainability committee, promoting learning opportunities and community-based solutions surrounding sustainability within the Berkeley neighborhood.
Molly is excited to leverage both her background in land use planning & policy, as well as her passion for the natural world, to the Lotus team, supporting each client in reaching their climate, resiliency, and sustainability goals through the development and implementation of thoughtful, innovative, and client-specific strategies.
PLACES OF INSPIRATION: Anywhere I am walking/hiking with a friend or my dog (Bandit), my shower, a cozy coffee shop, I-70 when I’m stuck in traffic.
Candace Cohen
Candace grew up in Northern New Jersey, where she enjoyed hiking and volunteering for local river cleanups with her family. These experiences, along with much-anticipated visits to her cousins’ farm in rural Colombia, are what inspired her respect and appreciation for nature. This eventually led her to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Engineering Science, allowing her to create a concentration in Environmental and Sustainability Studies, at Vanderbilt University.
During her studies, Candace became fascinated with the interactions between society and the environment. She started to combine this with her passion for travel, participating in a field research program in New Zealand and interning at an environmental consulting firm in Tel Aviv. Candace then worked for the Sustainability Division at the Metropolitan Government of Nashville, where she helped with their transportation greenhouse gas inventory and conducted community outreach to promote sustainable practices within the city. Soon after graduating from college, Candace continued to pursue her love for the outdoors and moved to Colorado.
Candace is thrilled to join the Lotus team to provide data analysis support in order to help clients understand the sources of their greenhouse gas emissions and reach their climate goals.
LIFE GOALS: Learn how to produce music; Get better at snowboarding; Visit every place on my bucket list (Japan, Iceland, Vietnam, etc.); and Roadtrip to all of the best national parks out West.
Our commitment to Equity
AT LOTUS, WE KNOW OUR EXPERTISE IS A CATALYST TO ADDRESS THE CURRENT AND FUTURE IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE. HOWEVER, THAT IS NOT ENOUGH.
We recognize with humility that our role as consultants is to use that expertise to co-create solutions with communities. With this in mind, we commit to sustained collective action to heal past harms, uplift lived experiences, and dismantle systems of oppression to help all our clients realize a climate-just vision for their futures. We know environmental and climate justice is social and racial justice. We take this responsibility seriously.
TO ACHIEVE THE CLIMATE-JUST OUTCOMES WE SEEK, OUR WORK AS ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTANTS INCLUDES:
Working with our clients to recognize and identify actions to address the impact of past injustices and harms caused by inequitable policy decisions, financial investments, and other practices.
Engaging with communities in environmental justice, sustainability, and climate discussions to co-create decision-making approaches and processes that ensure equitable representation.
Using data, science, and engagement to connect sustainability with social and racial justice.
Acting on opportunities within each project we complete to advance equity outcomes for the communities and clients we serve.
Listening, learning, and staying curious to continually improve and advance our equity approach.
Our commitment to equity is ongoing. We will be updating our website with each practice areas’ goals and metrics as well as our progress toward those goals.