Impactful career as a lawyer specialized in Green Building Standards?

By Vaipan @ 2024-05-15T11:58 (+4)

I am helping someone who is an experienced lawyer working in real estate towards an impactful career. She would ideally work on Green Building Standards: Contributing to the development and enforcement of green building standards (e.g., LEED, BREEAM), making buildings more sustainable. It is not neglected, and not very EA-adjacent, but here are the leads I thought about:

Typical career-change programs such as High Impact Professionals, as well as the Fellowship of the Moral Ambition School destined to experienced professionals
Charter cities: real estate and impact immediately made me think of charter cities as she could bring her expertise there.
She wants responsibilities and leadership: I thought about some Program Manager roles using strategic abilities.
Government units designing sustainable standards of construction (although the impact of these units is not proven)

Any other thoughts? I have no troubles identifying useful skills but it's a bit more difficult to find a position where previous background knowledge is not lost.

John C @ 2024-05-16T02:34 (+1)

Not entirely sure what type of real estate law she is currently in, but one recommendation would be to work in renewable energy development. If she currently works in real estate transactions, there's probably a good amount of carry over, as renewable energy projects are tangible assets that generate long term cashflow (similar to an apartment building).

Vaipan @ 2024-05-16T13:08 (+1)

That's a clever one, thanks!

Rebecca2 @ 2024-05-15T17:38 (+1)

FWIW, in my experience (ASHRAE), the building standards are written by engineers without much input from lawyers.

I'm pretty sure LEED enforcement is actually a trademark issue (as LEED is just a private organization that allows buildings to use the LEED logo if they meet certain requirements). Enforcement of IBC/ASHRAE stuff is typically done at the county level - and the people who do that are not lawyers either, they're building inspectors.

Maybe look at public policy? Probably HUD or maybe DOE.

Vaipan @ 2024-05-16T13:08 (+1)

Thanks! Will look.