Sandy is a chartered engineer. Her first degree in Engineering Design & Appropriate Technology focussed on socially and environmentally responsible engineering. From her early involvements with the built environment sector she identified the need for building design to respond to stringent environmental criteria, and to user needs & aspirations for healthy buildings. She established GAIA Research in 1996 to develop sustainable solutions for the built environment.

 

 

 

 

Sandy initially worked in design of socially useful products. She moved into the building services sector as a research manager to develop & disseminate information on passive design, resource efficient & clean technologies, healthy buildings, and benign construction processes, products & materials. Her work extends to research; policy guidance for government and private sector clients; and training. Particular strengths include policy and brief writing, community consultation, passive design strategies and interdisciplinary education. Sandy is able to advise architectural & engineering practices on strategies for building, services systems and infrastructure at all stages from inception and briefing through tendering to recycling of construction waste.

 

Sandy has a particular interest in the design processes that can deliver sustainable buildings. Much of her current work involves hand-holding clients, project managers and design teams, in the private and public sector, through the sustainability aspects of built development at all scales from one-off buildings through to master-planning. She has acted as a sustainability advocate in a wide range of projects from BRE’s Office of the Future in the early 1990’s to community facilities, student accommodation, theatre, environmental education, school, housing, office and sports projects. The projects range from individual exemplar buildings to design and refurbishment of  University faciliities, masterplanning of a housing EXPO, and housing both new build and regeneration.

 

Training activities include the Carbon Trust as well as private and public sector clients in England and Scotland. Sandy is developing assessment frameworks for BIG Lottery funded projects and producing guidance for assessors and bidders. Frameworks for things to happen are also part of work undertaken for a number of clients.

 

Sandy is actively involved in ecological and environmental charities as a Board member of Forward Scotland and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She is past-Chair of the Scottish Ecological Deign Association (SEDA), a Director of the Children's Parliament, a Member of the Association for Environmentally Conscious Building (AECB) and a member of Architects and Engineers for Social Responsibility (AESR). Sandy is a BREEAM Offices and CEEQUAL qualified assessor. Sandy is a frequent lecturer throughout Europe and has lectured in the USA, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Africa and New Zealand. She was presented with an “inspirational person in construction” award in 2007, in the first year of a scheme supported by the CIOB.