Featured Publications

 

Best in BUilding Health Leadership Awards

As the Vice President of marketing and communications for the Center for Active Design’s Fitwel healthy building certification system, Sonja and her team programmed the organization’s annual awards event, celebrating the “Best in Building Health.” Sonja wrote the 1.5-hour event’s script, featuring a number of different voices from the team, including her own. It was delivered in person and streamed virtually to a several hundred live viewers, including the company’s largest clients. March 2022.

The Democrats on medium: “Stay Nasty”

Sonja wrote this piece as a rallying call, published on the official Democratic National Committee’s Medium account right after Trump’s inauguration. It pulls in digital media snippets and offers steps to take action post-election. January 2017.

Colorado Real Estate Journal: “Why a healthy economy relies on healthy spaces”

Following the release of new research on promoting health in the industrial building sector, Sonja wrote this piece for the Colorado Real Estate Journal that highlights key takeaways from the report, as well as the role healthy spaces play in attracting and retaining workers. March 2022.

U.S. Green Building Council: “Living Standard 2020 Year in Review”

Data with a soul, or stories, were what Sonja and her team strived to bring to the forefront of the green building conversation through the U.S. Green Building Council’s Living Standard campaign. And as the director of Living Standard, she took an honest, vulnerable look back at what they had accomplished in 2020 and where they had room to grow. February 2021.

ASLA’s The Field: “Designing for Health: How SITES Improves Quality of Life”

When we tell our stories, we help make tangible the human benefits of green spaces and the practices and effort that go into them. In this piece for ASLA’s “The Field” publication, Sonja shares examples of projects that lead the way in creating an environment in which people live longer and healthier lives. December 2019.

Living Standard: Storytelling for Sustainability

Throughout her tenure as the head of Living Standard, Sonja had the privilege of telling sustainability stories from people all over the world. A few that are especially moving include:

  • “Affordable LEED home provides health benefits for family,” features a video interview with resident Bootsie DAcosta and sustainability expert Robyn Vettraino. As Bootsie says, “It’s hard to get well in a place that’s not well.”

  • “Surviving Cancer: Healthier Homes Equal Healthier Lives” is a powerful interview-turned-story with Catherine O’Toole, who is a two-time cancer survivor. Her cancer likely came from cancer-causing chemicals in vinyl flooring that she grew up around. Upon this discovery, she dedicated her life to advocate for healthy materials and lifestyles.

  • “Better Materials Leads to Healthier Lives” demonstrates the impact that ceiling and wall materials can have on an occupant’s health. Sonja conducted this interview with Anita Snader and Liesl Morell from Armstrong World Industries.

  • “When a Sustainable Lifestyle Starts Early” has high school senior Aishwarya Balaji explaining that “sustainability is a lifestyle. If you’re introduced to it when you’re younger, you are more likely to incorporate it into your life and into the future as you grow older.”

Bootsie DAcosta and family in Hawaii.

Catherine O’Toole at a Living Standard event in Austin, TX.