Build Better with Anastasia Barnes Anastasia Barnes

On season 4, episode 2 of the Build Better podcast, Anastasia welcomes Amin Najjar, CEO of Sustainable Buildings at Veolia North America. Veolia’s mission is to resource the world, helping its customers address their environmental and sustainability challenges in energy, water and waste. 

Najjar talks about how Veolia is helping companies improve energy efficiency, including upgrading the buildings in the city of Boston to achieve mandatory requirements that are fast approaching, and how these changes can have a lasting impact on the planet in the long term.

On season 4, episode 1 of the Build Better podcast, Anastasia talks with Dr. Aisha Francis, the president and CEO of Franklin Cummings Tech in Boston. In 2021, she became the first female president in the more than 100-year history of the college.
Dr. Francis believes in the ability of effective organizations and well-supported individuals to transform underserved communities for the better. She shares her dedication to both educating and empowering students in the technical fields, and discusses the mutual benefits for both students and employers that are looking to fill essential roles and create robust teams in the architecture, engineering, and construction fields.

On season 3, episode 4 of the Build Better podcast, Anastasia welcomes Luciana Burdi, director of capital programs & environmental affairs at Massport, to discuss her journey, the challenges she's overcome as a woman in a male-dominated industry, and her vision for the future of commercial construction.
Additionally, Burdi talks about how Massport has tackled challenges in the wake of the COVID pandemic, the evolving flexible work environment, and the impact of new technology on construction projects.
 

Teach to Work: Equipping the Next Generation of Young Professionals

On season 3, episode 3 of the Build Better podcast, Anastasia welcomes Patty Alper, president of marketing and consulting company Alper Portfolio Group. She is working to address the workforce shortage in the architecture, engineering, and construction industries by educating students through mentorships and meaningful on-the-job experience. 
Alper is author of the book, Teach to Work: How a Mentor, a Mentee, and a Project Can Close the Skills Gap in America. On the podcast, she shares how Project Based Mentoring brings together corporate employees, retirees, and businesses as a corps of knowledge practitioners with the common goal of passing on skills to the next generation of business professionals.

In Season 3, episode 2 of the Build Better podcast, Anastasia welcomes Christopher Grallert, president of Green City Growers, a company whose mission is to provide inspiring shared experiences for employees, customers, and community members that educate and enable people to grow food sustainably.
Grallert shares more about how the team at Green City Growers is furthering their goal of creating increased connection with onsite gardens, and educating the next generation on how to create and maintain local food systems in Boston and beyond.
 
 

On season 3, episode 1 of the Build Better podcast, Anastasia talks with Matt O’Malley, the first-ever chief sustainability officer for Vicinity Energy. He discusses Vicinity’s Clean Energy Future, Net Zero Carbon plan, and how the company is working with its customers, communities, and local government to decarbonize its operations across the country and reduce the impact of the energy sector on the earth’s atmosphere.