Jennifer O’Connor (President) has been working in construction-sector sustainability since 1983, with diverse multidisciplinary roles in research, design, analysis, and education in Canada and the U.S. Her work experience has an emphasis on energy efficiency, sustainable design, and overall building performance, and her background in both architecture and HVAC engineering provides a strong technical foundation in many building systems. She has been President of the Athena Institute since 2011.
Jamie Meil (Research Principal) is a co-founder of the Athena Sustainable Materials Institute and prime developer of its Impact Estimator software. Mr. Meil oversees Athena client based-services and directs Athena’s core research program. He is a resource economist and an internationally-recognized LCA expert with additional extensive experience in life cycle costing (LCC) and on methods for combining LCA impact indicators and LCC measures in a decision-making framework. Mr. Meil has completed numerous government research and private consulting projects dealing with manufacturing efficiency, resource utilization, green building, international competitiveness, economic feasibility of new technologies, market research, strategic planning, carbon footprinting and environmental life cycle assessment.
Lindita Bushi (Senior Research Associate) is Athena Institute’s principle LCA consultant. She holds a doctoral engineering degree in life cycle assessment and has over 20 years of international LCA experience. She has conducted numerous ISO 14044 conformance LCAs to drive and determine sustainability benefits of industrial processes, products and services. Her LCA experience also extends to a large number of sectors (metals, building, automotive, chemicals, recycling, electronics and transport). She has extensive multi-national experience working with industrial clients, academia, and joint government-industry programs and taskforces.
Lindita is a member of Canadian ISO/TC 207/SC5 on Life Cycle Assessment and the Chair of Canadian ISO/TC 207/SC 3 on Environmental Labelling. She is a recognized individual verifier within the International EPD® System and CSA Group EPD Registry, a member of the ACLCA (American Center for LCA) committee for Product Category Rules (PCRs) in LCA and an accredited LEED Green Associate. She has also conducted and co-authored numerous carbon footprint projects, developed PCRs and EPDs according to national and international standards and protocols. Lindita also has extensive experience working with the major N.A. EPD Program Operators as both an LCA/PCR reviewer and EPD verifier.
Lindita is proficient in the most widely used LCA software platform such as SimaPro and familiar with GaBi and Umberto. She has developed professional training courses in LCA, Environmental Management Systems (ISO 14001, EMAS II), Risk Assessment, and Environmental Policy and Economics, organized international conferences, and published a number of academic papers and journal articles. View Linkedin Profile>
Grant Finlayson (Senior Research Associate and Operations Manager) is a support LCA researcher for many of the Institute’s LCA studies. He is a mechanical engineer and information technology professional with extensive experience in fieldwork and in computer modelling and data acquisition with diverse software and hardware systems. Mr. Finlayson is a specialist in LCA assessments for buildings using Athena’s Impact Estimator and is a lead Athena researcher on a variety of LCA projects. He is additionally responsible for testing evaluation and ongoing support of the Impact Estimator for Buildings.
Mr. Finlayson develops LCI/LCA survey tools and completes benchmark studies on behalf of the Institute’s members and clients. Grant is an expert in building and managing large LCI/LCA databases and will support Dr. Bushi with the plant LCI data collection task and prepare the gate-to-gate summary flows for the project.
Mr. Finlayson joined the Institute in 2004 and has worked on a number of Institute core and contract research projects, including industry average LCAs and EPDs for the Portland Cement Association, Metal Building Manufacturers Association, National Ready Mix Concrete Association, Canadian Ready Mix Concrete Association, North American Precast Concrete Sustainable Plant Program, Canadian Concrete Pipe and Precast Association, Slag Cement Association, Gypsum Association, Chemical Fabrics and Film Association and the Cement Association of Canada.
Chris Goemans (IT Manager) has exceptional information technology experience and takes an innovative approach to computer modelling. He has completed numerous private consulting projects dealing with manufacturing, enterprise resource planning systems, product data management systems, business information reporting, websites, and environmental/economic LCA. Mr. Goemans coordinates the development of the Impact Estimator for Buildings, Pavement LCA and other apps. His work with Athena also includes web-enabling the Institute’s Life Cycle Cost Calculator, development of a data modelling, gathering and storage tool, and assessments of various building designs using the Impact Estimator.
Matthew Bowick (Senior Research Associate). Matt began his career as a practicing structural engineer and has spent over 15 years using this background in civil engineering for the purpose of construction sector LCA consulting and research. He has extensive knowledge of LCA standards, LCA software, LCI databases, construction practice, and material quantity takeoff.
Matt’s work experience includes many product LCA and EPDs, plus building and infrastructure LCA for a variety sector stakeholders. His latest projects include primary authorship of the National Research Council Canada’s National Guidelines for Whole-building LCA document, functional design of the Athena Building LCA software, and development of a federal government program to procure life cycle inventories and LCAs of industry-average construction product manufacturing. Matt frequently serves on LCA-related working groups and technical committees.
Rob Sianchuk (Research Associate) is an environmental consultant with over 15 years of experience working on life cycle assessment research and education projects. He holds a master of applied science in forestry from the University of British Columbia. Since 2008, he has collaborated with leading professionals and organizations in Canada and abroad to conduct product, whole-building, infrastructure, and organizational LCA studies, environmental product declarations (EPDs), and university, college, and professional LCA training courses.
Kevin Garrahan (Research Associate) is a life cycle analyst specializing in the creation of environmental product declarations for various construction materials. With a background in building science research, building enclosure consulting, and construction project coordination, he brings a holistic understanding of design, construction, and long-term functionality of buildings. He aims to leverage this experience to effectively evaluate the environmental impact, durability, and performance of building materials throughout their life cycle. His recent work includes the development of environmental product declarations for cement products and the production of the Institute’s aggregate LCA tool.
