Asa Posner, LEED Fellow, is a green building and sustainability consultant in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area currently working as the Vice President of Sales for Sustainable Investment Group (SIG), a full-service sustainability, wellness, and ESG consulting and engineering firm. He has extensive experience in green building design/construction and operations, energy and water conservation, and building occupant comfort.   Asa is a LEED Accredited Professional with specialties in BD+C and O+M, a member of the U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC) Minnesota Chapter, and serves the Market Leadership Advisory Board (MLAB).   He has worked as a green building consultant for 15 years and have helped certify over 220 LEED projects, encompassing over 60M sf LEED certified space.  He  regularly teaches exam prep classes for professionals looking to earn their LEED Green Associate or Accredited Professional with Specialty credentials.   Nick Kassanis, LEED Fellow, PE, is the President at SIG and manages day-to-day operations. His team includes Sustainability Consulting and Technical Services departments that manages Commissioning, Retro-Commissioning, Energy Modeling, ASHRAE Level I & II Energy Audits and LEED/WELL/Fitwel projects. Nick leads strategic planning for the company, helping expand new markets and growing new business.   Nick is one of several licensed Professional Engineers (PE) on staff in addition to a Certified Building Commissioning Professional credential. He has extensive energy modeling experience having modeled over 15 million square feet of office, laboratory, university, hospital, school, mixed-use and warehouse projects. Nick specializes in the integrated design process for new construction projects and in-depth retro-commissioning investigations to promote energy efficiency and building operating staff training.   Nick was was one of the youngest members of the board of governors (2012) in the Atlanta Chapter. He was also the Student Activities chair for two years (Lamp of Knowledge and Golden Apple Award recipient), Research Promotion Chair and has gone through the Officer positions of Secretary, Treasurer and Vice President. Nick is a Past President of the ASHRAE Atlanta Chapter, serving through 2017. After moving to California, Nick is now active with the ASHRAE Golden Gate chapter in San Francisco as well as the Southern California Chapter now that he lives in Los Angeles.    Show Highlights   Charlie interviews Nick + Asa after their recent LEED Fellow awards.   Understanding how design and buildings can affect a natural environment and affect a natural ecosystem.  Client engagement and the misconceptions that are still out there when it comes to LEED and a sustainable building. Recognizing your job as sustainability consultants to find the best outcome for clients and projects specific challenges.  Asa shares findings from the LEED Advancement Committee on common misconceptions around LEED. Emerging technology and trends that everyone should be applying to their businesses.  Current innovations to help you leverage technology to advance the efficiency of how you do things.  The evolution of LEED to grow and create a renewed focus on health, wellness, and buildings being designed, built and operated to be better for the environment. The crossover and current pathways to combine environmental performance and human performance.  Fundamental values and roles that keep us alive and keep us caring for our families.   “Key misconception I would say is that there's only one path to sustainability. Every building is different and you must understand its history and unique characteristics to really address the potential path toward carbon reduction. Understanding the financial impacts, the lifecycle of equipment and materials…but also just the intangible experience that occupants are having in the building, is equally important.” -Nick Kassanis   “We really need to kind of go back to our r