Age: 39
Job title: Owner and Director, Principal Sustainable Building Specialist, 3 Point Environmental
Why she’s a 2016 Top 40:
Kindrat is helping to create greener buildings that don’t sacrifice creature comforts, while also providing mentorship to young people looking to help create a more sustainable future.
Are we afraid of green buildings? That’s the question Lindsey Kindrat, owner and director of 3 Point Environmental, asked in a 2013 TEDx talk. The answer, she proposed, was “yes.” And, according to her, not much has changed since then.
“Yep, people are still afraid of them,” she says with a laugh. “I think people are worried they will somehow strip our humanity, that they’ll underperform and be weak, fragile, uncomfortable spaces.”
This perception is one Kindrat is helping to change, one building at a time. As a sustainable building consultant, Kindrat works with architects, engineers, contractors and building owners to ensure buildings are as efficient and green as possible, from blueprint to final brick. “[Green buildings] are healthy, functional, durable, comfortable, use less water, less energy [and] more responsibly sourced and manufactured materials,” she says. “I believe in green buildings because they’re better for human health and the environment.”
Through her company, Kindrat has been spreading the green gospel with her small team of six employees, all while growing 3 Point exponentially, taking profits from $35,000 in 2013 to just under half a million in annual profits this year. The company has completed 15 projects, ranging from 11th Avenue Place and the newly opened Nelson Mandela School in northeast Calgary, to the new Provincial administration building in High River that’s slated for completion in February 2017 – and has more than two dozen other projects on the go.
Kindrat says there’s sometimes a misperception that she’s a “raging environmental hippy who wants everyone to live in a grass hut,” when, in fact, she’s far more practical. By emphasizing things like energy savings, waste-reduction and elimination of sick building syndrome (a term for when building occupants experience negative health and comfort effects that appear to be linked to time spent in a building) over eco-image, she’s helped clients see that sustainable doesn’t mean sacrificing creature comforts.
She’s also helping to shape the future through 3 Point Green, a program which has, so far, provided mentoring for more than 50 young men and women in the green-building industry.
Undoubtedly, the through line connecting Kindrat’s work is a passion for improving things, whether it’s how we build our cities, our environments or our futures. “Having a responsibly and desirably built environment matters,” she says. “When we’re gone, buildings are what’s left behind, and I want our buildings to be there; I want them to be the ones people look to and say, ‘This was a really good design.’ ” – Andrew Guilbert