A Conversation With ... Rebecca Welsh

Company: DeWitt & Associates

Education: Bachelor’s degree in construction management, Missouri State University; will complete a Master of Business Administration degree with an emphasis on project management from MSU in December

Learning LEED: Welsh studied for several months before passing her exam in March to become Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified in new construction.

Describe the process of attaining LEED certification for new construction.

You can take the tests in a couple of categories. I decided to go for the new construction certification because most of our work is in new construction. Basically, you have to study a great big book and know that sucker from front to back. It’s self-study. Some areas will form study groups. It takes a lot of personal time. I started studying last November and started studying really hard in January and took the test in March.

What are some of the green aspects of new construction?

To get LEED certification is on kind of a point scale, from certified to silver, gold and platinum. There are different categories (such as) the site that you pick and what you do to it. (LEED tries) to encourage (project owners) to go for an existing site and not (an undeveloped) site. … They encourage the use of recycled materials, like steel, and things that are manufactured regionally. Because it’s not just the recycled material that goes into it, it’s how far you have to ship something, all the gas that it costs to get your material there, and then, the emissions that the trucks put off to get the materials to your site. (LEED) encourages (HVAC) systems that will give you great efficiency … and using a lot of daylight. You can kind of pick and choose different things … and some of those things will cost more than others. The architect and the owner have to sit down before they ever get to drawing up a plan and decide, “What’s my budget?”

What kind of growth in LEED-certified projects do you expect?

I think it’s going to explode. … You can’t pick up any kind of construction trade magazine and not see something about green building. Everybody’s finally getting it. We’re a real slow industry when it comes to change. We don’t like change … but once everybody starts doing (green building) it’s going to become normal.

What are some of DeWitt’s environmental efforts?

As a company, DeWitt is trying to go green internally and externally. So we’re voluntarily doing a construction-waste recycling program at (Springfield Public School’s) Southwest School job site on Golden. We’re going to recycle all the waste we can on the site. We’ll see what we can do about implementing that companywide. We’ve implemented a recycling program in the (DeWitt) office. Our superintendents are recycling in their job shacks and the trailers.

How long have you worked in construction, and what brought you to it?

I have been in construction all my life. My family had a roofing business (in Arkansas), so I started in that. I started out working for an architecture degree, then stopped (halfway through) to stay home with my kids, and when I came back, found the construction management degree and decided that was a better way to tie it all together.

What are some projects you’ve worked on since joining DeWitt three years ago?

Right now, I’m working on Southwest Elementary. I’ve done work at St. John’s and Skaggs (hospitals). I have not had the opportunity to work on a LEED project yet (though) DeWitt did the Discovery Center. DeWitt was the first in Springfield to have a LEED project, and we’re pretty proud of that. We have more than 100 field employees and close to 30 office people right now.

What’s next for you professionally?

I would like to teach part time, possibly back at MSU. I like to give back, and I was always impressed, in school, by the teachers who brought field experience back with them. I think as a woman, I can tell girls it’s OK to go out there.

Tell me about your family and your spare-time interests.

I have two kids. Chris is 14 and is going to Glendale next year. Savannah is 8, and she’s at Pittman. I’m currently VP of the Missouri Heartland Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council. I was recently elected a board member of the Construction Specifications Institute. They have great educational opportunities, so once a month, we meet and have dinner and (learn) about the latest things going on in our industry.

Interview by Features Editor Maria Hoover. You can e-mail her with suggestions for future installments of this feature at mhoover@sbj.net.