Anica Landreneau

Anica Landreneau is leading the fight against climate change by raising the bar for sustainable design. As director of sustainable design at HOK, she oversees the development and implementation of sustainability strategies across the firm's global projects. Given the sheer volume and scale of HOK's work, these efforts have a direct positive impact on reducing global carbon emissions. Anica also leads the firm's commitment to achieving a carbon-neutral portfolio by supporting initiatives such as the AIA 2030 Commitment, the RIBA 2030 Challenge, and the Structural Engineers 2050 Challenge.

Based in Washington, D.C., Anica is dedicated to advancing the United States most progressive green building policies at city and state levels. She is a national thought leader on sustainable design and policy-making, serving on several local and national committees, including the AIA's Blue Ribbon Panel on Codes, the AIA National Codes and Standards Committee, the LEED Advisory Committee, and the Consultative Council for the National Institute of Building Sciences.

Anica served on the AIA Blue Ribbon panel where she co-authored the new AIA guidelines for healthier, resilient building codes. This panel encourages the construction industry to work together to implement building codes that make resiliency, human health, and reducing carbon top priorities. The report provides benchmarks for achieving the various goals over the next 20 years which includes new and existing buildings.

In October 2019, Anica was selected as one of five experts to testify before the U.S. Congress on the climate crisis, specifically about design strategies for improving the efficiency and resilience of buildings. During her testimony, she addressed how building codes, green-energy tools, and benchmarking could reduce the energy needs of U.S. buildings and homes, which contribute to more than one-fourth of the nation's carbon emissions and consume three-fourths of its electricity. Anica described numerous ways that Congress could encourage states and local jurisdictions to adopt new building codes, such as the 2021 International Energy Conservation Code estimated to be 10-15 percent more efficient than the 2018 code it will replace.

Anica is a leader in making Washington, D.C., one of the world's greenest cities. She is serving her second term on the District of Columbia Green and Energy Codes Technical Advisory Group, authoring high-performance building codes, and is in her second term on the Mayor's Green Building Advisory Council.

Furthermore, Anica helped lay the foundation for the historic Clean Energy DC Omnibus Act, which sets the most aggressive renewable energy goal of any U.S. city or state. As part of her role on the D.C. Green Building Advisory Council, Landreneau contributed to the development of the Clean Energy DC action plan that gave rise to this bill. She also provided testimony for the bill during two separate Council hearings. Since then, Anica has authored several articles to bring awareness to and educate and inform community stakeholders about the impact of the new climate bill in DC and what it means for commercial real estate.

Through these efforts, Anica is leading the drive for progressive change across the industry.