Graduation Dates: December 2011
Degree(s): M.S. Civil and Environmental Engineering; B.S. Mechanical Engineering
Sean worked on USGBC's Research team to further develop how the public and industry experts interact and use information associated with LEED certified projects. His main research analyzed trends on green building technology (specifically energy-efficiency measures) implementation to help better understand them through quantitative methods. This research developed and grew as vast amounts of information from their database of projects were examined, and LEED projects were compared to one another for the first time. This led to the development of a white paper that was included in USGBC's new industry research analyst publication program.
In addition to the technology research, Sean had the opportunity to aid in design work for the new web-based application GBIG (Green Building Information Gateway). This tool will help to aggregate data on green buildings (LEED and otherwise) from many different online sources, including Energy Star and Walkscore. This exposed him to many different information technologies including web APIs, GIS implementation, and web-site design. He also enabled the CDC's Active Design initiative to accurately measure and score LEED projects accordingly to their qualitative guidelines. These scores measure how a building helps encourage occupants to move and exercise throughout their day, and this information will be integrated with GBIG as an additional metric to describe and compare buildings.
Finally, Sean was able to travel to USGBC's annual conference, Green Build, in Toronto, Canada. There he participated in green technology discussions, and his work was referenced in a presentation to the venture capitalists and vendors in attendance. The opportunity was very revealing of how USGBC plans to proceed in the next decade, and unique to experience as an insider and provider of knowledge.
"USGBC is a good bridge between the theoretical and utopian view of sustainability that one gets at Stanford and the real world of policy and revenue. There are many young and committed individuals at USGBC, and their passion to improve the green building industry is obvious."
Sean Brennan
"The MAP Fellows bring a fresh, technically-skilled perspective to our team. They have also help increase our awareness about science and engineering activities at Stanford. I look forward to their arrival. I'm sad to see them go. I look forward to opportunities to track their progress."
Chris Pyke, Vice President Research
USGBC