Q&A: Leslie Ethen, sustainability manager for the City of Tucson

Climate change is dramatically impacting the southwestern U.S., where extreme heat, flooding, drought and wildfires are taking a significant toll. Low-income and tribal communities are among those most affected. The Biden administration is trying to mitigate the damage with legislation- both nationally and regionally-through the Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act (IIJA) and Inflation Reducation Act (IRA).

In the Southwest, $3.5 million of IIJA funds have been allocated to update building codes, emphasizing efficient power generation, sustainability, equity and resilience. A program that will benefit portions of the Southwest as well as Arizona and New Mexico is being coordinated by the Resilient Southwest Building Code Collaborative. It is one of 27 national projects being funded through the Resilient & Efficient Codes Implementation (RECI) program, a subset of the IIJA.

According to the collaborative's website, the project's main objectives are to

1. Develop a set of Southwest-specific codes that emphasize climate resilience, energy equity and housing affordability.
2. Undertake equitable public engagement in the development of the codes that reflects the input of those who design, construct and use buildings-especially those whose health, safety and financial state are most impacted by the quality of the buildings they use.
3. Provide implementation resources, including best practices, staff training and specialist certifications to help communities undertake the adoption and implementation of the codes.

To help explain this vision for the Southwest's future, Leslie Ethen, sustainability manager for the City of Tucson and lead coordinator for the collaborative, recently spoke with USGBC.

Highlights from the conversation:

• Balancing the needs of a large coalition: "We currently have 38 organizations in the collaborative. I think we have a couple more communities that will be joining soon. But we seem to be in a sweet space of finding the common ground that allows us to row in the same direction, while still leaving space for individual perspectives and for learning from each other."
• Common challenges, different details. "Our climate challenges are similar, but we don't have exactly the same needs. We have different building code authorities, different climate zones, different demographics, different political realities. But we realized that we're all part of this tightly interdependent system, the Colorado River Basin, which impacts both water and energy in the region. So, we all stood to gain by improving building throughout the region."
• Bringing more voices to the table. "Building code discussions tend to be very technical...but everyone uses buildings, we're all stakeholders, and that means that all voices should be represented at the table. Not just the technical experts in industry...this idea of equitable engagement and broad involvement is a key difference to how we're trying to go about this."

Listen to the Leslie Ethen interview.

Listen to the podcast

Related articles