3 Things with Shelly Carlton

Portland has an amazing sustainability community, and we want to highlight the people and work that shape our unique city. We’re sharing their answers to questions we posed.

Meet Shelly Carlton. Shelly, the Senior Program Manager for New Buildings at Energy Trust of Oregon. Energy Trust is an independent nonprofit funded by utility customers that supports energy-efficiency and small-scale renewable energy generation projects at homes and businesses across the state. They work on Energy Trust’s New Buildings program, which delivers energy solutions to customers via a full design and delivery team for high-performance new commercial construction. They believe that there is real power in bringing together difference perspectives and expertise to solve real world problems. That’s one of the reasons why they like working at Energy Trust, and why I've worked with others to create the Commercial to Community Coalition for adaptive reuse.

Now, we’ll hand it over to Shelly to share his perspective on sustainability, Portland’s future, and the projects and collaborations that inspire him.

1. What does sustainability mean to you?

It means thinking long-term, being strategic about what you say and what you do. In the New Buildings space, it means designing not just for a building owner but for the community that will work, live or congregate within that building.

2. Name a Portland (or Oregon) project or collaboration that has inspired you, and tell us why.

The Galleria building, at 115 years old, is a great example of how we can leverage the architecture of an earlier time to reimagine space in a way that creates a more resilient, future ready building. Bill Naito once owned the building, reimagining it in the 70s during a time similar to this one, when confidence in downtown Portland is wavering.

Within the guardrails of historic preservation, the design team was able to improve the roof insulation, replace the historic central skylight to optimize daylight and mitigate heat gain, and integrate off-site community solar to help decarbonize the building’s energy use. They put the operable windows to use in providing fresh air and managing comfort levels, and the density of the building’s walls also helps to maintain a comfortable temperature within.

I’m passionate about downtown, as a vibrant center for art and commerce, as well as community building and a source of civic pride. Projects like the bring art and science together in a sustainable way.

3. What can Portland (or Oregon) be doing better to be more sustainable?

We can all be looking at how we use energy, how we can do that more efficiently, or whether we can use more renewable resources. That's not easy for everyone, and I think it's okay for people to find their own connection to sustainability. If energy is your focus, Energy Trust has programs that help people navigate energy choices and make investments that make sense for them, whether they are looking at energy use in their homes, their businesses, or their communities.