Redefining Sustainability through Leadership and Action

Alana Spencer is a visionary ESG and sustainability leader with over 17 years of experience driving climate resilience and corporate transformation. She is the cofounder and managing partner at Alma Environmental Partners and previously served as vice president of sustainability at Clayco, which remains a client.

In an interview with Environmental Business Review, Spencer shared insights on her career trajectory, her handson approach to leadership and the strategies that align environmental performance with business success and social equity.

Building a Culture of Purposeful Sustainability

Before launching Alma Environmental Partners, I served as the vice president of sustainability at Clayco, where I combined corporate sustainability and building-level environmental strategy. Today, Alma continues to lead Clayco’s sustainability consulting at an external level.

At Alma, we weren’t just setting lofty ambitions like science-based targets, but working to embed them into every corner of the company and for our clients. We ensure sustainability is part of everyday culture, not just a top-level directive.

Turning Corporate Sustainability into Everyday Action

One vital challenge in sustainability today is bridging the gap between corporate sustainability goals and their daily execution. When sustainability or ESG goals are established at the C-suite level, they can sometimes become disconnected from frontline employees, leading to misalignment in implementation and engagement. Without a clear roadmap, sustainability becomes an added action and cost instead of being incorporated into the company’s core strategy. We tackled this issue at Clayco and for other clients by collecting all operational data across energy, waste, carbon and water to align it with goals such as science-based target initiatives (SBTi), which follows the Greenhouse Gas protocol.

Applying the roadmap to different regions and markets requires tailoring sustainability goals according to climate region, market sector and building type. Each market sector is essential, including mission-critical projects that demand dedicated checklists per building, addressing energy, water, carbon emissions and waste materials.

Project teams should be given building-level checklists and yearly decarbonization targets to contribute to the overall company goal. These initiatives empower every project and team member to participate in the broader mission.

The future of sustainability will see rapid evolution in its tools and practices, with three standout areas being AI, embodied carbon and the circular economy

The Road Ahead in Sustainable Innovation

The future of sustainability will see rapid evolution in its tools and practices, with three standout areas being AI, embodied carbon and the circular economy.

The first significant shift is the integration of AI into sustainability. Tools like ChatGPT are only the beginning, but the construction world has many products. AI can help streamline workflows, read through complex submittals, check for compliance and automate repetitive tasks.

This enables people to move forward in sustainability implementation, free from redundancy and mundane tasks. Instead of manually going through hundreds of ESG reports, we can spend time implementing advanced sustainability solutions on-site.

The second is embodied carbon, the total greenhouse gas emissions generated through the extraction, manufacturing, and transportation of materials used in a project. Currently, we are working on net-zero roadmaps to reduce and understand the embodied carbon on all projects.

Currently, the industry focuses primarily on emissions from concrete and steel. Meanwhile, materials like insulation and mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) systems are generally overlooked regarding their carbon footprint. Understanding and reducing embodied carbon across all materials is crucial to achieving sustainable projects.

The third major trend is the circular economy, which goes beyond conventional recycling to encompass the full lifecycle of materials, prioritizing waste prevention, adaptive reuse, and regenerative design. Buildings are designed for disassembly, with materials selected for durability, recyclability, and low embodied carbon. Through strategies like modular construction and urban mining, the industry can create closed-loop systems that extend the life of resources and significantly reduce environmental impact. Embracing circular principles lowers carbon emissions, conserves natural resources and fosters resilience and long-term value across the entire building lifecycle.

Advice for the Next Generation of Leaders

My background in business management helped me build business cases and economic analysis, understand leadership concerns and advance sustainable agendas to help decisionmakers. I would advise people to combine sustainability with a secondary area of expertise.

Whether it’s architecture, business or real estate, a secondary technical background will add powerful momentum to projects. Passion is important, but execution requires skill, structure and confidence. Pair your sustainability initiatives with real-world expertise.