Ask the Expert: Shefali Panse

This fall, CAGBC’s Ask the Expert series will feature the winners of the 2024 CAGBC Awards, a national competition that recognizes members contributing to the advancement of green building in Canada. We start with Shefali Panse, winner of the Emerging Green Leader Award for a deserving student or young professional who has made a significant contribution to advocating for, educating or practicing green building and community development.

We recently sat with Panse and Charles Marshall, representing the award sponsor DIALOG, for a chat on her background and pathway to earning this distinction.

Shefali, can you tell us a bit about yourself, your passion for materials and how it led you to a focus in your career on improving environmental sustainability?

I’m a Product Manager with Certainteed, a building materials manufacturer and subsidiary of Saint-Gobain, a company I’ve been with for a little over five years. I first joined in the research and development department and have now moved to an outward facing role that puts me in touch with customers and everything product related.

I’m a chemical engineer, and during my undergraduate junior year, I came across this wonderful material science book by William Callister, which turned out to be my favorite book on my favorite subject. It got me more interested in how materials science and engineering could help shape our future. Shortly after I moved to the US for my masters.

My interest for emerging technologies was still growing when I came across new technologies such as super hydrophobic coatings and smart glass and how they’re being used in manufacturing and construction. I wanted to work for a company that utilizes these technologies to tackle sustainability challenges. This has always been my mindset. When I discovered Sage Glass, another Saint-Gobain subsidiary, I thought it was the perfect blend of technology and sustainability.

You emerged as a leader in sustainable materials in your work at at Saint-Gobain. What do you consider to be your biggest achievement or project that established you as a leader in sustainability?

I’m proud to be part of our current project of turning our Montréal drywall plant into the largest carbon drywall manufacturing facility in North America, second to our Norway facility. Due to its great capacity, a lot of products manufactured on this site can be used around the world, giving it a local and global impact. Through our involvement with teams from everywhere, we are able to come up with new ideas and develop competencies, creating a blueprint to follow towards electrification in Canada.

At an individual level, I have to activate the nerd in me to address the technical questions and find tangible solutions that our stakeholders can understand. For instance, if we look at EPDs, we have to look at them from our standpoint but also the contractors’ and installers’ and I like how we address issues from different angles to ensure a Business to Business and a Business to People approach to get maximum buy in.
Can we zoom out a little bit to the green building sector and talk about the role that building materials manufacturers really play in the ecosystem to reach net zero and support green buildings?

I think that manufacturers usually aren’t at the forefront, partially because they’re still learning how to make a change. At the same time, they’re the ones innovating and creating solutions to support the sector. Manufacturers could be looking at all levels or all phases of the construction cycle for example.

Within Saint-Gobain, we are exploring and investing heavily in digital solutions. We work with manufacturers who can deliver products that can reduce waste, delivery time and simplify the installation process to increase efficiency. The sector as a whole can benefit from streamlined processes with a little bit of creative thinking. This can be applied to resources, including equipment for example but also services.

Can we zoom out a little bit to the green building sector and talk about the role that building materials manufacturers really play in the ecosystem to reach net zero and support green buildings?

I think that manufacturers usually aren’t at the forefront, partially because they’re still learning how to make a change. At the same time, they’re the ones innovating and creating solutions to support the sector. Manufacturers could be looking at all levels or all phases of the construction cycle for example.

Within Saint Gobain, we are exploring and investing heavily in digital solutions. We work with manufacturers who can deliver products that can reduce waste, delivery time and simplify the installation process to increase efficiency. The sector as a whole can benefit from streamlined processes with a little bit of creative thinking. This can be applied to resources, including equipment for example but also services

Innovating and getting to net zero is supposed to be hard. What challenges do you face in developing and marketing sustainable solutions and what tools have you developed to overcome them?

There are challenges, and the first one I’d like to highlight is just the definition of sustainability, which is different for everyone it seems at times. You could talk about low carbon or circularity, wellness and health, people’s well-being. There are different components to sustainability, and we can either try to capture everyone without accomplishing much, or we can focus one at a time. My approach is focused on making the biggest impact. Another challenge is regulation. The existing incentives are not always specific enough, so applicants pursue them for different reasons. To me, different people pursue green building solutions for different reasons. Incentives need to be more aligned with our long-term goals and this can help manufacturers promoting their products for wider adoption; that’s one way we can scale up circularity.

Stay tuned for the full discussion, available soon on demand.