Ms. Ritchie is a licensed Professional Engineer and LEED AP O+M. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from California State University, San Jose.
Kirsten Ritchie, a Principal and Director of Sustainable Design at Gensler, has over 30 years of experience in the world of green building and urban infrastructure. Always focused on ways to make the built environment a healthier, happier and more environmentally sound place, she is a passionate advocate for science based approaches to assess environmental and humanistic performance. She has played a pivotal role in the development of numerous building and product assessment standards and certification programs, including USGBC’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS), SCS Indoor Advantage, Floorscore, and BIFMA level, which have led to transformational changes in the building and interiors industries.
She is also actively involved the development and implementation of programs at the organizational level, focused on improving the user experience and sustainable performance of campus scale and global real estate portfolios. Past and current clients include Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), Fairmont Resorts, Google, Lockheed, Oracle, Salesforce, San Francisco International Airport and the University of California San Francisco.
She serves on the Board of the Green Electronics Council, as a Director of the Ecological Building Network and is a member of the Material and Resources Technical Advisory Group (MR-TAG) of the US Green Building Council.