Skip the checkbox mindset—this conversation shows how performance design becomes real when specs, codes, QA, and sustainability pull in the same direction. We sit down with Rachel Spiers, Associate Principal and Performance Design and Quality Manager at BWBR, to unpack a practice that moves beyond “less bad” and aims for regenerative outcomes. From office master specifications aligned with the AIA Materials Pledge to code updates that raise the industry floor, Rachel shares a playbook for teams who want better buildings without ballooning cost or schedule.

We walk through the nuts and bolts of integrating a sustainability lens into design development and construction document QA, capturing metrics like energy use intensity and lighting power density, and laying groundwork to review daylighting, embodied carbon, and operational carbon. You’ll hear how a performance baseline meeting at project kickoff creates shared targets, builds sustainability muscle memory, and turns intent into habits that survive the messiness of delivery. Along the way, specs stop being paperwork and become the engine room where healthier materials and lower-carbon choices quietly upgrade every project.

What stands out most is the human side: coaching teams through code changes, celebrating wins when designers bring solid code research, and watching colleagues earn credentials and confidence. If you care about design excellence, product health, resilience, and measurable performance, this is a field guide to making it stick—one smarter default and one aligned review at a time. Subscribe, share with a teammate who touches specs or QA, and leave a review with your biggest hurdle to integrated performance—cost, time, or culture?

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