Home Design Thought Leader: Melissa Rappaport Schifman

<p>[smart_track_player url="http://traffic.libsyn.com/gbespodcast/Green_Home_Design_Thought_Leader_-_Melissa_Rappaport_Schifman.mp3" ]</p> <p><strong><img class="size-medium wp-image-55377 alignleft" src= "https://www.gbes.com/content/uploads/2019/02/Melissa-Rappaport-Schifman-300x300.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="300" /></strong></p> <p><strong>Melissa Rappaport Schifman</strong> is an experienced sustainability and finance professional with a demonstrated history of creative problem-solving, thorough analysis, and bottom-line financial results. Skilled in Sustainability Tools and Metrics (including LEED, GRI, and ISSP), Renewable Energy, Strategic Planning, Business Development, Finance, Energy and Environmental Policy, Writing and Editing.</p> <h2><strong>Environmental Policy</strong></h2> <p>Melissa grew up in Minneapolis and then went to Georgetown University in Washington D.C. where she majored in Government and spent time on Capitol Hill as a legislative assistant, handling energy and environmental issues. Melissa earned her Masters in Public Policy and her MBA from the University of Chicago and spent several years in finance in the airline industry before she pivoted to the world of green building.</p> <p><em>“I was living in Phoenix, and there were just some really obvious things that were a problem there. First, there was the sun that was just omnipresent, and I couldn’t understand why there wasn’t more solar power. Then, there was a lack of water. You would see people watering their lawns in the middle of the day, and the water was just evaporating. What really hit me, when I lived there, were these air quality alerts that warned you about high air pollution days that it was really unhealthy to go outside. I hike a lot, and that was my form of exercise; so, to not be able to go outside just seemed ridiculous. We as humans were creating that pollution that made it unhealthy. None of that made sense to me; so, those were the seeds that got me thinking that we need to be more sustainable.”</em> – Meliss