Elizabeth Heider, Senior Vice President; Skanska USA Building Inc.
As Senior Vice President for Skanska USA Building Inc., Elizabeth Heider is responsible for the pre-construction management of large-scale multimillion-dollar construction programs. Ms. Heider's 29 years of professional experience include all phases of design and construction from master planning through project closeout as licensed architect, construction manager, cost manager and value engineering (VE) facilitator. She has completed studies on a variety of initiatives from the "conventional" value analysis of over 100 projects to specialty studies for the Federal Government exploring the cost commitment necessary for public buildings to become "green" (1998), to enhance workplace productivity (2000), to achieve LEED certification (LEED Cost Study, 2004) and to comply with the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (2006 & 2007). In 2008, Skanska will provide a cost analysis of the Living Building Challenge, the beyond-LEED® Platinum metric developed by the Cascadia Chapter of the USGBC.
She founded and chairs Skanska USA's Green Council. The Skanska Green Council marshals all of Skanska's sustainable preconstruction and construction capabilities nationwide, encourages and supports training and technical competency, coordinating sustainable expertise and information nationwide. She represents Skanska USA's commitment to eco-efficient buildings at Skanska's Environmental Performance Network which is comprised of Skanska's environmental leaders worldwide. In addition to leading Skanska USA's eco-efficient building initiatives, Ms. Heider remains involved at the project level, leading the preconstruction effort on the Nashville Federal Courthouse and recently commencing value management work on the United Nations. Skanska will serve as the construction manager for the UN's Capital Master Plan (CMP) renovation and upgrading of the international agency's 2.6 Million square-foot headquarters in New York City.
Commencing in 2008, Heider was elected to serve a three-year term on the U.S. Green Building Council's Board of Directors. She is a Vice President on the Board of Directors of The Construction Sciences Research Foundation and has served on a number of task forces, most recently for the USGBC Research Committee and AIA COTE to develop a national green building research agenda & on the University of Virginia's Alumni Task Force.
She graduated with a BS Architecture from the University of Virginia and participated in the University of Virginia's Architectural Graduate Program in Venice, Italy. From 1999 to 2004, she served as an Adjunct Professor at The Catholic University of America School of Engineering in Washington, DC.
