Susan Heinking
Chief Sustainability Officer Pepper Construction Company
Susan is a nationally recognized sustainability leader with more than 20 years of experience advancing decarbonization, circularity, and high performance outcomes across the built environment. As Chief Sustainability Officer for Pepper Construction Group, she provides organization wide leadership, embedding climate strategy and ESG principles into construction delivery and value chain collaboration. Susan is a sought after industry thought leader, known for translating sustainability ambition into practical, scalable solutions from net zero construction practices to performance based tools that inform decisions. She leads Pepper’s decarbonization and circularity strategies, informed by Project Drawdown, and champions transparent, data driven approaches that align sustainability with business resilience and long term value.
A committed sustainability advocate, Susan has contributed to initiatives including the Chicago Energy Benchmarking Ordinance, AIA 2030 Chicago, AIA COTE, and RETROFIT Chicago. She currently serves on the Illinois Energy Conservation Advisory Council and the board of AIA Illinois and is a frequent national speaker on sustainability and the built environment.
Seminars
- Mapping regional mandates by comparing how states are shaping emissions tracking, energy codes and material requirements
- Determining how construction teams adjust processes, procedures and data collection to satisfy different city, county and state expectations
- Upskilling project and operating groups across geographies and verticals to act on requirements despite limited sustainability staffing
- Collaborating with design teams to facilitate energy efficient building design and material circularity decision-making
- Balancing costly low-carbon options and project profitability when selecting trade contractors and suppliers
- Integrating procurement teams into circularity efforts
- Creating a roadmap for attaching carbon values to estimate line items to gain a complete picture of emissions
