David is a Climate Action & Sustainability Leader for Gensler’s Northeast region and a Sustainability Director based in Gensler’s New York office. Inspired by the intersection between the natural and built environment, he is at the forefront of recent innovations in sustainable design. Since joining the firm in 2007, he has worked on projects varying from 1 million-square-foot workplace renovations to ground-up mission critical facilities. His recent work includes carbon action plans, sustainability guidelines, and individual projects pursuing Net Zero Carbon, Living Building Challenge, WELL, Fitwel, and LEED certifications, including two AIA COTE award winning projects — Etsy Headquarters and Ford Foundation. Since 2020, he has led research at Gensler focused on embodied carbon and is spearheading multiple efforts to further Gensler’s global carbon reduction goals. David is a graduate from Cornell University and Pratt Institute.

Mikhail Davis is Director of Technical Sustainability at Interface, a global flooring manufacturer committed to showing industry how to make a profit in a way that is restorative to the planet and creates a climate fit for life. Mikhail is responsible for building internal leadership capacity, providing technical assistance on sustainability efforts, and creating external partnerships in sustainability. He served as Chair of the LEED Materials & Resources Technical Advisory Group for the US Green Building Council (2016-2019) and co-authored the chapter on Plastics for the 2017 book, The New Carbon Architecture: Building to Cool the Climate. Previously, he served as manager to US environmental icon David Brower (an original member of Interface's "Eco Dream Team") and spent five years with Blu Skye Sustainability Consulting building sustainable strategies for Fortune 500 companies. He holds a B.S. in Earth Systems from Stanford University and is a certified Biomimicry Specialist (Arizona State University).

mindful MATERIALS is dedicated to a future where sustainable materials are simple to identify, easy to find, and the standard on every project, in every building. Their multi-stakeholder initiative - the Common Materials Framework - provides a common platform to access and clearly communicate transparency and optimization information for building products, enabling designers and specifiers to make more mindful decisions in selecting materials that benefit human health, climate health, ecosystem health, and social health and equity within a circular economy. Laurel serves as mindful MATERIALS Director of Outreach and Engagement where she focuses on building industry partnerships and relationships with Architecture and Design firms, Contractors, and Owners across the built environment. These relationships are set to help expand mindfulMATERIALS’ use and reach to enable the proliferation of sustainable products choices throughout the industry. Her experience as a practicing Architect and Sustainable Design Leader at Dyer Brown Associates and history of working as a manufacturer’s rep makes her uniquely positioned to understand and communicate the value that mindfulMATERIALS brings to the industry.