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Green Pioneer
By Cheryl Mah
Shelley Penner has been practicing and leading the way for green design for more than 20 years. The Vancouver designer’s passion for sustainability dates back to her university days when she was first introduced to the concept of environmentally responsible design. Penner, well ahead of her time, helped to pioneer sustainable design principles not only locally but nationally.
She co-founded the EcoDesign Resource Society in 1992, a predecessor to many of today’s organizations which promote sustainable design, planning and development. It was a grassroots non-profit multidisciplinary organization created to encourage and provide environmental resources for design and construction.
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“I remember talking to David Rousseau who was very encouraging about a need for such an organization. And this is all prior to LEED and organizations like the Canadian Green Building Council,” recalls Penner, who devoted several years to the society’s development.
Since then, her green expertise has been well recognized and sought after. She was the LEED project team administrator for the VANOC 2010 projects and she was also involved with the groundbreaking Sustainable Condo in 2004.
As the director of one of Canada’s leading sustainable interior design studios, Penner & Associates, Penner heads a multi-disciplinary team that balances sustainable design strategies with strong aesthetics, function, performance and cost.
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“Good design and green design is really synonymous and that’s what’s happening now. Sustainability is becoming more and more mainstream,” says Penner.
The 43-year-old has come a long way since growing up in Winnipeg. The youngest of three, she remembers first “designing” with a Lego set.
“My cousin and I were enthused with Lego in our early teens. She was going to be an architect and I was going to be an interior designer and we would build things with Lego,” Penner says with a laugh.
At an age when you can do almost anything, Penner chose interior design as a career path and the rest, as they say, is history.
“It was a very rigourous program — very challenging for me because I really had no background in design, architecture or drawing. I went into it right out of highschool,” says Penner. “I hit it right in terms of choosing interior design and the fact that I’m still involved in it is quite remarkable.”
After graduating with a Bachelor of Interior Design from the University of Manitoba in 1988, Penner initially worked for a millwork company. The recession at that time meant design work was scarce.
“I learned so much there in terms of how to build things and shop drawings. It was a great experience where I dealt with clients, stakeholders and contractors,” she says.
Penner moved to Vancouver in 1989 and worked for different interior firms before she turned her attention to green research and co-founded the EcoDesign Resource Society. In 1997, she started her own design studio with early commissions focused on private residences and research projects.
The studio’s first significant project was a private residence on Salt Spring Island in 2003. The environmentally conscious design of the 4,500 square foot waterfront home earned Penner the first of many awards for design excellence.
Penner describes her style as modernist minimalism with warmth.
“For me it really is stripping back to get to the essence so it’s not superficial application of finishes and materials. There has to be a good rationale for using one thing or another,” says Penner. “We have a very significant aesthetic but it’s really about developing unique solutions for clients based on their programmatic requirements.”
Penner oversees a staff of five including long time associate Robin McIntosh. Her responsibilities include overseeing design (in particular LEED projects) and business development. In addition to professional practice, Penner is involved in delivering seminars, writing and conducting research.
“I love applying creativity to the many different things I do,” she says. “I really love designing but I also see myself first and foremost as an entrepreneur.”
Today, the design practice has diversified to include commercial, residential and institutional projects all primarily located in Vancouver. Current projects include private residences, an organic and natural food store and the Tides Renewal Centre.
Being selected to design the Canada Green Building Council’s Vancouver office and the Arbutus Lands Info Centre in 2006 help broaden the practice’s scope of services.
“We have a wide ranging skill set and because we’re green, we have lots of different projects coming to us,” says Penner. “We have a lot of experience with LEED projects with three Gold and one Platinum certified project and hopefully two more Gold soon.”
The studio has firmly established its reputation for high aesthetic standards, sustainable leadership and innovative design solutions. Penner attributes success to talented and creative people, hard work and professionalism.
“We’ve been fortunate because we’ve been leaders in green design, which sets us apart,” says Penner. “People ask me what happens when green becomes mainstream? I say we’ll always be ahead of the curve because we have a drive to do that.”
Always aspiring to “go to the next level”, Penner expanded her design talents to the retail sector with the launch of p+a furniture — a line of residential and contract furnishings.
“Initally, p+a was an exit strategy from Penner & Associates but I recognized some time ago how symbiotic the two are,” says Penner. “p+a embodies our design commitment to sustainability. The inspiration for p+a stems from the principles of simple and clean lines, functionality and the idea of buying for a lifetime.”
Manufactured in Calgary, designs utilize certified veneers and solid wood from sustainably-managed forests, low-VOC stains and finishes, and natural, renewable materials like wool and hemp. Even the packaging is from reusable and recycled materials.
Descriptive bilingual cards accompany all products, providing details such as the materials and finishes, a sustainability scorecard and care instructions.
The p+a furniture store officially opened June 4, 2009 in the newly renovated Flack Block on West Hastings Street. The storefrontis a showcase for p+a furniture and is also the new home of Penner & Associates.
The Flack Block is also the site of The Renewal Centre, which is Penner’s largest project to date.
“Our role started as interior designers and then it expanded to wearing many hats and performing project management on behalf of the client,” says Penner. “It was a beautiful and challenging project.”
Although the studio has been working on a mainstay of commercial projects, Penner says the storefront is attracting residential clients.
“The whole point of the studio and store combined is to turn the design process inside out and allow transparency through the design process,” explains Penner. “At this point of my career, I’m interested in applying creativity to business development and business models. This combination of the design studio and p+a is something I’m interested in exploring… potentially opening up in city centres elsewhere.”
The furniture line is designed to have a broad appeal and the target niche is a middle market between IKEA and high-end custom stores.
“There is such an absence in the middle market of well designed economically accessible furniture,” notes Penner. “We’re looking at the contract side of furniture — the hotel market — to create volume orders so we can get costs down and hit a middle market.”
Penner knows diversification is key to business survival so the creation of the furniture line was also in part to help ensure future growth potential. The current market conditions clearly reinforce the importance of her decision.
“It’s going to be challenging for small and mid-size firms in the upcoming years so that’s why I’ve been on this path of creating options and a more resilient business model so that we can continue to grow and re-envision ourselves,” she says about the market slowdown.
Developing the p+a business model has occupied most of Penner’s time in the last two years — meaning long hours away from home. Her resolution for 2010 is to spend more quality family time with her husband Bryan and her 9-year-old son Tobias.
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