Jacobs - South Florida Regional Planning Council

Amy Leitch, LEED AP
Amy specializes in strategic aspects of sustainable development with
an aim to build sustainable communities and resilient urban systems.
She focuses on low carbon design and climate change vulnerability
and resilience evaluation with a background in green building design,
sustainable business strategy, land use policy, stakeholder
engagement, environmental law and environmental economics
enhanced by program evaluation.
Profession
Sustainability Consultant
Current Position
Sustainability Consultant
Joined Arup
2008
Years of Experience
7
Qualifications
MA, Environmental
Management, Duke
University, North Carolina,
2005
BA, Environmental Studies
(Environmental Policy and
Economics), Wellesley
College, Massachusetts,
2003
LEED AP
Certified in Basics of
Organizational GHG
Accounting, The GHG
Management Institute
Professional Associations
Member, US Green Building
Council New York Chapter
Amy’s leadership skills, enthusiasm and drive enables her to
work well in a fast-paced and results-orientated environment.
Cedar Rapids Disaster Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, Cedar
Rapids, IA, USA
In June 2008, the Cedar River overflowed beyond the 500-year flood
plain and damaged or destroyed more than 7,000 homes, hundreds of
businesses, community facilities and infrastructure over 10-squaremiles
(14% of the city). Amy led the development of a baseline of
the City’s pre-flood sustainability performance and an
implementation plan of practical, actionable strategies to guide
sustainability-focused reinvestment and recovery effort in flood
affected areas and city-wide. Amy also created a Sustainability
Assessment Matrix as a handheld booklet for the design team to
allow them to quickly consider, evaluate and implement
sustainability strategies into the Neighborhood Plan process.
Climate Action in Megacities Report, C40 Cities and Arup
Managed and contributed to the Americas Region research and data
collection for the C40 Cities and Arup co-authored report Climate
Action in Megacities, released at the C40 Summit in Sao
Paulo, 1 June 2011. Tasks included coordinating a 6-person research
team across three Arup offices, directly researched two cities of
strategic importance, managing key client relationships and working
with C40 Directors and city staff to collect and approve data.
Climate Change Risk and Resilience for Buildings Designers in
the United States
With support from Arup’s Americas Region internal research fund,
she led the development of an interactive tool targeted to assist
buildings engineers to quickly identify specific regional building
sector vulnerabilities to future climate change across the United
States and to select discipline-specific adaptation strategies that can
be implemented into building design, construction and operations.
www.arup.com
A-5