Norm Thompson: Commerce With a Conscience

He hired architects and construction crews, telling them that Jane would help with the building’s design. “It’s a shame. They really didn’t know what they were in for,” he says.

At every weekly project meeting, Jane Emrick would ask the question: “Which of these building options will have the least impact on the environment?” At first, says John Emrick, the construction managers and the developers couldn’t answer her question: “They said that no one had ever asked them that before.” But in time, crews came to the meetings armed with alternatives in materials and construction methods. If alternatives were cost-prohibitive, they were discarded. But many more were incorporated into the 54,000-square-foot building constructed next to beautiful wetlands in Hillsboro, OR.