Brook Waldman

Brook is a research engineer at the Life Cycle Lab at the University of Washington, where he investigates the life cycle of building materials — their manufacture, use, and end-of-life — and the environmental impacts that accompany those processes.  He also studies and aims to improve the methodologies and data behind the measurement and communication of those environmental impacts. At the CLF, he has been particularly involved in supporting the EC3 tool and developing the CLF Material Baselines.

Previously, Brook studied architecture at the University of Oregon, where he focused on lifecycle assessment (LCA) research of high-performance buildings and construction materials, and worked in architectural practice in Seattle. He was also an educator: he taught high school math (how can we follow the numbers?) and environmental studies (what is our human relationship to the Earth’s material and energy flows?) and led youth wilderness trips.

Besides working at the CLF, Brook volunteers as a math tutor for his local alternative high school and as a sorter at his community’s foam and plastics recycling events. He has a life-long fascination with making new useful stuff from old landfill-bound stuff (like furniture-making with salvaged wood and welding for a biodiesel cooperative). And he maintains a small building-LCA-focused consulting company.