Nat'l Assoc. of Home Builders, Best-In-Green Young Professional of the Year in 2015, Karen Benner

Overview

Karen Benner, CGP, LEED-AP, works with Homes of Clayton Avenue Consulting in Pittsburgh, PA. She focuses on changing how home building is done through better pre-construction planning, collaboration, and green building practices.

Key facts

• She won the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Best-In-Green Young Professional of the Year award in 2015.
• She has over 15 years of experience working for production home builders.
• In 2021, she obtained her real estate license.
• She helped champion third-party certification of over 800 market-rate and affordable housing units within 8 years.

What drives her work

Benner says pre-construction planning helps builders and contractors reduce change orders and delays. She says stronger collaboration between office, field, and trade partners improves the bottom line and creates more room for innovation.

She is motivated by the homebuilding industry’s impact on social and environmental issues. She wants to support people and the planet through innovation, collaboration, creativity, and empathy.

Goals for the next 24 months

• Use her construction knowledge to help real estate professionals and consumers.
• Help people see opportunities in existing homes that are not perfect.
• Budget realistically for renovations.
• Support home performance upgrades that lower carbon footprint and energy bills.
• Improve comfort in hot or cold rooms.
• Help with aging-in-place renovations.
• Expand a sustainability-focused group of real estate agents in Pittsburgh.

Impact of Clayton Avenue Consulting

Benner says the company helps builders and contractors improve customer experience, reduce delays, and strengthen trade partner relationships. She says this can help them become the “builder of choice” in a shrinking workforce market. For consumers, the goal is better-informed decisions about purchasing or renovating homes within budget.

Advice to women in construction

• Explore the industry from many viewpoints.
• Understand the roles and challenges of each stakeholder.
• Find mentors who model the behavior you admire.
• Work for people who support your growth.
• Seek conferences, continuing education, shadowing, and cross-training.

Quote and inspiration

Her guiding quote is: “You get what you give.” She connects this to the Golden Rule and says she tries to give what she wants back.

Notable win

Her green building work and field supervision helped her earn the NAHB Best-In-Green Young Professional of the Year award in 2015.