The Emerging Leaders in Environmental and Energy Policy Network

Organization: 
Value Sustainability
Job Title: 
Program Director

Salem Afeworki, LEED Green Associate, ENV SP has 11 years of experience providing sustainability, climate change and community engagement services for infrastructure, transportation, mining and energy clients. She is an effective communicator and team leader skilled at ensuring that compliance, adherence to standards and impact targets are integrated as a fundamental part of successful projects. She possesses outstanding technical writing and interpersonal skills, and her strength is in thinking outside the box and suggesting holistic approaches to problem solving in planning, designing, construction, commissioning and operations phases of projects.

Salem started her career working for the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) as a communication officer, and has work as a climate change campaign manager for 350.org and as a sustainability professional for various Fortune 500 companies, such as KPMG and Jacobs Engineering Group. She was awarded the 2016 Urban Land Institute Orange County/Inland Empire Emergent Leadership Award for Engineering and received a Certificate of Recognition by Orange Country Third District Supervisor Todd Spitzer. She has completed various professional and leadership programs with Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California at Berkeley. She is a member of various industry groups in the United States, including the American Society for Civil Engineers, Urban Land Institute, and Women in Transportation Seminar.

Salem is currently developing a sustainability management plan for the Port of Long Beach, Terminal Island Wye Track Realignment Project. She locally led the development of a concept paper for the USAID Peru titled “Promoting Sustainable Low Carbon Climate Adapation through Case Study Evaluation of the Rio Santa and Rio Inambari Watersheds,” which identified synergies between climate resilience and mitigation actions that promote both adaptation and a low-carbon economy. She brought together climate change experts, glaciologists, social scientists, and vulnerability experts from five countries in three continents. Salem also successfully developed a sustainability strategy for Metro Santiago, South America’s most extensive metro system that consists of environmental, community engagement, resource efficiency policies and guidelines. She evaluated the company’s operations systems, revised existing Key Performance Indicators, conducted site audits and inspections, and developed a roadmap on how to meet and exceed impact reduction targets on all projects.

View profile on LinkedIn