Now a senior in high school, North Carolinian Aishwarya Balaji became a LEED Green Associate in middle school after coming across USGBC while doing research for competitions like Science Olympiad and Future City. She’s accomplished a great deal since then, including attending the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo as a scholarship recipient last year.

This year, Balaji is presenting at a Greenbuild session of her own about engaging Gen Z in sustainability.

In her story for Living Standard, she explains that “sustainability is a lifestyle. If you’re introduced to it when you’re younger, you are more likely to incorporate it into your life and into the future as you grow older.”