Engineering A Sustainable Future

On a Friday in May 2007, Jennifer Languell, owner of Fort Myers-based Trifecta Construction Solutions, was giving yet another green-building presentation when she got a call from the Discovery Channel. A few weeks later, on the Fourth of July, she was on a plane to Greenland as one of three hosts of Discovery Project Earth. The yearlong project took her around the world with a Canadian entrepreneur and an English quantum physicist to test innovative ideas to battle climate change.

Anyone who knows Languell’s work won’t be surprised that she was tapped for the spot. She’s long been at the forefront of green building in Southwest Florida, and with her personable nature and sense of humor, she’s a natural in front of an audience.

"Discovery U.S. saw a video of me doing a presentation and thought I would be a funny engineer," she says. "They needed an engineer that had personality."

Languell bucks stereotypes. A self-professed "girly-girl," she works in the male-dominated construction industry. A Ph.D. in civil engineering and sustainable construction, she’s quick to laugh at herself—boisterously. And her commitment to the green movement comes not from an emotional advocacy position but from an analytical, engineering point of view. "Twelve years ago, I became accustomed to getting laughed at in meetings and being perceived as the tree-hugging, whale-kissing, granola-eating blonde," she says.

She’s used to getting skeptical looks when she shows up at construction sites, but they don’t last long. "All it takes is one question, and we usually have established that I have a good grasp of my area of expertise," she says.