Stars of Our Community: Stet Sanborn
Posted by jteo on May. 1, 2025 / Member Spotlight / Subscribe 0
Meet our featured member, Stet Sanborn, an ASHRAE Fellow and Licensed Architect who serves as SmithGroup's Director of Climate IMPACT - a national interdisciplinary team focused on Performance, Engineering Analytics, Sustainability, Climate Resilience planning, and decarbonization. He is a passionate advocate for Net Zero Energy and Net Zero Carbon engineering. Nationally, Stet serves on ASHRAE's Center of Excellence for Building Decarbonization, MEP2040’s Steering Committee, and represents SmithGroup as part of the US Department of Energy Better Buildings Design and Construction Allies Working Group focused on rapid scaling of low and zero-carbon buildings and technology.
How long have you been involved with ASHRAE in years? Describe the roles or capacities in which you are involved with ASHRAE.
I’ve been involved with ASHRAE for more than 11 years officially, but I had been attending ASHRAE conferences and referencing ASHRAE design guides long before that. When I was in graduate school at UC Berkeley’s Center for the Built Environment, I was involved with thermal comfort research, UnderFloor Air Distribution System research and a whole host of ASHRAE research projects. However, it was when I was really trying to improve my professional experience that I engaged in ASHRAE in a more meaningful way. I’ve been most engaged at ASHRAE in helping to write design guides includes the Multifamily zero energy AEDG. Early on in my career I was most excited to engage with the technical awards program as a way to celebrate our firm’s work and the amazing clients we got to work with to innovate in net zero energy and advanced radiant designs. Most recently, I’ve been serving on the Center of Excellence for Building Decarbonization and the Taskforce for Building Decarbonization before that. It is with this collaboration that I have been most fulfilled as a practitioner and advocate for engineering a better future.
If you had to describe the ASHRAE community in three words, what would they be?
Expansive, Innovative, Deeply Technical
What has been your favorite ASHRAE memory, event, or experience, and why?
I won’t lie; getting to represent ASHRAE at a Whitehouse meeting last year on advancing research in ultra-low GWP refrigerants was a career high for me; sitting around a table with exceptionally bright and passionate researchers, scientists, and engineers discussing cutting edge work to advance a more energy-efficient and lower-carbon future was incredible, and I am thankful for the chance to be included.
How has your involvement with ASHRAE influenced your career and personal growth?
Participating in committees, co-authoring engineering design guides, and getting recognition of our work in technical awards have all been huge benefits of participating in ASHRAE and have absolutely accelerated my career growth and visibility within our firm. ASHRAE is an incredible vehicle to elevate your own skills and get the right kind of attention at work.
Do you hold any ASHRAE or other professional certifications/licenses? If so, how have they benefited your career?
Sometimes I feel like one of those alphabet soup business cards folks: I am proudly and ASHRAE Fellow. In addition, I am also a licensed Architect, LEED AP, CPHC, and was a Living Building Challenge ambassador while that program was really active. For me, all of the certifications are less important than understanding how our work interacts with all of the other design disciplines. I find the most impact at these intersections.
What initially drew you to ASHRAE, and what has kept you engaged over the years?
When I finished my engineering degree in college, my first job was in a lab in a windowless building, in a cubicle farm under the sound of magnetic ballasted fluorescent T-12 lamps. I had a great opportunity to then move to Germany with that company and work in an incredible low-energy building with operable windows, mixed-mode ventilation, external shading devices that operated during the day in response to solar position, and where every space had access to fresh light and air. I realized that my passion was at the intersection of engineering, architecture, and the impact of both on health and wellbeing. That passion brought me to ASHRAE and my entire career focused on this intersection.
What is one key piece of advice you would offer to young professionals entering this field?
Be the person who raises their hand and volunteers to do it. The professional world is full of folks that are eager to say, “Someone should go study …..” but won’t actually step up to answer the tough questions, to do the math, to do the research. Be the person that stands up, and does it. The best advice I ever got was more than 20 years ago while I was in graduate school. One of my mentors said, “Be the person willing to ask tough questions, but also the person willing to do the really hard work of answering those tough questions.” I’ve tried to carry that advice with me through my whole career.
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