Matt Golden
President & Founder

Matt Golden is the co-founder and president of Sustainable Spaces. Prior to founding the company in 2004, Matt worked as an Energy Consultant helping homeowners and businesses develop solar power systems. As an energy consultant, he soon realized that he was offering only a point solution and could not really address most homeowner's desire to make their homes and lives more sustainable. ??Matt developed the concept for Sustainable Spaces to meet this market demand by providing a single full-service resource and a brand homeowners can trust to help them improve the comfort, health, and efficiency of their home.

Matt speaks extensively on building science and integrated green design to groups such as the AIA (American Institute of Architects), West Coast Green, Build it Green and others. Matt has authored a number of articles or Home Energy Magazine, and has been featured in the USA Today, SF Chronicle, KQED Radio, and the Ellen Degeneres Show. He currently resides on the following boards: Department of Energy (DOE) Home Performance Council, California Building Performance Contractors Association (CBPCA), Build It Green, and Fine Home Building Magazine Green Building Advisory Board.

Matt holds a bachelors degree in foreign relations from Georgetown University.

Dan Kartzman
Vice President of Information Systems

Dan graduated from New York University with honors and a BA in Computer Science. Upon learning about peak energy while in school, his enthusiasm and commitment took a turn toward the home performance industry. Dan believes the most significant impact he can make to better the world is by building a business which changes residential energy use to become as efficient as possible. His goal is to retrofit every home in the United States to be completely energy efficient. He focuses his energy, passion, diligence, meticulousness, and dynamic personality on making a minimal-impact a world reality.

Dan Kartzman is a home performance specialist and the head of our Information Systems Department. He has extensive professional experience in the technology consulting and business development consulting industries. He has sold, planned, and implemented solutions for companies as small as two people and as large as hundreds of thousands.

Carol "Patch" Garcia
General Manager

Carol “Patch” Garcia is a veteran of the Bay Area’s sustainability movement. At the onset of the dot-com, she returned to California from Manhattan where she had managed the Real Estate Lending Division of ABC television’s credit union (ABEFCU). While working in the burgeoning Internet industry, she dove head-first into what she calls the “Green Scene” by volunteering and joining organizations such as Architects, Designers, Planners for Social Responsibility (www.norcal-adpsr.org), the Women’s Environmental Network (www.wencal.org) and the Green Resource Center (www.greenresourcecenter.org). She also served on the Board of Directors of the Sustainable Business Alliance (www.sustainablebiz.org), a non-profit organization dedicated to building a green business community.

Carol’s interest in energy and volunteer background lead her to a senior management position with Berkeley-based, Sun Light and Power. Her ability to attract top-notch employees and to grow a small construction firm into one of San Francisco’s Fastest Growing Companies is a strength that will aid in building Sustainable Spaces into a national brand.

John Neal
Construction Team Leader

John Neal was raised outside of a small town in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Growing up so close to nature in the raw, John had a particularly keen interest in conservation. In a county with no recycling services he developed a comprehensive recycling program at his high school in which all recycling proceeds went to school scholarships and community development. After graduating at the top of his class he attended Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. While he worked towards earning his BA in English, he immersed himself in numerous projects that reflected his commitment to conservation and sustainability, including his participation in the local CSA organic farm, coursework emphasizing sustainable living and design, and a collaborative project with a physics professor to design and live in a sustainable urban home. After graduating with honors, John took some time off to travel (his first love), cook (his second), and work at a winery in the Willamette Valley. Returning to California, John decided it was time he began walking down the path of sustainability...

Pratap Mukherjee
CEO

Pratap Mukherjee joined Sustainable Spaces in early 2008 with the passionate belief that the solutions that will make the biggest impacts on our environmental crises are those that improve people's current quality of life at the same time they preserve our natural resources.  This drew him to focus his career on energy efficiency and building performance and set his goals on spreading the message that we can live more comfortably, more economically, and more sustainably all at the same time.

Pratap is a veteran CEO of high-growth entrepreneurial companies.  Most recently, he co-founded and grew Beacon Fire & Safety, LP, which grew in the span of 5 years to be one of the nation's largest fire protection service companies.  As CEO, he focused on building the best team in the industry, providing the highest level of customer service, and driving growth through strategic acquisitions and the industry's most professional sales team.  He sold the company to a Fortune 500 company and managed the firm through its transition.  Previously, Pratap was the co-founder and CEO of an Internet start-up in the automobile marketplace and Research Associate at the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Pratap holds an MBA, an MA in Education, an MS in Engineering-Economic Systems, and a AB in Quantitative Economics, all from Stanford University.  He is an active member of Vistage International, the world's largest CEO membership organization.  Pratap lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and two children.

Adam Winter
Vice President of Operation and Consulting Services

Adam brings to Sustainable Spaces a wealth of experience ranging from project management to environmental restoration. He currently oversees all remediation operations, as well as performing as lead consultant to some of the Bay Area's top green contractors, architects, and developers.

Adam moved to San Francisco, after completing a Bachelor of Science in Renewable Resource Management University of British Columbia (UBC), and running environmental and watershed restoration projects throughout the province. Adam changed career courses upon his arrival in San Francisco to focus on project management in the technology field, implementing sales force automation systems for a world-wide sales force, and managing software development for a fast paced startup.

Having returned to his environmental calling as a core member of the Sustainable Spaces Team, Adam is trained in a wide range of building science disciplines. He is a certified Green Building Professional and GreenPoints Rater.

Tom DiCandia
Project Manager

Tom has over 20 years of management experience, responsible for bottom-line profit in a variety of business ventures including advertising, entertainment management and construction management.

In 1995 as a facility maintenance director, Tom began studying and implementing alternative energy and energy conservation in property management. His technical background includes electronic, electrical, audio, knowledge of plumbing, mechanical & electrical systems. Tom's Current studies include building science, building performance testing and remediation, and environmental impact awareness.




Gail Brownell
Manager of Consulting Services, HERS Rater

Gail has a B.S. Engineering (Environmental) from Northwestern University and an MBA (with Project Management Certificate) from Golden Gate University. She has worked in the electronics industry at Varian, HP and Agilent Technologies, where she managed Superfund underground tank cleanups, supervised water treatment and hazardous waste handling in semiconductor manufacturing, and established environmental management systems. While Gail was corporate environmental manager at Agilent, the company established an annual Environment and Social Responsibility report, obtained ISO14001, and received recognition as a Best Corporate Citizen

Gail has joined the green building field, inspired by her own home green remodel. Gail has added home performance expertise to her skills, and is working with Sustainable Spaces to help homeowners to create healthier, more comfortable and energy efficient homes. Gail is certified as a CGBP (Certified Green Building Professional), and HERS rater (Home Energy Rating Services), and has completed the Home Performance training with CBPCA (California Building Performance Contractor Association), as well as many other energy and home performance classes. She continues to enjoy learning and doing home performance testing, and gaining the satisfaction of providing solutions for homeowners.

Shan Fong
Administrative Assistant