Martha G. VanGeem, PE, LEED AP BD+C

Greater Chicago Area
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Martha G. VanGeem, PE, LEED AP BD+C, FACI is a self-employed principal engineer in the Chicago area with 45 years of experience. She serves as a project principal investigator and specialized consultant in the areas of green buildings and infrastructure, energy use in buildings, energy codes, thermal mass, and moisture mitigation. Her accumulated experience during her career has included over 500 large and small consulting, testing, and research projects. Ms. VanGeem has investigated moisture problems and performed energy analyses and testing for numerous concrete, steel, and wood framed buildings.

She has performed numerous analyses to predict heat flow, heat dissipation, energy use, condensation potential, temperature gradients and thermal resistance for building components. In the area of energy efficiency, she performs analysis and measurements to determine R-values, effects of thermal mass and energy use in buildings.

In the area of green technologies, Ms. VanGeem provides expertise on environmentally preferable materials, LEED, IgCC/ASHRAE 189.1, and other green rating systems, product category rules (PCRs), and environmental product declarations (EPDs). She has more than 20-years- experience with environmental life-cycle inventories (LCIs) and life-cycle assessments (LCAs) of cement, concrete, and other construction products as well as life cycle cost (LCC) analyses. 

Ms. VanGeem has determined the cause of moisture problems and proposed solutions for wood, steel and concrete structures. In addition to field inspections and moisture measurements, she utilizes a computer model to evaluate moisture flow rates and the potential for condensation and related moisture problems.

Ms. VanGeem is a licensed professional engineer in Illinois, a LEED AP BD+C, a Registered Energy Professional (residential and commercial) for the city of Chicago, and a fellow of the American Concrete Institute. She received her bachelor’s degree of civil engineering (high honors) from the University of Illinois (Urbana) and her MBA from the University of Chicago. She is a member of many energy and green building standard committees including ASHRAE energy standards (SSPC 90.1 and SSPC 90.2), ASHRAE/USGBC/ICC/IES High Performance Green Building Standard (IgCC/SSPC 189.1) –  where she is also energy efficiency working group chair, ASTM, ACI, USGBC, and ISO. She presents on various aspects of green buildings on a regular basis, and has authored more than100 articles and published reports. Two of her articles have won awards – the Charles C. Zollman Award from the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute in 2006 and the F. Ross Brown Award from Construction Canada in 2005. She is the sole recipient of the 2013 ASHRAE Standards Achievement Award and the 2018 ACI Concrete Sustainability Award. She also received the 2014 ASHRAE Distinguished Service Award. She is a York High School Duke of Distinction (2020 Distinguished Alumna).