Kevin Dufour
Sustainability Advisor
Focus: Sustainability, Environmental Science, Laws and Regulations
For as long as Kevin Dufour can remember, he has shared a profound connection with the earth and its environment. His lifelong passion for conservation and environmental protection began at the age of 8 with his eager anticipation of Ranger Rick Magazine and his door-to-door activism for “Save the Whales” and “Save the Rain Forest” campaigns.
Dufour remains an avid environmentalist, outdoorsman and adventurer — a passion that fuels his belief that recreational green spaces can exist in harmony with our environment and improve life in our communities.
The challenge, notes Dufour, is that few if any individuals possess the complete range of knowledge necessary to build an environmentally sustainable sports or recreational facility. To make this point, he shares an anecdote.
“I was talking to a friend who’s an architect,” Dufour recalls. “She was building a field at a middle school and I asked her what standards she used to determine how to build that particular field. She replied, ‘We followed DOT standards — the Department of Transportation.’
Those are the same standards they use for putting in a median strip. They tell you about the soil type, the grade, and the drainage — but nothing about the field’s sustainability or how it’s actually going to perform down the road.”
Kevin Dufour recognizes the need for performance quality standards and how to achieve them in a sustainable way. As an environmental scientist and attorney at law, he understands environmental responsibility and the complex laws and regulations associated with it.
But that’s only the beginning. Dufour knows that true sustainability is a balance between environment, economy, and community.
The holder of a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science from the University of Massachusetts Lowell and a law degree from the Massachusetts School of Law, Dufour is a LEED-Accredited Professional in Operations and Maintenance and the recipient of an EPA Commendation for Outstanding Performance.
Those credentials and experiences enable Dufour to help clients set and achieve their sustainability benchmarks.
“No one wants to see a beautifully-designed landscape wash into a nearby stream,” Dufour says.
“There’s no point in building a state-of-the-art recycled water system if the grass is going to die due to salt intolerance. Making the right choices at the design phase is your best insurance against project issues and future maintenance problems.”
Tom Irwin Advisors can guide those decisions by assessing and mitigating areas of concern while building environmental stewardship into the organizational culture of your team.