About Cause

Cause works with clients at a wide range of scales, from regional and campus Master-planning and resiliency studies to public, cultural, educational, and single- and multi-family residential projects. We guide our clients through sustainability goal-setting, perform deep environmental analysis studies, and assist in the development of in-house simulation tools.

Through strategic analysis of energy consumption, water use, carbon emissions and material health, we identify the unique sustainable design opportunities of each project and prioritize the development of integrated solutions that also balance project resources. We are experienced and accredited administrators of building certification programs including LEED, Living Building Challenge, Net Zero Energy/Carbon, Passive House, and local programs such as Minnesota’s B3/SB203 standard.

Our process relies on close collaboration with our clients, the architectural team, and diverse disciplines to minimize environmental impact and enhance human experience and well-being through design. We approach our work with a teaching mindset, and identify opportunities on each project to build sustainable design fluency among our collaborators and clients.

Cause is a Minnesota-based LLC led by Architect and Sustainability Analyst, Molly Eagen, AIA, CPHC, LEED AP

Molly is an Architect, Certified Passive House Consultant and LEED Accredited Professional, with 12 years of experience in the design of high performance buildings.

Molly is experienced in leading the sustainability direction of a number of high performance building projects, including Net Zero Energy and LEED-certified projects in a variety of climates. She has worked as a sustainability consultant, analyst and architect in Minneapolis and New York City. Through this experience, she has gotten to test how to best integrate sustainability considerations into design process, and identify the reasons this work sometimes falls short of the original vision.

She founded Cause to specifically address the challenges she has seen in the design and construction industry, and focus on providing design-focused sustainability services with the goal of creating greater accessibility to and building fluency in environmental design.