Ryland Gagnon, PE
Founder, Optimized Environment
Our story
Healthy homes shouldn't be a luxury.
Where I come from
I started my career in the Army, where I spent four years leading Soldiers. After leaving the service I worked as an engineer with experience in structural and geotechnical design. Throughout these experiences, I maintained a passion for health and wellness. However, I felt like something was missing.
The gap I kept seeing
Over my career, I became more and more interested in building biology. The concept was simple, that nature is the gold standard. The gap that I saw was that to attain that standard, it would cost a fortune. After my own experience and negative health effects of a mold-ridden home, I set out to change that. Families who wanted clean air and natural materials were too often told it simply wasn't in their budget. Enter Optimized Environment.
Why I started Optimized Environment
I created Optimized Environment to change that, using precast hempcrete panels to make healthy homes affordable and accessible. I combined my passions of health and the AEC industry into one company. Every panel is engineered as close to the gold standard as possible. My goal is to get more people into healthy homes so they can experience how we were made to live.