To celebrate International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, we decided to look back at some of the women who made significant contributions to the world of renewable energy, sustainability and the built environment. From ancient Egypt to modern day, here are some of the women we wanted to highlight for their efforts and innovative work which still affect how we live, work and travel today.

Mary Walton

A nineteenth century American inventor, Mary Walton lived in New York City during the Industrial Revolution, and was a key figure in reducing and managing air and noise pollution. Both of her inventions were awarded patents in 1879 and 1881 respectively.

Concerned about the rising levels of air pollution from city factories, Walton created a system for deflecting emissions from factory smokestacks into water tanks which would then be flushed into the city’s sewage system. Her second invention came about after hearing about Thomas Edison’s failed attempts to reduce the noise pollution from the city’s elevated railway. She discovered that the noise was amplified from the railways’ wooden support boxes and came up with the idea of modifying the interior of the boxes with cotton or linen and filling them with sand to dampen the sound. She famously discovered the source of the issue and came up with her solution by setting up a model railroad track in her basement.

Norma Merrick Sklarek

Norma Merrick Sklarek was the first African-American woman to become a fully licensed Architect in New York (1952) and California (1962).

Despite facing enormous amounts of discrimination throughout out her career, Sklarek designed the United States Embassy in Tokyo in 1976 and Los Angeles International Airport in 1984. In addition, she was also the first black woman to own her own architectural practice alongside Margot Siegel and Katherine Diamond which became the largest woman-owned firm in the 1980’s. After retiring, Sklarek was appointed governor on the California Architects Board and also served as chair on the AIA's National Ethics Council. She became known as the “Rosa Parks of Architecture,” and spent her career fighting for women’s rights in a number of industries.

Margaret Feilman

Born and raised in Australia, Margaret Feilman became the first female cadet for the public works department of Western Australia in 1948, a heavily male-dominated field, before going on to study art and architecture. 

After practising architecture and landscape design, in 1952, Feilman became Perth’s first ever female Town Planner and was the architect who planned the townsite of Kwinana, New Town, which housed 25,000 industry workers. In addition to this, she was the founding member of the Western Australian Town Planning Institute and has played a vital role in securing urban conservation and introduced Heritage Conservation studies into Australian universities. 

Queen Hatshepsut

Looking back to ancient Egypt, Queen Hatshepsut took to the throne circa 1478 BC making her the second historically confirmed female pharaoh. To date, she is considered one of Egypt’s most successful rulers.

Throughout her reign, Queen Hatshepsut had many accomplishments including the first recorded foreign tree transplantation attempt with 31 live myrrh trees. The voyage and transplantation of the trees was recorded on the walls of the Hatshepsut mortuary temple. She also commissioned a large number of construction projects throughout Egypt including the memorial temple at Deir el-Bahri, which is considered to be one of the architectural wonders of ancient Egypt and still stands today.