About RisaAbout Risa Suzuki

Greetings and a warm welcome! I’m Risa. Healthy home nerd dedicated to help you create the healthiest living space for you and your family.

I’m a native born-and-raised Seattleite, with a love for unraveling complex problems with simple, straightforward solutions that cut through the noise and fluff to address the root causes – and I’m proud to have created a business that helps individuals and families cultivate healthier lifestyles.

Through all of the years of experience and knowledge gained from clients as well as clearing toxins in my own home to reduce my sensitivities and triggers (with lots of trial and error), I help people like you fast track to a healthier environment in a fraction of the time it took to build my expertise.

Here are a few ways I might be able to help you:

  • If you have health concerns or actively managing health issues and not sure where to start because everything is important and you need someone to help prioritize and implement the most important solutions
  • If you have just purchased or moved into a new home you want to keep as toxin-free as possible when it comes to air quality (including wildfire smoke, mold), water systems, furniture, healthy bedroom, office, and play area setups
  • If you have a new baby on the way and want to create the healthiest environment as possible to support their growth and development
  • If you’re planning a remodel (or have one underway) and want to know what choices you have between traditional and healthier product alternatives and health impacts

I help people who want to clear toxins in their home for a variety of reasons – because they are sick or immune-compromised, or on the other end of the spectrum, an increasing number of clients are perfectly healthy and are being proactive with their health or have a baby on the way. I also help clients with pending real estate transactions, or have just moved into new homes and want to guidance for managing air quality and wildfire smoke, setting up bedrooms and offices, water system recommendations and best practices for building materials that are non-toxic, mold and mildew resistant, and can help with air quality, temperature and humidity.

I didn’t grow up in a construction family or have a special knack for math and science, and in fact, math and science were my least favorite subjects in school! I grew up in Seattle in a very middle-class family, and we had a wood-paneled station wagon we used to drive up to the mountains to go skiing. I started teaching when I was fourteen because that’s how we were able to afford an expensive sport.

This is when my love for figuring things out, teaching, and helping people came together.

I realized if my beginner classes had any chance of zipping down a black diamond in eight weeks, I needed to be an expert in what I was teaching in order to break the complicated technical language into kid-friendly words, exercises and demos. Basically, whatever it took to meet them where they were to keep them progressing.

I realized I loved figuring things out to help people

I continued to teach over the years, even with my full-time job at Microsoft. When my sensitivities kicked into high gear, I knew I had to do something before my health was impacted even more than it already was.

I had heard about Building Biology and thought it would be an amazing certification to go through, but was intimidated by the very rigorous and immersive three year process with lots of biology, chemistry, physics, building science, calculations and pass-fail exams. The sensitivities I had were continual allergies, skin and EMF sensitivities, and was later diagnosed with chronic Epstein Barr Virus (EBV) which triggers EMF sensitivities.

At that time, in 2009, toxins weren’t as common knowledge like they are today, and it was difficult to find information that was easy to understand, reliable, and accurate and I didn’t have the in-depth knowledge or expertise to be able to discern what was valid and what wasn’t. It was also impossible to find information that wasn’t a research or science paper that I could correlate to actions to take in my home. Today, the opposite is true, where there’s so much information everywhere, that can be overwhelming if you can’t discern what’s valid or true, and what isn’t.

I knew there were things I could do in my home to boost my immune system and reduce my triggers, but I didn’t know how to associate my symptoms to specific sources or root causes, areas in my home to focus on or what actions to take. I couldn’t even think about prioritizing anything because I didn’t know what things I should be doing and what things I should ignore.

Meanwhile, my symptoms weren’t improving or getting better.

I was a hot mess.

(Really, I was.) That’s when I decided to take the plunge and go through the Building Biology Certification even though the timing was not ideal, to say the least. I had just moved back from Paris and started a job for a new company and the last thing I wanted to do was take on an intensive three year program that I’d have to fly out for the in-person training segments and testing. However… it was the most comprehensive and thorough training with the quality level I wanted.

The pros were that I’d get answers to all of the questions I had about my home, symptoms, and triggers, I’d get better and get my life back. The cons were the timing, time commitment, and going through all of the sciences again would be like sitting in the front row and hearing nails on a chalkboard.

I went through with it anyways and I still keep in touch with a few of my classmates to this day.

I did get the in-depth knowledge and technical training and answers I was looking for, what I needed to address in my home and how to map actions or mitigation steps or materials to health effects. What none of was prepared for was the vast amount of knowledge sitting in our brains, waiting to be sorted through and prioritized like a pile of Legos.

This is where my Microsoft life swooped in and saved me, because setting priorities, defining and measuring results, creative thinking and problem solving and changing direction at the drop of a hat while being efficient and maintaining a high quality bar are all core survival skills at that company. The years it took to ingrain those skills are a big reason why I was able to steadily improve and get my life back with almost no triggers and why my clients see improvements fairly quickly after working with me.

Although my main motivation for going through certification was to address my own symptoms and fix my home, I’ve found that almost all of my clients have similar questions, concerns, and areas where they get stuck or overwhelmed.

If I can do it, you can too

I believe addressing toxins in our home environment is a necessity and not an option.

We’re exposed to toxins and pollutants that weren’t at the levels they are today, or some of them didn’t exist and we never had to take them into consideration and this is why it’s so important to keep the environment we live in as toxin-free as we can. I believe:

  • Reducing toxins in our homes reduces the toxic load on our bodies
  • Less toxins in our homes eases the toxic footprint on the environment
  • Easing the toxic footprint on our environment helps us leave a better place for the generations to come

Regardless of your current circumstance – whether you’re in good health or facing illness, a new parent, constructing a home, or an athlete, you can easily make changes that will have an impact. By taking action, you set in motion a chain reaction that leads to a positive impact.

My mission is to show you and help you make the right changes where you won’t have to toss everything out, cost you thousands of dollars or take months to complete.

If I can do it, you can, too.

And that brings me to youAbout Risa Suzuki

I’m here to serve, educate, and help you create a healthier home for you and your family that does good for the planet and the next generations.

Through in-person or remote consulting assessments, moving into a new home, preparing for a new baby, remodel and real estate transactions, and anything else that might be offered, I’m here to help you create an environment that’s not only beautiful inside and out, but supports your health and well-being and lights up your heart every time you walk through the door.


Education

Risa’s expertise includes a three year intensive program for her Building Biology Environmental Consultant certification through the US-based International Institute of Building Biology and Ecology which focuses on all aspects of creating a healthy environment including building materials, indoor air quality, mold, water, and electromagnetic fields. The Institute is the longest-running and most credible training program for both healthy homes and electromagnetic (EMF) fields.

She continues to have a successful career in the technology industry with over twenty five at Microsoft, leading global teams across the company to deploy enterprise level systems and programs. Additionally, she served abroad in Paris, France, as a founding member of a boutique mergers and acquisitions firm for high-tech startups, holding the role of Operations Vice President and providing C-level coaching for final exits.

She is a Certified Transformational Life coach and earned her bachelor’s degree at the University of Washington.