Lisa Lujan is a self-described protector who loves being in a role where she’s able to take care of others. As the environmental, health and safety manager at Clayton Giles home building facility in New Tazewell, TN, she’s currently responsible for workplace safety and environmental regulation compliance for about 300 team members.

“I get to help protect team members not just by creating a safe work space but also by driving initiatives for sustainability, so that we’re protecting not just our teams but the communities we’re working in as well,” Lisa said.

Her journey goes back to the personal values that have guided both her life and her career – courage, teamwork, responsibility, community and working together. And at Clayton, she’s found the intersection of passion and purpose where she can live out those values every day.

A Lifelong Love

Lisa grew up in Southern California, where her mother’s passion for “sunshine and flowers” fostered a deep love for the natural beauty around her, and a strong desire to protect it. Scuba diving especially demonstrated the direct impact sustainability efforts could have on the environment. Recycling, Lisa said, wasn’t just a habit, but a value. Her upbringing showed her the importance of the connection between people and the community around them. And that sense of responsibility helped her decide to join the military.

“My passion for serving and for protecting people or the environment and wanting to be a part of something larger than myself just kind of naturally led me to the Navy,” Lisa said. “I feel like that’s just followed through the rest of my life as well.”

It was in the Navy where that natural drive to protect and make a positive impact really came to the forefront. During bootcamp, Lisa earned the nickname “Gung-ho” because she was always first in line for any new challenges. She served for six years in a helicopter squadron specializing in combat search and rescue and special warfare missions, dedicated in her service to others.

After leaving the Navy, Lisa moved to Tennessee to be closer to family. She worked as contract administrator for the Department of Veterans Affairs outpatient clinic in Savannah, TN, acting as liaison with contractors and ensuring regulation compliance.

Her Clayton Journey

Lisa joined Clayton in 2016 as the ISO® coordinator for the ISO® 14001 program at the Clayton Savannah home building facility in Savannah, TN. In that position, she was responsible for the facility’s efforts to improve resource management and reduce waste and energy consumption.

After a year, Lisa was promoted to EHS manager, where she also learned the safety side of operations at the home building facility. She then found a calling that fit perfectly with her experience, protecting team members through safety initiatives and protecting the environment through innovative programs.

In 2021, Clayton Savannah was awarded the Governor’s Environmental Stewardship Award for material management. In 2020, Clayton Savannah reduced their waste per home by 71 percent and reused over 1.5 million pounds of materials, including wood and sheetrock. The award specifically noted their work diverting landfill waste and recycling sheetrock into compost in partnership with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and nearby Pickwick Landing State Park.

The award served as a testament to Lisa’s leadership and dedication to improving sustainability processes, while also demonstrating the importance of getting her team excited about and involved in innovative programs.

Around the time the award was announced, Lisa began looking for a new challenge where she could replicate everything she’d learned at Clayton Savannah. When an opportunity opened up at Clayton Giles, Lisa met with the general manager and felt an instant connection in values and vision. In this new role, she knew she could continue the work with team members that had made her position at Clayton Savannah so rewarding.

“I think it was the easiest yes I’ve ever given,” she said.

The facility’s growth in safety culture has been her proudest achievement so far, especially when she sees team members correcting potential hazards on their own. Clayton Giles now also has a large, highly engaged safety committee that conducts weather, medical, safety and suspension drills, which builds team members’ confidence about these procedures and empowers them in their day-to-day roles.

"It's all due to the team,” Lisa said. “All they needed was someone to show them."

Building Relationships Every Day

Lisa’s typical workday might include safety training at orientation for new hires, attending a plant-wide meeting to hear key updates and ensuring any necessary paperwork and documentation is taken care of. No two days are exactly alike, but the purpose is always the same: Building relationships and earning trust. That’s why her favorite part of the day is the time she spends on the facility floor checking in with team members.

“I help protect team members by creating a safe space for them,” Lisa said, adding she likes to see and learn more about the different construction processes so they feel comfortable sharing their ideas about any potential process or ergonomic improvements that will make their roles easier.

Clayton Giles' Sustainability Efforts

These strong relationships and a foundation for open communication have also led to team member driven-innovation.

For example, the New Tazewell landfill is nearly full, which inspired Clayton Giles team members to find ways to recycle materials like scrap sheetrock. In 2022, the facility began working on pilot projects with two companies to turn that sheetrock into a highly useful soil additive for Tennessee farms. Team members created and then refined a process to collect, stack and load the sheetrock pieces to maximize the amount that could be taken for recycling. Last year, the facility recycled over 2 million pounds of sheetrock and several other Clayton facilities in East Tennessee have now replicated the program after seeing Clayton Giles’ success.

The program is part of an aggressive landfill diversion goal at the Clayton Giles facility. They were at 56% diversion at the start of 2024 and ended 2025 with an average of 77% diversion, Lisa said. The facility also has a special focus on reuse rather than just recycling, reusing 14 tons of materials every month. This resource management is a key way for the facility to not only build homes more efficiently, but to embrace Clayton’s sustainability goal of driving change and going good for both people and our planet.

For example, one other recent project included finding a new way to trim dormers for a home, saving both construction materials and significant construction time. These types of improvements show that sustainability, Lisa said, is not just in how the facility handles building materials, but also the choice of materials they use and the efficiencies they build into the homes themselves.

“Our environmental program is probably one of the best examples of how we are not just good stewards of the earth but just good community partners,” Lisa said. “We want to treat our community well.”

A Continuing Passion

That desire to be a good steward and a love of the environment also reaches into Lisa’s personal life. She moved to Knoxville when she took her current role and loves being so close to the Great Smoky Mountains.

“I’m an outdoor girl,” she said. She enjoys hiking with her rescue dog Knox, who she adopted three years ago, and staying creative through various hobbies that help keep her energized to give back to others and support them in their careers at Clayton.

Always, it’s those relationships that remain key for Lisa. Seeing the hands-on approach of leadership, especially at programs like Clayton Ignite that focus on leadership and team member personal development, keep her inspired and excited to come to work each day.

“One of the things that I admire most and I love most about this company is the leadership at every level. You have leaders that invest their time in you,” Lisa said. “And now I have the privilege to do the same thing. I’m able to invest in our team members, I’m able to mentor and coach other EHS managers or coordinators.”

And the more time she spends with the team members, learning their personalities and asking questions about their day, the more they understand that Lisa is truly there to be their advocate.

“It’s all about earning trust, and you can’t earn trust without building that relationship,” she said.

Learn more about Clayton's social responsibility efforts at claytonhomes.com/social-responsibility