Chasing LEED

For the past few months, all of the members of our team have been pursuing LEED accreditation. So, since mid-November much of our conversation has centered around energy usage, daylighting strategies and FSC Certified Wood.

LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and is a program of the US Green Building Council. Certification of buildings measures five major areas, including: Sustainable Sites, Energy & Atmosphere, Water Efficiency, Materials and Resources, and Indoor Air Quality. A final category rewards efforts that are innovative, but are not covered by one of the other categories.

The whole-systems thinking required to pursue LEED certification plays well to the way our team approaches projects. And in a "being before doing" theme, it has certainly raised the level of consciousness in our offices about sustainable practice and has impacted our day-to-day processes. (For example, we are now doing simple things we hadn't thought of before like purchasing fair-trade coffee and implemeting recycling.)

Best of all, because we have done this as a team, there has been much celebration as each of us has passed, and much cheering on for those who are still pursuing their LEED AP status.

Strategic Dimensions will likely be at 100% by the end of February. Until then, we'll study on!

© Strategic Dimensions 2009