Green building practices can offer our clients an opportunity to create environmentally-sound and resource-efficient buildings.

We are eager to help you explore this “smart building” approach where the goal is to use a minimum of nonrenewable energy, produce a minimum of pollution, and cost a minimum of energy dollars, while increasing the comfort, health and safety of the people who live and work in the building.

Using LEED standards, the entire life-cycle of the building and its components is considered as well as the economic and environmental impact and performance. Even with a tight budget, many green building measures can be incorporated into your building program with minimal or zero increased up-front costs at the same time yielding enormous savings (Environmental Building News, 1999).

Examples of low-cost green practices might include the development of strategies to use natural lighting, the selection of a site to take advantage of mass transit, or the decision to use recycled-content products.

Learn more about LEED—Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design at www.usgbc.org.