Laura Spanjian
“Municipal green- building programs, like our Houston Green Office Challenge, have been effective because they bring recognition locally to companies making great strides in sustainability. The Green Office Challenge allows us to applaud the efforts of environmentally minded businesses while encouraging them to continue pushing the envelope for greener buildings.”
Laura Spanjian, City of Houston
Glenn Heinmiller
“As much as LEED has been highly influential, certification programs and rating systems are not the top sustainability drivers for the lighting designer. What pushes the ‘sustainability’ of our work the most are energy codes and utility energy incentive programs.”
Glenn Heinmiller, Lam Partners
Nannette Lake
“HPI-CHPS and Savings by Design are two certifications/programs that have been a big benefit to the K-12 market. These bring the added benefit of monetary incentives in an economy that pinches every penny and quite often leaves sustainable features on the floor of the value-engineering room.”
Nannette Lake, Stafford King Wiese Architects
Justin Campbell
“Sustainable Cleveland 2019 has created the benchmark for all US cities to follow with a 10-year initiative engaging people from all walks of life, working together to design and develop a thriving and resilient Cleveland region leveraging its wealth of assets to build economic, social, and environmental well-being for all.”
Justin Campbell, Abode
Anica Landreneau
“LEED has triggered the most widespread adoption of sustainable building, increasing the market for sustainable materials and technologies, which brings down cost. But at the same time, programs like Living Building Challenge, AIA 2030, and Net Zero help to set stretch goals, ensuring the market for sustainability is always advancing.”
Anica Landreneau, HOK
Jason McLennan
“Without a doubt the most progressive and influential certification program in the world is the Living Building Challenge. Imagine a future where every act of design and construction made the world a better place.”
Jason F. McLennan, International Living Futures Institute
John Martin
“Competitions highlight the fact that sustainable design requires a true team approach, in which specialists combine their efforts to achieve results that are greater than the sum of the parts. No one competition can be singled out as the ‘most effective for furthering sustainability.’ Competitions and certification programs represent both cause and effect, in that they both stimulate sustainable design and are symbols of the growing importance of sustainability as a key design issue.”
John Martin, International Association of Lighting Designers
Janet Milkman
“The most effective green building program in Philadelphia is city’s new benchmarking law requiring owners of commercial buildings over 50,000 square feet to benchmark and disclose their energy use, impacting more than 1,500 large buildings, and saving a potential seven percent in energy use based on the EPA’s EnergyStar Portfolio Manager average data.”
Janet Milkman, DVGBC
Heli Ojamaa
“The Living Building Challenge has a refreshing take on furthering sustainability in the built environment. Incorporating advocacy, on a marketplace and legislation level, into the project requirements gets all stakeholders involved, both on the individual project level and in the larger dialogue. The human factor incorporated through Beauty, Spirit, Education and Inspiration requirements amongst stringent energy requirements reminds us of the bigger picture, the little things and what drives us to want to create change while preserving what’s always been there.”
Heli Ojamaa, Farewell Architects
Kevin Parkhurst
“I feel the USGBC LEED programs have been the most effective competition or certification program so far. They provide professionals a consistent framework to assess environmental impacts that is evolving as a tool for appropriate design and the public with a credible rating system that promotes sustainability in the built environment.”
Kevin Parkhurst, Eric Lloyd Wright & Associates
Rania Alomar
“I don’t think that any one competition has really gained headway yet. The AIA has started to incorporate a sustainability category in the industry’s awards which makes it easy for architects to submit as they are submitting other projects. The playing field is still open though.”
Rania Alomar, RA-DA
