LEED Certification Matters at DevelopmentOne
I’m here to talk to you about LEED certification. I myself am not LEED certified. But here at the firm, we have quite a few architects that are LEED certified.
The process is very interesting. Of course, LEED is a process of making sure that the building is sustainable. And you have to have the knowledge to apply that as an architect. The Green Building Council developed LEED. LEED determined these criteria on what is sustainable. It provides a guide to what are the right practices to have a sustainable building.
We’ve actually had quite a few buildings that have LEED certification. One of them was LEED Platinum that we did for NASA. LEED Platinum is the highest level of LEED. It’s a moral thing to do, to design buildings that are not taking away from our Earth. Instead, we are adding to it in a good and positive way. You know we want and need to be careful about recycling. We’re more serious about using products that are sensitive to the environment. We use the methods of construction that don’t pollute our earth. All this is very critical and important. The world is now becoming sensitive to that.
CALGreen Building Codes
In the state of California, we also have something called the great CALGreen building codes. These codes are the state standard version of LEED. The LEED implemented these criteria and brought them to light for everybody. But now, you don’t need LEED certification to design a building that is sensitive to the environment.
Here at DevelopmentOne, we have been practicing design and building methods that are sensitive to the environment. This was even before LEED certification existed. We always felt that it was the right thing to do. Moreover, we did the best we could under the circumstances to do what was sensitive. We owe it to this earth that has provided so much for us. And we want to continue to be a world that we and our children can safely live in and that is environmentally safe. That helps the environment stay in its natural state. Our current buildings that we’ve done have been difficult to achieve. But, we’ve got to continue to try, even if it may seem impossible to do it at times.
