Benchmarks and ratings: How to identify leaders in sustainable design
Sustainability is all the rage. From agriculture and manufacturing to architecture and building, industries across the board are paying closer attention to how the products they create affect the environment.
This is great news. But as sustainability continues to permeate the messages coming out of so many organizations, how do we distinguish sustainability leaders from those who are just joining the conversation?
Fortunately, in the building industry, there are a variety of design and performance standards in place to help make these determinations.
Hitting the mark
Sustainable engineering design has been a focus at PAE for many years. At the outset of all projects, we work with our clients to establish clear and inspiring sustainability goals—and outline a detailed plan for seeing them through.
We have a wide range of benchmarking experience to show for our commitment to setting and achieving sustainability goals. This includes the Bullitt Center in Seattle, which is one of the greenest commercial buildings in the world and the largest commercial building to achieve the International Living Future Institute’s Living Building Challenge performance standard.
Since the launch of the LEED rating system, PAE has provided design or commissioning expertise for more than 170 LEED rated or registered projects. In addition, dozens of PAE projects have either achieved or are pursuing Living Building Challenge, Architecture 2030, carbon-neutral, and Net-Zero Energy/Water status.
Our extensive experience with sustainable design allows us to assist owners in identifying the best site-wide and building-specific sustainability goals for every project. And we are always raising the bar for ourselves as leaders in sustainable engineering design—a high standard that shows up in our industry-recognized work.
By the numbers
PAE has completed multiple projects that have been recognized with sustainability benchmarks.
- Living Buildings: 6 projects
- Net-Zero Energy/Water: 16 projects
- LEED Platinum: 36 projects
- LEED Gold: 95 projects
- LEED Silver: 33 projects
- Carbon neutral: 6 projects
- Architecture 2030: 16 projects
- SEED: 17 projects
- CalGreen: 5 projects
- Passive House: 4 projects
- Minergie-P: 1 projects
Visit our Work portfolio to learn more about these projects.