Engineering Firms: A LEED Influence
Staff -- Consulting-Specifying Engineer, 6/1/2002
The U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating program for "green" buildings has established itself as an important certification in the industry, as evidenced by the growing number of engineering firms hiring LEED-certified experts.
"As engineers, we have always been concerned with energy efficiency," says John Hess, vice president and head of the sustainable design team at Vanderweil Engineers, Boston.
A leader in sustainable design, Vanderweil boasts that it has "the largest team of LEED-accredited professionals in the industry," with 23, and has recently completed green projects for clients such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Princeton University.
And Vanderweil is hardly alone among engineering firms gaining LEED certification and marketing their green services. Milwaukie, Ore.-based Interface Engineering recently named Jerry Yudelson, P.E.—who serves on the Board of the U.S. Green Building Council—as its corporate marketing director. Accordingly, the firm plans on growing its sustainable design services.
The trend is not limited to small firms, either. CH2M Hill, the multifaceted Denver-based firm, recently hired Nathan Good to work in their Portland, Ore. office developing the firm's capabilities for large-scale sustainable development, LEED certification and green building. Good, a registered architect, formerly worked for Portland General Electric, where he helped create their Green Building Services subsidiary.
