Sustainability Resources

Staying at the forefront sustainable design

Our clients benefit from a holistic design process that yields long-term economic benefits, healthier people and stronger communities. With a diverse set of skills not found in traditional architecture firms, SERA’s Sustainable Resources Group leads our integrated design approach by providing deep expertise in green building practices, documentation, and policy — supplementing and expanding the knowledge of our entire staff. By continually analyzing, testing and implementing new sustainable design solutions, we stay deeply engaged and push the boundaries of innovation. The efforts outlined below have solidified SERA’s reputation as a national leader in the pursuit of sustainable, climate-responsive design.

LEED Consulting
Take your project beyond using LEED as a “checklist” and leverage this third-party rating system to improve performance outcomes for your building that are aligned with your mission, vision and values.

Daylighting Design
Daylighting plays a key role in our psychological and physiological well-being. Through specialized daylighting strategies, we can help realize important health outcomes while reducing overall energy use.

Healthy Material Selection
We advise on the specification of materials and products that protect the environment and human health. We have experience with the stringent requirements of LEEDv4, and the Living Building Challenge.

Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ)
We have expertise to design for exceptional IEQ, including spaces filled with natural light, high quality indoor air, and that are comfortable thermally and acoustically while enabling connection to nature.

Conceptual Energy Modeling and Analysis
SuRG has developed tools for early design analytics, enabling us to inform those concept stage design decisions that have the greatest impact on energy performance.

Building Enclosure Optimization
Effective enclosure strategies to significantly reduce energy use while maintaining comfort include insulation and air leakage control, strategic use of glazing, and selective filtering elements to admit sunlight and air.

District Systems Planning
Infrastructure systems that reach extraordinary performance often live at a scale beyond that of a single building. We make higher performing networks of energy, water and waste services through early engagement, technical expertise and multi-stakeholder collaboration.