Archinect - Features

LEED? BREEAM? WELL? Six Major Green Building Labels Explained

2024-08-14T14:00:00-04:00

When embarking on a mission to deliver a building to a high environmental and ecological standard, architects are presented with a range of accreditation systems to both guide the design process and reward the results.

While some systems, such as LEED and BREEAM, emphasize environmental and energy performance, others, such as WELL, are preoccupied with occupant health. Meanwhile, programs such as the ILFI's Living Building Challenge span typologies from schools to wineries, while others, such as Passivhaus and NGBS, have their origins in residential design.

To help designers choose which system(s) are appropriate for their projects and to further inform readers on buildings already accredited, we have rounded up six prominent green building labels from across the industry, including examples of accredited buildings previously featured on Archinect.

A Conversation with Audrey Sato on Fostering Hard and Soft Skills in Architecture

2020-01-07T12:27:00-05:00

For architect Audrey Sato, studying architecture may not have seemed like an obvious choice at first, but she eventually realized that her passion for sustainability and a desire to build in parallel with nature made her a natural fit for the job. Sato grew up in Hawaii, and after graduating with a double concentration in Visual Arts and Architecture Studies from Brown University, interned at architecture firms to start off her career.

The experience inspired her to pursue a Master's of Architecture degree at California Polytechnic State University Pomona. After her studies, Sato chose to start an independent practice, Sato Architects, not out of necessity, but because it was "a natural and practical thing" for her to pursue. If you ask Sato now, her plan at the time was to get going and find a way to "do it right later," a vision that, over nearly a decade of practice, Sato admits, "just kept working." Today, aside from running her own firm, Sato is a LEED-Accredited Professional ...

525 Golden Gate Seismically and Systematically Sustainable

2012-04-16T13:45:00-04:00

by Nam Henderson

One beneficial result derived from the public's growing familiarity with the phrase “green design” is a renewed examination of what defines green or sustainable design. Within the field of architectural design and construction, this prominence has inevitably prompted a conversation on the nature of sustainable architecture. The proliferation of superficially and systemically “green” buildings during the past decade has also spurred this dialogue. Specifically, I am referring to a range of normative practices including the use of green roofs, green walls, wind turbines, various integrated energy and graywater systems or solar panels, as well as industry standards like LEED, SITES, or BREEAM.

Sustainability of Workers' Rights

2011-05-23T14:33:01-04:00

The USGBC’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system promotes sustainable construction; however, despite the system’s focus on occupant health and comfort, LEED turns a blind eye to worker safety. The building practice, by the nature of its scale, will always rely on mass labor for construction. Yet from early monuments like the Egyptian pyramids or the Great Wall of China to recent slavery charges in the UAE documented by the Human Rights Watch, architecture has always had a complicated relationship with labor rights.