Community Guidelines

SWA’s sustainability consulting team produces guidelines, related technical documents, and editing for clients in both the public sector — federal, state, and municipal — and private sector building developers, residents, and industry. We see information dissemination through document production and technical editing as a natural extension of our research efforts.

Throughout the firm’s history, innovative guidelines on subjects such as passive solar design, energy efficiency, accessibility, and durability have been developed, produced, and/or edited. SWA draws upon its staff, combining subject matter expertise, writing, and editing skills. Coupled with our program management skills, we pull together teams that can take research from ideas and raw data to publication and dissemination.

Green Guidelines

Cities and states around the country are adopting green building guidelines to encourage the construction of sustainable, high-performance buildings. SWA is highly qualified and experienced in creating these guidelines, and has been retained by major cities, states, and private sector developers to write their standards and guidelines.

LEED® for Neighborhood Development™

With the advent of the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED for Neighborhood Development rating system, the LEED rating systems are no longer constrained to individual buildings. LEED for Neighborhood Development considers the sum of buildings and their individual performance levels, and the relationship between buildings within the context of a development’s location, region, and landscape.

LEED for Neighborhood Development integrates the principles of urbanism, green building, and smart growth into a comprehensive rating system that developers can use to make the environmentally responsible, high performance choices that help ensure the development of quality neighborhoods.

Our Role
SWA oversees all three phases of the certification process for clients. SWA recommends an optional pre-review before pursuing the certification of an approved plan, which allows investors and developers to gain conditional certification. Conditional certification can help facilitate design, marketing, and zoning approval before the project is actually completed. The last phase involves documentation and verification that certifies a completed LEED neighborhood development.

Besides LEED, SWA works with many other green criteria and methodologies, including The Natural Step, Green Communities, Green Building Tax Credits, and local and regional green building programs.

SWA also manages the Sustainable Buildings Industry Council, which developed the Whole Building Design Guide. Whole Building Design incorporates occupant health and comfort, accessibility, safety, aesthetics, and productivity into the array of more recognizable sustainability elements such as energy efficiency and water conservation. Our Whole Building Design approach informs the decisions we make on every healthy, sustainable, mixed-use neighborhood development project.