Cultural Institutions

SWA works with all types of educational and cultural institutions including libraries, museums, botanical gardens, and nonprofits to design, upgrade, or certify innovative and sustainable building projects.

SWA offers institutional clients the same set of energy consulting, certification (including LEED® and ENERGY STAR®), sustainability consulting, compliance, and training that we offer to clients from other market sectors—with special considerations for the needs and challenges that educational and cultural institutions must balance. SWA also pairs our work with incentive programs as appropriate.

Cultural institutions can be certified under LEED®: Existing Buildings™ and LEED®: New Construction™.

LEED® for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance™

LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance promotes higher building performance while cutting operating costs and improving indoor environmental quality for tenants and building staff. Owners and managers of existing building LEED projects recognize that new construction only represents 1% of the U.S. building stock, and that the average commercial building has a life of about 40 years. Rather than waiting around for the right moment to build a high performance building from the ground up, LEED for Existing Buildings: O&M clients choose to take action without delay, pursuing lower energy bills, longer building life, and the peace of mind that comes with high performance, in the buildings they already own and operate.

SWA guides our clients throughout the entire process of achieving LEED for Existing Buildings: O&M, including initial O&M review meetings, technical auditing, retro-commissioning, O&M policy implementation, and documentation. We also provide documentable training in all sectors (waste management, health and safety, policies, and engineering) for building owners, managers, project teams, and tenants.

For qualifying buildings, SWA also provides concurrent support for earning the ENERGY STAR.

LEED® for New Construction (and Major Renovations)™

The LEED for New Construction rating system is aimed at guiding new or majorly renovated commercial and institutional buildings toward high performance building choices.

As a leading practitioner of LEED support for commercial and institutional projects, SWA has participated in the successful certification of some of the highest profile LEED certified office, government, educational, cultural, and high-rise residential buildings in the U.S.

SWA customizes each client’s LEED support package to include complementary energy consulting work. Our goal is to maximize the time, effort and money that our clients put into developing their sustainable projects while minimizing complications, distractions, and waste.

For qualifying buildings, SWA also provides concurrent support for earning the ENERGY STAR.