Certified Case Studies

Owner David Kendall spent his career as a marine biologist, acutely aware of the impacts of climate change upon ecosystems and human life. Upon retirement, he and his wife decided to take environmental responsibility into their own hands and lower their carbon footprint as much as possible. In 2012, they downsized to a house in…

Sunshine Mathon designed and remodeled the Willowbrook house with the primary goal of providing his family with an inspiring and comfortable place to live. A critical aspect of the inspiration was to reduce the impact of his family’s lifestyle on the land, and the community in which they live. Though Mathon had a tacit goal…

Zero Cottage is an investigation of compact, sustainable urban development. Composed of a 66-square-meter loft townhouse set over a 40-square-meter workshop, Zero Cottage pairs with an existing renovated Edwardian to complete an active mixed-use complex combining cultural, commercial and residential uses on a typical neighborhood lot. The project continues the evolution of an urban site…

The Zero Energy House (ZEH) is a home designed to achieve net zero energy over the course of the year through energy efficient features and solar energy systems. Innovative C21 PV roof slates, the first integrated PV system of its type in New Zealand, produce more energy than required to run the house. The home…

zHome was launched in 2006 as a market catalyst for deeply sustainable, climate neutral homes for the everyday person. Borne out of the context of years of small increments of improvement in environmental performance in green building, the creators sought to revolutionize the paradigm for what was possible, creating hope and action within the context…

DPR Construction set out to demonstrate that Net Zero Energy Certified buildings are accessible to a wide range of companies, not just those that are sustainability experts or that have large construction budgets. DPR’s San Francisco office was designed with aggressive energy efficiency goals—a target of net positive energy production achieved through reduction of energy…

Smith College’s Bechtel Environmental Classroom in Whately, Massachusetts is a new, 2,500 S.F. single-story wood-framed classroom building, acting as a field station for a 233-acre forest and pasture property. For the past 60 years the property has accommodated an astronomical observatory. Recently, Smith College declared its intention to open the pastoral setting to class activity,…

The Living Learning Center is located at Tyson Research Center, an environmental field station for Washington University in St. Louis. The site and building builds on the sustainable eco-systems research ongoing at Tyson. The site has been transformed from a degraded asphalt parking lot to a native landscaped garden replete with pervious concrete, local stone…

Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden’s mission is to inspire and educate all with the beauty and importance of plants, advance sustainability and human and environmental wellbeing through action and research, and to celebrate its historic glass houses. The mission of the organization is evident in the Center for Sustainable Landscapes (CSL). A restored brownfield is…