empty spacer

Commitment to Sustainable Design:

Why select us

Our Mission Statement says it all. "Better Communities Through Sustainable Design". One project, one building at a time.
If you share our vision, we believe you will enjoy working with us, as we explore ways to design your project to ensure that it meets your needs while protecting the environment and creating a healthier , more comfortable building. We believe there is more to sustainability than just specifying bamboo flooring. It involves looking at a project in a holistic manner, studying the climate and doing a thorough site analysis coupled with a bio-climatic report. Looking for advantages the site/ environment offers and trying to maximize them. Looking at what are called disadvantages and finding opportunities in them. Reducing energy consumption, harvesting daylight, passive energy, renewable energy, alternative construction, recycling and construction waste reduction. These are just a few potential strategies that we can help with.

We are an "ideas" firm and we enjoy exploring, finding and creating added value in our projects for the benefit of our clients. Throughout our web site, you will find sustainable projects or articles we have written pertaining to sustainable or "green" design. For us it isn't a trend or fad, it's something we have nurtured our entire careers and it is this experience we would like to share with our clients.

As you may have noted, we are LEED accredited and have the ability to bring your next "green" project to fruition. We believe that most consumers care about the environment and would incorporate sustainability into their projects if they knew and understood the process. Costs are the biggest hurdles but the prevalence of new sustainable projects getting built in recent years has brought costs down and are now comparable with traditional construction.
We are here to help and if we can educate you on green design and build strategies, feel free to contact us or read through the articles we have posted within our site.
Build green if you can, your family, clients and employees will appreciate it and so will the environment.

Sustainable Business Operations:

In conjunction with our sustainable approach to design, we carry the same commitment to the way we run our daily operations.
All equipment we utilize are energy star rated and includes our printers and computer work stations.
Our furnishings are made from recycled materials and wherever possible we reuse (i.e some of our drafting tables are reused hollow core doors).
We recycle all paper based materials (and other recyclable materials) in our office and reduce as much as possible anything that goes into the trash. Very little needs to be disposed off.
We reuse our scrap paper and all our printers are duplex capable to reduce the amount of paper used. When our clients agree, we utilized PDF files for client review and submittals to avoid the use of paper. When hard copies are utilize, half size sets of drawings are printed as much as possible for in house or consultant coordination. Full size sheets are limited to permit submittals.
We utilize several different titleblock/ sheet sizes for our drawings to ensure that we maximize the information needed to be displayed on our drawings. This helps reduce paper waste.
We always reuse delivery boxes wherever possible. Unfortunately, it means our clients and potential clients will receive any materials sent by delivery in reused bozes. No fancy printed boxes with company logos or new boxes. Just reused corrugated cardboard boxes with old labels removed. We feel it's the right thing to do for the environment.
We use the internet as much as possible and always ask permission from our clients to allow us to send them electronic files as opposed to printed material.
We even moved our offices to a transit oriented neighborhood to reduce the use of cars. Everyone is encouraged to use mass transit (BART or Amtrak), take the ferry, walk or cycle to our office. Because of our central location in Oakland, when cars are utilized, the miles driven are limited.
We have moved from paper based manufacturer's product binders to online or PDF information when available.

These are just a small part we as a firm are attempting to help reduce waste and consumption of our limited resources. Wherever possible, we will attempt to utilize business practices that are environmentally friendly. We hope that our clients understand, accept and support our stance on the environment.

We believe strongly in running a green practice that we had our firm evaluated by the Bay Area Green Business Program and were certified as a "Green Business". As opposed to just declaring that we are green, we believe that it's important to have third party certification to confirm our efforts. *Note: The certification is address specific and applied to our Jack London Office.

Copyright © 2006 Gerard Lee Architects. All rights reserved.

-last updated November 12,2008