A Toast to LEED: Volume Program Brings Industry Leaders Together

Emily Kirk Willson
LEED Volume Program Manager
U.S. Green Building Council

What happens when Kohl’s Department Stores, Wells Fargo, and Subway Restaurants walk in to a room?

At the USGBC offices, it means a great conversation on green building is about to ensue – among some of the foremost business leaders in sustainability.

USGBC's Rick Fedrizzi and Scot Horst raise a toast to LEED Volume participants

Last month, we were thrilled to welcome participants in our LEED Volume Program to USGBC’s Washington, DC headquarters for full-day orientation seminars to kick-off their journey in scaling up with LEED. The LEED Volume Program allows companies to certify vast numbers of projects by integrating LEED strategies into their standard practice and internalizing the LEED process - and all at a much lower certification cost. We are currently working with 33 participating organizations that have cumulatively certified over 800 projects through the LEED Volume Program.

Needless to say, these seminars packed a full house of industry thinkers and business leaders. Representatives from Hines, Kohl’s Department Stores and Wells Fargo attended for the Operations & Maintenance track. Falabella, KeyBank, Kum & Go, Subway Restaurants and Wells Fargo attended for Design & Construction. As some of these organizations have engaged service providers to assist in developing their LEED strategies, representatives from CBRE, DMV KEMA, GBR Green, Green Concepts International, Sebesta Blomberg, Shiffler and Viridian attended in support of their clients’ work. For a full list of organizations in the LEED Volume Program, check out our Participants page.

Round of applause: USGBC's Scot Horst, Mahesh Ramanujam and Rick Fedrizzi

As industry leaders, the insight from our seminar participants was priceless. For example, one of our Volume participants has introduced an element of gamification to their LEED process. They’ve set up a competition among their eight general contractors to gauge how well they perform with LEED. Their contractors receive points based on whether they’re able to achieve LEED credits – and their score informs future business. If they miss a LEED credit, their total score decreases. What did this company have to say about their experiment in gamification among contractors? “It works...it totally works.”

USGBC leaders - including Rick Fedrizzi, CEO; Mahesh Ramanujam, COO; Jim Craig, CFO; and Scot Horst, Vice President of LEED – also joined the gathering, raising a celebratory toast to conclude each seminar and to thank the participants for their leadership in green building. Having this face time with our Volume Program participants was a valuable – and educational – experience for all.

For details on the program, visit our LEED Volume Program website.

LEED Volume Program for Design & Construction

LEED Volume Program for Operations & Maintenance: Participants and staff