by SEG

Created on: August 06, 2011   Last Updated: December 04, 2011

The enhanced technology of advancing manufacturing processes producing new building materials; expanding building codes and testing technology along with Green building certifications is challenging the Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry to keep pace.  To do this, the AEC is consistently expanding their 21st century project design and delivery methods for both new and major renovations in building construction.  (

Nadel, B. A. 2006)

Innovative engineering design practices to achieve demanding Green Building sustainability certification, along with Building Information Modeling  (BIM)  and Integrated Project Delivery (IPD)  are examples of this enhanced- and principled-expansion.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency sustainability is the principle of creating productive harmony between nature and humanity, insuring we can meet current and future social and economic requirements and this is the purpose  Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design ( LEED).

LEED is embodied by the 21st Century AEC building standards that are moving toward sustainable building practices with rigorous, multi-tiered certification standards to address a wide spread of building-site concerns. The certification tiers are:  Certified, 40-49 points; Silver, 50-59 points; Gold, 60-79 points; and the coveted Platinum certification, requiring 80+ points. 

These certification levels take into consideration such complex building and site factors as: Site Sustainability’, 26 possible points; ‘Water Efficiency’, 10 possible points; ‘Energy and Atmosphere’, 35 possible points; and ‘Materials and Resource’, 14 possible points. (Source: USGBC, 2011)

And the challenging restoration of an early 1930’s California Institute of Technology five-story observatory building is an excellent example of the innovative engineering needed to achieve the LEED Platinum Certification, designating a building as one of the ‘Greenest’ in the world.  (Landman, M., 2011)

Today the home of the multi-disciplinary Center for Global Environmental Science, the Linde + Robinson Laboratorybecame the first LEED Platinum certified Laboratory in the United States.   A series of inventive designs even converted the old observation tube, which pierces the building’s five stories as a 1-1/2

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