Which firms really design green?

In today's building designs, sustainability and green architecture has become a key aspect that can't be overlooked with the global population climbing towards 7 billion and with constant carbon emissions and degradation of ecosystems but what constitutes a green or sustainable project? Roof top solar panels but 80% glass on the building facade? And who really designs green?

I ask myself this sometimes when I look at a completed project that has been marketed as green but then find aspects of the building that go contrary to what a green project should be. Many firms do design green and sustainable but I have found that EHDD Architecture is one of the few that does this on a constant basis and consideres this challenge as an inspiration for their designs (I don't work there nor am I related to anyone that does).

The Oxford Dictionary of Architetcture defines green architecture as: Buildings designed according to energy saving criteria and the reduction of pollution and I think that EHDD's projects embody this definition with four LEED platinum projects, one of which is the Betty Irene Moore natural sciences building at Mills College in Oakland, numerous other LEED accreditations and two AIA top ten buildings.

Scott Shell, a senior project manager at EHDD, San Francisco has worked on many LEED certified projects and has also given presentations on Design for Deconstruction (DfD), a radical movement that calls for a shift to true closed loop material cycles. This is the design of buildings and systems that can easily be upgraded or reconfigured and eventually disassembled an reused becoming truly green.

With diminishing land resources, the environment needs more conscientious design firms like EHDD to ensure that architecture is not detrimental to our ecosystems and surroundings.

Image obtained from EHDD.com