Company

By Dan Clifford, P.E., LEED AP, CxA, Principal

During HESM&A’s first 20 years of service, sustainable design has been a key ingredient in our design process.  We have incorporated sustainability into our designs in an effort to benefit owners, operators and occupants because we believe that the long term benefits to all stakeholders greatly outweigh any initial costs.  Through their LEED program the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) has provided the construction community a way to measure and reward sustainability and HESM&A is proud of our involvement with the LEED program.  

HESM&A achieved our first LEED AP in 2002 and today more than half of our technical staff are LEED Accredited Professionals. LEED certification gained popularity in the Atlanta market in 2003 and 2004 with the rising costs of energy.  Even in the difficult financial market of 2009 LEED design is becoming a prerequisite for many federal, state, county and city governments, as well as many private developers who are making commitments to sustainability.

Our work with LEED designs has seen rapid growth over the past several years.  HESM&A’s first project programmed for LEED Certification was started in 2004 but was discontinued after a few months.  After several additional projects kicked-off, but subsequently ceased pursuit of LEED certification for a variety of reasons, we began our first project to fully complete LEED certification in 2006 -  a US Forrest Service Ranger Office near Asheville, NC, which achieved Silver Certification in 2008.  To date, we have designed 16 LEED projects which are completed or under construction and in various stages of certification confirmation, and we have 2 projects currently in design.

As the demand for LEED certification increased, the USGBC recognized their responsibility to continually review the LEED program and introduced LEED Version 3 this year.  HESM&A has embraced the new version and we feel this new system will create new technologies and designs that are truly sustainable and provide greater benefits to owners and occupants. 

Commissioning is an integral piece of the sustainability process and is a prerequisite for LEED certification.  HESM&A has been providing “Common Sense Commissioning”, of MEP&FP systems since 1996.  We have long believed that commissioning of systems is necessary to insure that the installed systems meet the functionality and performance expectations of the owner and the design team.. We completed our first LEED related Cx project in 2004 and currently have over 50 LEED Cx projects completed and another 21 in progress.

Although the current recession is impacting LEED and sustainable design activity, interest is still strong and the market seems poised to explode once the economy begins to recover.  HESM&A is committed to remaining a leader in the sustainability market and to assisting our clients with practical, cost effective approaches to sustainable design applications.