Sustainable Design Strategies

Catalyst Partners is a multi-dimensional consortium of knowledge leaders committed to high performance and restorative design protocols for buildings, interiors and products. The consortium is comprised of professionals with licensures in science, engineering, architecture, and interiors. Our clients seek assistance in building and product performance optimization and certification. We act as the “catalyst” that helps our clients establish benchmarks and achieve their goals.

Our experienced, environmentally focused network of design, engineering, scientific, business and marketing professionals serves a client roster that includes architects, building contractors, developers, interior designers, owners, and product manufacturers in companies large and small. Our work is local, regional, national and international in scope.

We specialize in High Performance, Restorative Design, Construction, Operations and Education services and are certification experts including the LEED® certification process. Our team of credentialed professionals includes Civil, Electrical and Mechanical Engineers and Architectural and Interior Designers who keep current on the constantly evolving standards through volunteer participation on U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) committees and our work with the USGBC and the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI).

We are strong advocates of a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)-based approach leveraging solar income and restorative principles that results in quantifiable development and performance standards. As the term suggests, an LCA carefully examines the environmental impact of a product or buildings entire lifespan, from creation through repurposing. Using this approach, we have documented results that demonstrate both short-term savings and long term return on investment for our clients.

We address each client’s unique needs by matching them with a carefully selected team of environmental experts. Our team works closely with the client, from project planning through completion, to assure the prescribed environmental objectives are incorporated into, and properly documented for, the project.

• We help project teams establish restorative strategies, processes, and materials they will need to design, construct, operate and certify environmentally responsible buildings, building portfolios, campuses and tenant spaces using proven metrics.
• We provide LEED administration services and support with restorative design and construction practices and the USGBC’s LEED rating systems. We assist project teams in understanding, implementing, and documenting LEED credits and prerequisites.
• We provide energy assessment, modeling and commissioning services to guide high performance building systems decisions and document LEED requirements and other green building standards (BREEAM, Energy Star, Living Building Challenge, etc). We align these services with evaluating economic benefits and preparing the documentation necessary for Energy Policy Act (EPAct) tax and other incentive submittals.
• We help product manufacturers assess, quantify economic benefits and document the environmental attributes of their products as they pertain to a variety of established and emerging standards including LEED submittal requirements. We provide management and documentation support for ANSI/BIFMA e3 Standard level® and SMaRT in addition to other environmental product certifications. Additionally, we provide support in establishing and conducting LCAs, Design for the Environment (DfE) strategies, assembling Environmental Product Disclosures (EPDs) and carbon reporting.
• We provide marketing, education, and training expertise to help our clients successfully communicate the environmental attributes of their product or project to internal (employees, contractors) and external (customers, public) audiences.

Members of the Catalyst Partners consortium have been affiliated with the World Green Building Council since its inception and involved in international LEED projects since 2005 and U.S. LEED projects since 2000. We have proven strategies and solutions for facilitating certification in: Latin America, China, India and Europe. We share our knowledge and experience through a global network of partnerships with local experts to enable wide spread adoption of environmentally responsible, high performance certification practices.