SPI Certification Criteria v3.0 Open for Public Comment Until 10/11/13

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SPI Green Firm Certification V3.0 Evaluation Criteria Now Open For Public Comment

August 21, 2013 – The non-profit Sustainable Performance Institute (www.sustainable-performance.org) (SPI) has just released version 3.0 of its Green Firm Certification criteria for public comment. Building industry professionals are invited to provide feedback on the proposed new criteria until midnight on October 11, 2013.

SPI Certification validates the capability of architects, engineers or construction companies to deliver consistent, high quality sustainability services and confirms that their marketing claims are true. It is used by owners and developers to differentiate the truly best teams; those that have institutionalized sustainability in their culture, systems, processes and project delivery.

V3.0 constitutes a simplified and streamlined set of evaluation criteria covering a broad range of factors contributing to organizational sustainability, including: Vision, Planning & Implementation; Project Delivery; Infrastructure; Collaboration & Partnering; and Outcomes & Metrics.  Like previous versions, it also uses surveys of internal staff and external clients and partners to identify strengths and weaknesses and provide the basis for continual improvement.

Barbra Batshalom, Executive Director of SPI, elaborated:  “Last year, SPI’s program was adopted by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as SPI-HUD Green Organizational Accreditation, part of HUD’s Affordable Green Initiative.  In adapting the private sector criteria for HUD, we were able to streamline and simplify the program. Twenty-four (24) organizations have achieved accreditation under that new version, with almost all completing the documentation in less than four (4) hours.  We are now incorporating some of those changes into the private sector certification program.”

Interested parties can view the draft criteria at http://www.sustainable-performance.org/criteria/ and submit their comments at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SPIV3PublicComment.

Sustainable Performance Institute is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of the built environment by increasing the effectiveness of the organizations that design, build, develop and maintain building and infrastructure projects. SPI provides consulting, education, assessment and certification to help companies go from “random acts of sustainability” to true capability to deliver consistent, high quality sustainability.

Contact:

Tova Greenberg
Director of Programs
Sustainable Performance Institute
[email protected]
617-374-3740 x 114