Understanding LEED: Some Background Information

In 1993, the U.S. Green Building Council formed as a non- profit organization.  Their mission was to “transform the way buildings and communities are designed, built, and operated, enabling an environmentally and socially responsible, healthy and prosperous environment that improves the quality of life.”

LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.  LEED was developed by USGBC to serve as a system for certifying high-performance buildings and sustainable neighborhoods.  Also, the LEED Green Building Rating System began as one standard for new construction to now a comprehensive system of interrelated standards that cover all facets of development and construction.  Currently, there are 13,000 member organizations and more than 52,000 projects that are participating in LEED.  This makes for a total of 9.8 billion square feet of construction space.   

There are different LEED systems available to use for your project which include LEED for New Construction, LEED for Commercial Interiors and LEED for Core and Shell to name a few.  The rating system focuses on the following main areas:

-sustainable sites

-water efficiency

-energy and atmosphere

-materials and resources

-indoor environmental quality

-innovation in design

In the following months, we will go into more detail about the main areas above.   At NKB Design and Management, we can help you achieve your sustainable goals.  Keep a look out and go green!

Loudoun Chamber and the Green Business Challenge

We just joined the Loudoun Chamber of Commerce last week!  We are very excited to build meaningful working relationships with people in Loudoun!  Also, we’re very excited to volunteer for the Green Business Challenge- a free points based competition at the Chamber allowing companies to implement sustainable practices to their business.  We look forward to talking to small businesses in the next few months and helping them reach their sustainable goals.

Sustainability: what it means to small businesses

We found this amazing image online thanks to Office Depot shedding some light on small businesses going green.  And as designers tend to be visual people, thought it would be a good way to showcase some fun facts and pie charts!
We'll get into more detail about specific topics on sustainability later in our blogs. For now, Enjoy!

Welcome!

Hi Everyone!!!  We want to introduce ourselves--we are NKB Design and Management, LLC.  We are based out of Northern Virginia.  Our goal is to design for small businesses because we are one (!!!) and because making a space beautiful, functional and healthy for the people that work and play in it is extremely important to us.

We look forward to bringing you information on projects, products, inspiration and so much more.  Thanks for reading and keep a look out for our future postings!