Boston, MA – SPI Company announced a first-of-its-kind sustainable performance certification program for the design and construction industry. This is the first program to recognize a firm’s capability to deliver consistent, high quality services.
Barbra Batshalom said, “After many years working with A/E/C companies and providing a lot of support and training, we realized that Sustainable Performance Institute had distilled the elements of a framework that could apply to any firm. The SPI framework embodies all of that experience and has created a program that helps firms achieve their goals more efficiently, or recognizes the achievements of those who have really integrated sustainability into their core practice. This certification program addresses all the issues that owners care about, and aren’t addressed in any other program.”
Individual talent and skill is important, but when a client hires a design or construction company, they are drawing on the capacity of the entire organization. Firms that have truly addressed quality control and accountability have taken strategic and comprehensive measures, and deserve to be recognized. Firms that are having difficulty, or find the issue overwhelming, will benefit by having a roadmap that helps them understand how to be strategic and most efficiently and effectively reach new levels of performance. This certification will signify to clients that they can rely on the firm they hire – across the board – to deliver a high level of sustainable building.
Batshalom pointed out that the certification is very different from LEED. “Our program is more like ISO if anything, in that it looks at systems, processes, quality control and organizational capability. It tells owners if the firm is truly capable of delivering consistent, high quality sustainability services. If firms are certified in our program, that also means that they have addressed issues of risk and liability across the board, improved profitability and quality control, which is what everyone really wants anyway.”
SPI Company Certification breaks down its metrics into the five categories that define a company’s operations and project delivery: Strategy, Production, Support, Partnering and Outcomes.
Strategy addresses activities related to leadership, management support, policies, infrastructure and metrics.
Production evaluates project specific evidence throughout all phases of design and construction—from concept through commissioning and beyond, and incorporates quality control processes and internal standards for design, performance and specifications.
Support includes all aspects of company operations that are not specifically project related, but underlie all activities in both operations and project execution. These include human resources (such as professional development, performance reviews), internal design or specification standards used across the firm, marketing, and tools and resources used to do analysis or support design in other aspects.
Partnership relates to external relationships that are critical for delivering a project and define the scope, roles, responsibilities and deliverables of different parties e.g., proposals, contracts and change orders for scope or fee.
Outcome recognizes measures of actual performance of built work (whether LEED, energy consumption, or other) and the company’s own environmental footprint.