Requiring sustainability accreditation in your firm?

I am wondering this too Margaret. We are currently pushing people to do LEED or WELL as we have a lot of Legacy LEED APs whose understanding of LEED is very outdated, and then we have a lot of staff who have not had any sort of sustainable design overview/education, so LEED has sort of become the first easy step to take to get the basics. The firm pays for study materials to share, and then reimburses for the exam once passed. We are just starting to look at requiring it in order to become an Associate, Sr. Associate or higher. And it is typically listed as a requirement on job descriptions, but not necessarily followed through on. Kristen Kristen Fritsch AIA LEED AP BD+C WELL AP Senior Associate Sustainability Coordinator ELKUS MANFREDI ARCHITECTS [tel] 617.695.7954 [email] kfritsch@elkus-manfredi.com

HKS does not have a requirement. We do have a carrot. Passing an accreditation exam like LEED with specialty and WELL receives a $1,000 “bonus”. Many staff do take advantage of this. It is not limited to sustainability related accreditation, but did grow out of that advocacy. Rand Rand​​​​ Ekman , FAIA, LEED Fellow Chief Sustainability Officer Partner [HKS, Inc] 125 S Clark St, #1100, Chicago, IL 60603 +1 312 262 9750 | m +1 847 420 5577 | www.hksinc.com From: Marga

Hi Margaret - for Mithun, we had prior to 2010-ish a requirment for all technical staff to have a LEED AP credential or within 6 months for new hires. We no longer have that requirment (or a requirment to have any credential) and instead let staff choose if they are interested a credential that aligns with their own areas of interest and passion. As a result we now have staff with a variety of credentials ranging from LEED AP with specialty (BD+C, ID+C, and ND), LEED GA, WELL AP, SITES AP, Fitwel, CPHC, LFA, Envision, and BEMP. Similar to what Kristen posted, we also have study materials available (for some credentials, not all) and reimburse the cost of an exam once passed. 
Thanks,
Mike Fowler

We don't mandate accreditation. Instead we incentivize it by offering a $1000 bonus plus reimburse the cost of the exam. The first year we offered that (2018ish), I had 6 people get accredited (out of total 75 people). Since then, I get maybe one person per year taking advantage of it. The first year I rolled it out as a limited time, limited quantity offer (limited number of bonuses- get yours before they are gone! Hurry!). Because it was successful the first year, I kept it going but participation dropped off sharply. I'm thinking of limiting it again to juice more participation. I've been carrying a budget of $10k each year for the bonuses, so I'm thinking of doing something like double the bonus to $2,000 and limit it to five people. Kristian Kicinski AIA, LFA, LEED AP BD+C (he, him) Associate Principal / Director of Sustainability direct: 206.536.1370 Send me files

At Lake|Flato, we deliver a one-hour Design Performance-focused new hire orientation to explain our team's work, gauge related experience/interest, and highlight resources (stored in Knolowedge Architecture, Synthesis <-- firm intranet). In that presentation, we inform them they must get a certification within six months. We pay for the exam and study materials. For the most part, they get to choose the certification. If they already have a certification, we offer a stipend if they want to pursue another. This requirement is baked into our Design Performance Action Plan (SAP) - see page 4: https://www.lakeflato.com/sites/default/files/LakeFlato_Design%20Performance_Action%20Plan.pdf  The attached image is the related slide from the orientation. FYI: each slide also references the relevant section in our SAP.

Thanks Margaret et al for sharing. I was also contemplating on the carrot or stick approach.  Bonus seems to be helpful for existing employees who want to finally ge their accrditation.