Architect Earns LEED Certification from USGBC

Jim Groen, an architect with Jackson Design & Remodeling (JDR), has received LEED Associate Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The architectural firm, based in San Diego, also was the winner of the 2007 and 2009 Better Business Bureau Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics. The company has been in business for 20 years.

LEED provides a framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions aimed at improving performance in several areas: energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.

"As professionals in the remodeling industry, it is important that we lead by example and continually educate ourselves on green practices and work diligently to utilize these methods in all that we do," says Groen. "It's not just up to the homeowners to request green materials, but it's up to all of us who work in the industry to make green practices and methods simply a part of what we do."