Certify
Your Next Project Has a Carbon Budget.
We Make Sure You Meet It.
Green building certifications, energy modeling, and material lifecycle analysis — from prerequisite confusion to competitive advantage.
Do I actually need LEED, or is there a faster path to certification?
LEED is still the most recognized certification in commercial real estate — but it's not always the fastest or most cost-effective path. For projects under 50,000 SF, LEED BD+C Core & Shell with a targeted 40-point strategy often beats a full certification attempt on both schedule and budget.
Alternatives worth evaluating: ENERGY STAR (strong for multifamily and office), LEED for Cities (if you're satisfying a municipal mandate), or simply an ASHRAE 90.1 compliance pathway if the owner's goal is energy code compliance rather than a plaque.
We run a free 30-minute pathway analysis on every new inquiry. You'll leave with a recommendation, a rough credit count, and a realistic timeline — before you've committed to anything.
Pathway Analysis
LEED, ENERGY STAR, or ASHRAE — 30 min call
Credit Strategy
Targeted 40-point plan with owner priorities
Documentation Package
All submittals, calculations, narratives
GBCI Submission
Review management, response to comments
↳ Model integration start
↳ +8–14 days model
How much does energy modeling add to the schedule — and is it worth it?
A properly scoped energy model adds 8–14 calendar days to the design development phase. That's the honest answer. What it returns: utility incentive packages averaging $0.45–$1.20/SF, LEED EA prerequisite compliance, and documentation that satisfies most municipal benchmarking ordinances in a single deliverable.
The projects where energy modeling "takes too long" are almost always projects where it was scoped too late — after design decisions that affect mechanical systems were already locked. We integrate at DD kick-off, not after permit review.
For design-build teams: we can turn a preliminary EUI estimate in 72 hours from schematic drawings. Enough to include in your next bid response.
We lost a bid because we couldn't demonstrate embodied carbon reductions. How do we fix that?
This is the most common call we get from design-build firms right now. The fix is a Whole Building Life Cycle Assessment (WBLCA) — a structured analysis of the embodied carbon in your structural, envelope, and interior assemblies compared to a reference building.
For a typical 6-story commercial building, switching from standard-mix concrete to a 30% SCM replacement and specifying low-carbon steel can reduce embodied carbon by 18–24% — enough to satisfy most procurement requirements without changing your structural engineer.
We deliver a bid-ready embodied carbon summary — one page, stamped, with percentage reductions clearly stated — that you can attach to your next RFP response. Most clients have it in 10 business days.
Average embodied carbon reduction
without changing your structural engineer
One call. A clear path forward.
30 minutes. We'll tell you exactly which certification makes sense, what it costs, and what it requires. No obligation.
From contractors who've been there.
"We had a LEED prerequisite flagged two weeks before permit submission. Certify turned around the energy model and documentation package in nine days. We didn't miss our window."
Marcus Delgado
VP Construction, Meridian Commercial Group
"The city's new decarbonization ordinance had our whole team confused. Certify mapped our entire portfolio against the benchmarking thresholds in a single deliverable. Clear, fast, actionable."
Priya Nair
Director of Capital Projects, City of Portland
"We lost two bids in a row because we couldn't demonstrate embodied carbon reductions. Three months with Certify — we won the next four. The WBLCA summary they provide is exactly what procurement wants to see."
James Kowalski
Principal, Kowalski Design-Build
"I expected the energy modeling to push our schedule by three weeks. It was 11 days, start to finish. And the utility incentive package they identified covered the entire consulting fee."
Sandra Okonkwo
Project Executive, Clearfield Development
"Certify's pathway analysis saved us from pursuing a full LEED Platinum certification we didn't need. We hit our investor ESG requirements with ENERGY STAR and saved $180K in fees."
Tomás Rivera
Managing Partner, Vertex Capital Partners
"We had a LEED prerequisite flagged two weeks before permit submission. Certify turned around the energy model and documentation package in nine days. We didn't miss our window."
Marcus Delgado
VP Construction, Meridian Commercial Group
"The city's new decarbonization ordinance had our whole team confused. Certify mapped our entire portfolio against the benchmarking thresholds in a single deliverable. Clear, fast, actionable."
Priya Nair
Director of Capital Projects, City of Portland
"We lost two bids in a row because we couldn't demonstrate embodied carbon reductions. Three months with Certify — we won the next four. The WBLCA summary they provide is exactly what procurement wants to see."
James Kowalski
Principal, Kowalski Design-Build
"I expected the energy modeling to push our schedule by three weeks. It was 11 days, start to finish. And the utility incentive package they identified covered the entire consulting fee."
Sandra Okonkwo
Project Executive, Clearfield Development
"Certify's pathway analysis saved us from pursuing a full LEED Platinum certification we didn't need. We hit our investor ESG requirements with ENERGY STAR and saved $180K in fees."
Tomás Rivera
Managing Partner, Vertex Capital Partners