by Brianna Crandall — April 26, 2013—Earth Advantage, a nonprofit focused on advancing the creation of better buildings through its rating programs, research and education, has formed an Advisory Council of leading green building experts to advance the national launch of its Earth Advantage Commercial (EAC) certification program.
The EAC Advisory Council was created to advise on the development, expansion and adoption of version 2.0 of the program. The Advisory Council is comprised of representatives from commercial green building sectors, including consulting, architecture, engineering, construction and research. The EAC Advisory Council started meeting in February of this year.
Earth Advantage Commercial is a holistic, streamlined, and cost-effective third-party green building certification for new construction and major renovations in the underserved market of buildings under 100,000 sq. ft. EAC is based on a set of prescriptive measures that use existing and proven industry best practices.
Using the Advanced Buildings Core Performance Guide by New Buildings Institute, in conjunction with proprietary tools, the need for costly energy modeling and commissioning is reduced or eliminated. The EAC approach reportedly results in high-performance projects with low soft costs. Several projects have been certified under Earth Advantage Commercial version 1.0 or under the certification’s former name, Earth Smart.
The mission of Earth Advantage is to accelerate the creation of better buildings. The organization uses an innovation model that transforms real-world experience into products and services that advance building performance. Earth Advantage certifies, researches, educates, and incubates to help realize a building industry that harmonizes with the natural environment.
