Perhaps you’re interested in LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design) certification, acquiring SPIRIT (military equivalent of LEED) ratings,
or incorporating as many LEED components as possible into your design. If so,
we’re on board.

Fisher Associates understands that the site is only one component of an
interdependent system. We expend the effort to understand the interrelationships
of soils, sunlight, stormwater, plant communities, heat islands, and energy, and
the impacts of human uses on each.

We practice a sustainable design philosophy that affects all phases of a
project. We incorporate sustainable design principals into our site selection,
planning, inventory, assessment, analysis of alternatives, design, construction
oversight and commissioning activities. Some specific examples of our
sustainable design considerations are:

• Protecting greenfields. Promoting existing sites that can be redeveloped


• Conserving existing natural areas, using native vegetation, and restoring
  existing stream and drainage channels.


• Working with existing contours to minimize earthwork and energy use and maintain
  existing drainage patterns.


• Reusing materials, such as milled asphalt for parking lots and timber bollards
  and bumper rails for amenities.


• Incorporating water quality and detention measures into the site design as
  landscape features.


• Minimizing heat islands and lighting spillover.


• Accommodating pedestrian, bicycle, and commuter travel needs.


• Reusing gray and rain water.


• Addressing community issues such as traffic and historic or cultural resources
  concerns.

Sustainable design goes beyond a basic change in design approach. If you’re
interested in learning more about this philosophy or in using our sustainable
design services on your project, contact Jim Sprague, P.E. at 585-334-1310,
extension 231.