South San Francisco Conference Center

The staff at the South San Francisco Conference Center (SSFCC) had been thinking green for many years, but it wasn’t until they started working with Ecology Action that they started to think gold. Over the years, SSFCC has earned several awards and certifications in recognition of their strong commitment to environmental excellence. When they decided to apply to be rated by one of the industry’s best green building certification programs, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), they chose to work with a local green building expert, Ecology Action. Ecology Action was the right partner to lead SSFCC through the LEED process, which can be very daunting. In addition to working with them to identify and implement missing pieces needed to push them into the next LEED certification level, Ecology Action helped the SSFCC staff to gain a better understanding of how their resources were being used so that they could better invest in improvements. While LEED professionals generally anticipate a minimum of 24 months to complete the complex certification process, the team’s efforts led to a successful certification in just 19 months. After working with Ecology Action, the SSFCC not only qualified for a Silver rating, but was successfully certified as LEED Gold.

“Ecology Action laid out a timeline that helped us organize, manage, [and] implement procedures and day-to-day operations, which made our application seamless.” –Dean Grubl, SSFCC Executive Director

“One of the things Ecology Action reviewed was our irrigation system. They helped us put in a submeter to see how much (water) we were consuming and how much we could reduce. We were using a lot, but now we’re saving.” –Jorge Cruz, SSFCC Director of Operations