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20-Year Anniversary

20th anniversary logo

SDC celebrates 20 years in business!
As we approached this important milestone, we posted a weekly highlight from each year of our history, to help shine a light on where we’ve been – with an eye toward where we’re headed next. SDC is honored to have served the professional building community with consulting excellence for 20 years! Learn more about our year-by-year progress here:

Year 1

Year 1: 2002-2003

June 22, 2022

As SDC settled into being a newly formed sustainability consulting firm, greening k-12 schools became an emerging industry focus.  Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) in Maryland led the way by launching its own Green Schools Focus program!  Over two full days in July 2003, MCPS held its first eco-charrette to establish its priorities, emphasizing development …

moreYear 1: 2002-2003
Year 2 slide

Year 2: 2003-2004

May 22, 2022

For a brief period in the firm’s history, SDC was based in Annapolis – Maryland’s capital city – and became active with the then Maryland Green Building Network, an indirect predecessor of USGBC Maryland.  During this year, SDC began advisory work on what would become its first LEED Platinum project: Highland Beach Town Hall.  Highland Beach ...

moreYear 2: 2003-2004
Year 3 Slide DC - regional office

Year 3: 2004-2005

April 22, 2022

As the green building industry kept moving forward, so did SDC – within a matter of months, the super-small business set up a DC-area regional office, while relocating its main office to Richmond, Virginia!  During this year of significant transition, SDC boasted three employees, other part-time staff, and an intern in each location. Functioning very …

moreYear 3: 2004-2005
Year 4 Slide - Eastern Village Cohousing, Silver Spring, MD

Year 4: 2005-2006

March 22, 2022

Eastern Village Cohousing in Silver Spring, Maryland was SDC’s first start-to-finish consulting project.  Designed by EDG Architects and developed by Eco-Housing Corporation with Poretsky Builders, this adaptive reuse of an existing, U-shaped, concrete-framed office building challenged the status quo for multi-unit residential construction on several sustainability fronts.  The developers involved future residents in the design …

moreYear 4: 2005-2006
Year 5 - SDC becomes Richmond-headquartered hub of green building expertise

Year 5: 2006-2007

February 22, 2022

Having placed a strong foothold in Central Virginia, SDC began making its presence known as a Richmond-headquartered hub of regional green building expertise.  The James River Green Building Council, a direct predecessor of USGBC Virginia, recognized SDC’s impact by awarding the firm its Green Building Leadership Award, Private Sector Category! SDC was recognized for its ...

moreYear 5: 2006-2007
Office lobby with green features

Year 6: 2007-2008

January 23, 2022

SDC’s first higher educational project was the Universities at Shady Grove (USG) Clifford and Camille Kendall Academic Center in Rockville, Maryland, designed by CannonDesign.  SDC’s LEED consulting services, delivered initially with Scurfield Architects, brought this exciting project to its LEED Gold-level certification finish line! Known as ‘the Center’, the 195,000 sf multi-purpose building now accommodates ....

moreYear 6: 2007-2008
20th Anniversary Year 7

Year 7: 2008-2009

December 8, 2021

SDC deepened its expertise in green building certifications and LEED specifically, delivering both the first and second LEED Platinum-level certified projects to Virginia!  First came the VCU Walter L. Rice Educational Center – the flagship building at the Rice Rivers Center in Charles City County, VCU's field station for environmental research, teaching, and public service. ...

moreYear 7: 2008-2009
20th Anniversary Year 8

Year 8: 2009-2010

November 8, 2021

YEAR 8, 2009-2010: For the first time, USGBC National Capital Region (NCR) Chapter recognized SDC as Firm of the Year!  In the 2010 Awards for Excellence featured at its annual Midsummer Night’s Green event, NCR Chapter honored SDC as Designer/Consulting Firm of the Year “for their work in developing USGBC and AIA education, and for ...

moreYear 8: 2009-2010
Year 9 Daylight Modeling

Year 9: 2010-2011

October 15, 2021

SDC introduced its first-generation daylight modeling services, an example of which is pictured here. Using a combination of Autodesk Ecotect and LBNL Radiance, SDC performed a false color daylight analysis to understand the potential of discomfort glare in the atrium of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore New Engineering, Aviation, Computer Sciences and Mathematical Sciences ...

moreYear 9: 2010-2011
Blair Towns, Silver Spring, Maryland and Two Potomac Yard, Arlington, VA

Year 10: 2011-2012

September 3, 2021

As the U.S. real estate market struggled to recover from the impacts of its most recent recession, SDC leveraged renewed interest in existing building performance to deliver two Platinum-level LEED for Existing Buildings Operations and Maintenance (O+M) project certifications.  First came the Blair Towns in Silver Spring, Maryland, developed by the Tower Companies.  SDC had ...

moreYear 10: 2011-2012
SDC Year 11 donation to Chesapeake Bay Foundation

Year 11: 2012-2013

August 3, 2021

SDC kicked off its eleventh year with commemorations of the first ten, announcing – in lieu of a grand celebration – donations made to three high-quality environmental groups: Rainforest Alliance, Trust for Public Land, and Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the latter of which received their donation in person.  Reflections on ten years in business also brought ...

moreYear 11: 2012-2013
Year 12 - LEED Proven Provider and GBCI

Year 12: 2013-2014

July 5, 2021

During SDC’s twelfth year delivering highest-quality LEED project submissions, GBCI, USGBC’s certification arm, recognized the firm as a LEED Proven Provider for the Building Design and Construction rating system family!  This designation had recently been developed to streamline the LEED project review process for experienced organizations that demonstrate consistent excellence in administering LEED projects. LEED ...

moreYear 12: 2013-2014
Edificio Celabra, Montevideo, Uruguay

Year 13: 2014-2015

June 1, 2021

SDC saw its first international project achieve green building certification – LEED Gold-level, no less! Edificio Celebra was the new flagship office building at the Zonamerica Business and Technology Park in Montevideo, Uruguay. This existing campus included 25 buildings of different uses, such as offices, laboratories, light industrial and logistical activities, and support services ...

moreYear 13: 2014-2015
SDC Sustainability Plan

Year 14: 2015-2016

May 1, 2021

SDC had already been walking its sustainability talk across its various company-wide operations since the beginning – yet it took until Year 14 to finally start writing it down!  During its 2015 Company Annual Retreat, the SDC Team broke out into focus groups to address three key topic areas: Workplace Operations and Indoor Environment Business …

moreYear 14: 2015-2016
Women's Leadership Summit 2017 and SDC Just Label

Year 15: 2016-2017

April 1, 2021

Social and environmental equity had always been core principles of SDC's progressive leadership – in Year 15, with an ever-increasing level of solidity in its internal operations, the firm began to formalize this approach.  A few years prior, the International Living Future Institute had launched Just as a social justice transparency platform to recognize socially ...

moreYear 15: 2016-2017
SDC 15th Anniversary

Year 16: 2017-2018

March 1, 2021

SDC kicked off its sixteenth year with a celebration of the first fifteen!  To commemorate the occasion, SDC released its first ever team anniversary video, filled with its thanks to YOU – the firm’s clients, project teams, service providers, fellow green building advocates and more – for your part in SDC’s exciting 15-year history. Already …

moreYear 16: 2017-2018
Year 17 - Enterprise Green Communities

Year 17: 2018-2019

February 8, 2021

According to Enterprise Community Partners, “In 2004, Enterprise created the Green Communities Criteria (the Criteria) to promote the incorporation of environmentally conscious design elements and the adoption of sustainable practices into the development and rehabilitation of affordable housing. The Criteria are organized into eight criteria categories and measures different aspects of sustainable design based on …

moreYear 17: 2018-2019
Year 18 - Washington University's East End Transformation

Year 18: 2019-2020

January 14, 2021

With a well-established track record in the higher education sector, SDC brought forth one of its most significant project accomplishments to date: LEED Platinum-level certification of four buildings on a shared master site at Washington University in St. Louis!  Known as the University’s East End or Danforth Campus, this multi-faceted project featured four buildings: Henry A. and Elvira H. Jubel Hall, Anabeth and John Weil Hall, Craig and Nancy ...

moreYear 18: 2019-2020
Year 19 Energy Star Tenant Space

Year 19: 2020-2021

December 21, 2020

SDC manifested its next-generation existing building services by partnering with ENERGY STAR as a Commercial & Industrial Service & Product Provider!  As such, the firm provides services that directly aid in improving the energy efficiency of its customer's buildings, plants, or operations.  SDC first exemplified this in 2021 by successfully managing both the ENERGY STAR and LEED O+M Gold-level certifications for 1875 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW. 

moreYear 19: 2020-2021
Year 20, Living Building Challenge, Just label

Year 20: 2021-2022

November 2, 2020

Most recently, SDC deepened its engagement with the International Living Future Institute and its above-and-beyond programs.  Attaining its third Just label, the firm demonstrated its continued commitment to and current performance in the social justice sphere.  A few months later, SDC brought its first Living Building Challenge (LBC) Petal project to certification!  The Fort at Williams College, which had also been LEED Gold-level certified ...

moreYear 20: 2021-2022

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Richmond, VA 23219
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Washington, DC 20005 
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