In honor of SWA’s 20th anniversary of our Wintergreen newsletter, we wanted to take a look back at the company’s history, and at the green building industry. A lot has happened since the first Wintergreen newsletter which came out 20 years ago, in 1999. Climate change has become an incredibly pressing issue- so policy-makers, companies, and every day people are taking steps to create a more sustainable society, and a number of certifications and innovations have made this a priority in the built environment. We’ve also observed the growing relationship between accessibility and sustainability, and how the two can intersect to make the world a better place for the planet, and for people. We’re proud of all that SWA has done over the past 20 years to get where we are now, so let’s take a look at some milestones:

1999 Steven Winter became Chairman of the U.S. Green Building Council in 1999  High Performance Building Guidelines was published April 1999

-http://designtrust.org/publications/hp-building-guidelines/

2001- Accessibility group is formed and A Basic Guide to Fair Housing Accessibility is

published

2004- In 2004, after 14 years of being away from NYC, SWA re-opened an office there with 2

people- now there are over 70.

2011- SWA commenced the transfer of ownership to its first round of shareholders who served as the

firm’s first Board of Directors

2015- SWA conducts technical consulting on worlds largest passive house building (Cornell

Tech, governors island)o https://www.swinter.com/resource-center/news/news-item/tallest-passive-house-

nyc/

2016- Steven Winter Associates Announces Launch of Accessible Product Guide

2017-  SWA investments in becoming part owners of Sentient Buildings LLC

2019- Growth in all parts of the company - Accessibility group really taking off - SWA has pioneered the critical relationship between accessibility and sustainability for

years and had the opportunity in 2019 to collaborates with the USGBC on two new LEED credits; Designing for Accessibility and Inclusive Design along with a podcast to introduce each. The credits are a huge milestone in that it’s the first time a national leader in the green building movement, i.e., USGBC, recognized the connection between sustainability and accessibility.

- Steven Winter Associates led the certification process for the landmark achievement earned by New York’s Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village.

o New YOrks first LEED for communities certification

- The Passive House team at Steven Winter Associates, Inc. (SWA) has become one of only two firms located in the United States to be listed as an official certifier for the Passive House Institute (PHI). 

o https://www.swinter.com/resource-center/news/news-item/passive-house-institute-certifier/

While it’s important to reflect on and pay tribute to the past, we also want to take a look forward at the next 20 years, and at the future of sustainability and accessibility in the built environment. To do this, we recruited some SWArriors for help. We asked, “Where do you think the company and the industry will be in 20 years from now, in 2039? What do you think the future of sustainability and accessibility looks like- especially for the built environment?” We received some interesting responses:

-“We’ll be consulting on energy-efficient multifamily rocketships to Mars (air sealing needs to be taken more seriously in outer space).”

-“A few headlines from 2039:”

Accessibility Woes In the Rearview Sensor“Tesla rolls out it’s newest self-driving wheelchair, fully compatible with their all electric fleet of self-driving cars, buses, and drones. Best of all – it can climb stairs.”

Building Energy Modeling is “So 2019”“With the use of building energy monitoring reaching almost 80% of all large buildings, people can now track the carbon impact of their decisions like we used to track calories. But what is the real gold mine? The mountains of data. Combine this with advances in artificial intelligence, creating a building energy model to predict energy use has become a thing of the past and buildings are being designed more efficiently than ever before.”

-“We will be the top leaders not only in the USA but also in all of North America. I see us pushing a lot of work internationally.”

-“I hope that more information about performance of great buildings (and building systems) will make awesome new buildings obvious and the norm. We’ve seen that a little bit in codes –

they’ve come a long way in 20 years. But I don’t necessarily think that will happen. Just hope….”

-“In 2029, the number of people age 65+ is expected to increase from just over 40M today to nearly 70M by then. I see SWA as the go-to senior living consultants. “

“On May 1st, 2039 it will be SWA’s 67th anniversary, and the staff will be dancing on my grave drinking champagne.”

Happy 20 years, Wintergreen! I can’t wait to see what the 40-year blog post will look like in 2039.