Mar 11, 2026
🌋 The Green Impact Report
Quick take:
From Buenos Aires to Papua New Guinea, LEED Fellow and architect Andres Schwarz shows how to turn certifications, commissioning, and culture into long-term, resilient green performance — not just plaques on the wall.
🫂 Meet Your Fellow Sustainability Champion
Andres is a sustainability professional, serving as a sustainability advisor, university educator, principal at NRG-AR, and co-founder of Green Certification Consultants.
Since 2007, he has certified over 100 Green Building projects across 12 countries as a sustainability and well-being consultant and Commissioning Agent. In his role as an educator, Andres currently teaches at two universities, reviews theses for international students, and serves as a trainer for GBCI's EDGE certification across Latin America.
Andres co-founded and acted as secretary-general for the Argentine chapter of the International Building Performance Simulation Association (IBPSA) and served as a member of the LEED International Roundtable.
🌱 Breaking Ground on Better Building
In this episode, Andres rewires how we think about certifications, commissioning, and culture in green building:
🧠 Key Insight #1: Commissioning + Certification Is a Long-Term Performance Engine
- The Challenge: In many markets, the LEED consultant and commissioning agent are separate, leading to gaps between design intent and real-world performance — and a “set it and forget it” mindset.
- The Solution: Andres’ team delivers both LEED consulting and commissioning, staying deeply involved with HVAC, lighting, and controls so the building actually works for occupants long after opening day.
- ROI: Fewer warranty calls, better comfort, and systems that perform for decades instead of just for the ribbon-cutting — turning “green design” into durable, resilient operations.
🧰 Key Insight #2: Stack Rating Systems to Unlock Human-Centric Value
- The Challenge: Clients often see sustainability as a single certification box to check, missing health, waste, and mobility opportunities.
- The Solution: Andres guides clients to layer systems — like a Sanofi project that achieved four certifications (LEED, WELL, Fitwel, TRUE Zero Waste), plus tools like Active-Score to elevate mobility and access for everyone, including cleaning staff and security guards.
- ROI: Stronger ESG stories, healthier and more equitable workplaces, and deeper resource savings across energy, waste, and well-being — value that goes far beyond energy models.
🧩 Key Insight #3: Make Sustainability Affordable, Local, and Built to Last
- The Challenge: In Latin America, incentives and financing vary by country, and many teams still treat sustainability as a “fad” or expensive add-on.
- The Solution: Andres combines global tools (LEED, WELL, Fitwel, TRUE, EDGE) with local realities — focusing on resilience in healthcare and schools, hydrogen and energy in industry, micro-grids for residential, and indoor air quality for commercial spaces, while making certifications financially and technically accessible.
- ROI: Projects that actually happen — platinum-level buildings in rural Argentina, cross-continent work in Chile, France, the U.S., and Papua New Guinea — and a new generation of students who see sustainability as part of their identity, not a side project.
🎙️ Sustainable Soundbite
"Don't give up. Keep your dreams alive. The start is going to be rough, but in the end your achievements will shine." – Andres Schwarz
🧗♂️ Your Green Building Action Plan
Transform your next project with these steps:
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This Week: Identify one active project where commissioning and certification are siloed. Bring those teams together for a 30-minute sync focused on long-term performance: warranty reduction, comfort, and real-world energy savings.
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This Quarter:
Pilot a multi-certification strategy on a flagship project—pair LEED with WELL, Fitwel, TRUE, or ActiveScore. Build a simple one-page value case that highlights human health, mobility, and zero-waste benefits alongside energy.
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This Year:
Choose one typology you touch often (healthcare, schools, industrial, residential, or commercial) and develop a resilience + decarbonization playbook for it — include micro- grids or shared energy where relevant, and bake indoor air quality or well-being metrics into your standard scope.
🔗 Connect & Learn More
🌿 Access full episode resources: https://gbes.com/podcast/
🗒 Read the transcript here
👩🏻💻 Connect with Andres Schwarz:
- Website: Green Certification Consultants
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andres-schwarz-4233705/
- Books: Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
💚 Join the Green Building Movement: https://www.greenbuilding.news/subscribe
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