Pager Gains "EDGE" With New Green Certification

Page Associate Principal Lou Krupnick has become the seventh person in the US to receive certification as an ‘EDGE Expert’. EDGE (Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies) is an innovation of the IFC (International Finance Corporation), a member of the World Bank Group and is a green building certification system designed to promote sustainable development in developing nations. EDGE is applicable to a variety of building types including housing, offices, schools, hotels, retail and hospital buildings, helping build more sustainable cities. It also makes green building and design accessible for middle- and low-income housing, particularly in high-growth, urban areas.

The industry has recognized in the next few decades, rapid urbanization will change the economies and lifestyles of people living in emerging markets across the globe. This can threaten infrastructure and can lead to energy shortages, waste accumulation, water scarcity, air quality crises and other serious environmental issues. Buildings directly contribute to these challenges. They consume 35 percent of global energy, five percent of global water and produce 15 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. Green buildings, however, can be part of the solution.

EDGE utilizes a software program which can quickly evaluate design and building systems alternatives on the basis of energy, water, and CO2 savings as well as embodied energy. The software platform can rapidly evaluate initial and incremental costs, payback period and utility cost reductions using localized energy cost. To learn more about EDGE, click here. 

Lou has experience working on international projects and in developing countries, such as the recently opened Barbados National Medical Reference Laboratory, a joint initiative of the US Department of State (PEPFAR program), CDC and Barbados Ministry of Health, that also serves other parts of the Caribbean. Currently, he is working on multiple projects in Africa, for the Gates Foundation in Sierra Leone and The World Bank in Burkina Faso and Niger.