We are market transformation movement generators in the built environment and beyond.
Focusing on potential takes us out of the realm of existence, enabling the dissolving of problems and the unleashing of collective creativity.
Evolving our potential
7group was a midwife of the modern LEED, green building and integrative process movements in the U.S. and beyond, amongst only a handful of other firms worldwide.
We began more than 25 years ago to help to change how builders, designers, architects and owners saw how to understand the built environment as sustainable. When we worked on creating the U.S. Green Building Council LEED certification program, we knew that it was the first step towards true sustainability, but not the last.
Together with our clients and colleagues, we have been imagining a different way to understand how humans, their built environment and the natural world around us all live and breathe with each other. Through learning, community, design and story, 7group has been immersed in the application of deeply regenerative work.
This work has led us to recognize that our careers and company have benefitted from unbalanced and structurally unjust societal systems, and we are doing our personal, collective and organizational work to better understand the systemic nature of these issues, and leverage our continued privilege and access to work and capability development resources to change the reality of that unbalanced access and other societal structures. In fact, we see the company's essence as more truly and fully expressing itself through the clarification that it is meant to play a role in healing cultural wounds.
We are a continual work in progress. Our essence requires that we are always on the way toward our next evolution. We never arrive because there is always more potential to explore. We also see that as an application of the last line in our book:
Where do we stop integrating?
An invitation to...
develop the capacity of your project and organization to affect how humans regenerate life through co-creating Your . . .
Your Story
7group seeks to tell your story.
Story is the instrument that extends projects and experience to the wider world, and today we live in the world of video storytelling. Short of direct experience, video stories educate, inspire and motivate. 7group has the unique experience of creating video stories that communicate what your project is all about as a means to foster deeper understanding. See our Videos page for many examples.
Your Project
Serving to help your project image and then realize its full potential.
Through our experienced network of partners and associates, we offer a vast array of services, including regenerative process facilitation, commissioning, video production, energy modeling, daylighting analysis, materials consulting, ecological assessments, the implementation of green building assessment tools, and so much more (click here for a comprehensive list of services).
Your Community
Developing community connections and reciprocal interrelationships in each unique place.
Our work is about exploring, understanding and developing that distinctiveness - or essence - so that every project and community can serve as an instrument for developing reciprocal interrelationships with the living systems upon which that community's quality of life depends. In other words, a collaborative regenerative development process connects community members with project teams in alignment around how any project (or developmental program) can contribute to the community's viability and vitality indefinitely.
Your Learning
Our aim is to build your systemic capacity and create co-learning communities that are evolving and expansive beyond current understanding.
7group provides a wide range of learning experiences from videos to interactive webinars, in-person workshops and seminars, direct participatory experience in our work, opportunities to learn with us from a wide range of perspectives, and guided practicum/cohort practice to enable you to work on anything you are seeking to transform.
Your Team
A 7group partner and President of West Main Consultants, LLC, a 7group company, where he manages client projects pursuing LEED certification and reviews certifications under the USGBC's LEED green building rating system. He also provides intellectual property and general corporate legal services.
An energy engineer for Energy Opportunities, Inc., a 7group company. She is primarily responsible for simulating buildings' energy performance in order to evaluate the impact of design decisions, and she also reviews the technical energy and indoor environmental quality credits for projects seeking LEED certification.
A 7group partner who has spent the last 45 years furthering green building and sustainable business practices by starting construction companies, consulting organizations and internationally recognized non-profit groups. Currently, Chris focuses on consulting as an owner’s representative to organizations seeking to make a positive change in the world.
Senior project manager with West Main Consultants, LLC, a 7group company, where she focuses on project management, development and implementation. She is an expert in the USGBC's LEED green building rating system, serves as the liaison to USGBC for 7group's LEED certification reviews contract, serves as a technical reviewer for certifications, and works with clients interested in pursuing LEED certification for their building projects.
A LEED Certification Reviewer and consultant with Energy Opportunities, Inc., a 7group company, working with project teams to coordinate efforts towards creating more sustainable buildings in our own communities and internationally. She encourages project team members to analyze synergies versus trade-offs for each strategy to determine the most suitable path. Gerren's knowledge of building materials and proficiency in interpreting life-cycle analyses enables owners and designers to make more informed decisions for their projects.
A LEED Certification Reviewer with 7group and a Mechanical Engineer with energy expertise providing technical consulting services on building energy issues, renewable energy and design optimization. He is primarily responsible for simulating buildings' energy performance to evaluate the impact of alternative design decisions, often for projects pursuing LEED certification and/or ensuring code compliance.
As Bookkeeper for Energy Opportunities, Inc., a 7group company, she manages the accounting portion of business transactions and makes sure everyone gets paid. She also assists with the organizational logistics of managing the review of LEED Certifications.
A LEED Certification Reviewer for Energy Opportunities, Inc., and West Main Consultants, LLC. He brings over 15 years of experience, including 11 at USGBC working directly with project teams to submit their LEED documentation, understand the requirements of each credit, or to address their outstanding review issues, that he is now applying to review LEED project submissions.
As a founding partner, John helped develop 7group as an internationally recognized multi-disciplinary consulting firm focused on integrative design and regenerative practice. As an architect, he has focused exclusively on sustainability since 1996. He co-authored The Integrative Design Guide to Green Building, a seminal book published by Wiley in 2009, and he has curated integrative/regenerative development workshops in 35 states and 14 countries.
As Senior Operations Coordinator at West Main Consultants, LLC, a 7group company, she coordinates all financial, management, marketing and human resource affairs for nine different companies including 7group. Lura coordinated all the behind the scenes efforts throughout the publication process of 7group and Bill Reed's seminal book, The Integrative Design Guide to Green Building, published by Wiley in April, 2009.
A 7group founding partner who engages in the application of a living systems-sourced, regenerative approach to projects, programs and organizational planning. He is a co-author of The Integrative Design Guide to Green Building, an internationally recognized expert in energy efficiency and renewable energy system, and a faculty member for the Regenesis Institute.
A designer, educator and facilitator of regenerative thinking, equitable development, green building and innovation. Max's broad background in architecture was foundational while at USGBC, where he oversaw the majority of the first 500 LEED building certifications, supported development of nearly every LEED rating system and related program, and managed relationships with Google, Adobe, Autodesk and others. He has since supported a multitude of green building projects, and companies seeking to enhance their efficacy in terms values actualization and performance. Max primarily functions as an owners' representative and project facilitator for projects with audacious regenerative intentions.
A Financial Manager with West Main Consultants, LLC, a 7group company, where she maintains financial records for six different companies and coordinates general office administration. She also coordinates certification reviews under the USGBC's LEED green building rating system.
A Mechanical Engineer working with 7group as a LEED Certification Reviewer for the technical energy and indoor environmental quality credits. She designs HVAC systems, creates energy models and performs energy analyses and energy audits.
An ecological visual artist, educator, senior sustainability consultant working with 7group as a LEED Certification Reviewer. Independently, she manages green building projects for a variety of clients, project sizes, types and firms.
A LEED AP with West Main Consultants, LLC, a 7group company, where he serves as a technical reviewer for certifications under the USGBC's LEED green building rating system.
A 7group founding partner with 30+ years of experience as a communications consultant, filmmaker and developer of multiple media communications tools. He is a founding partner in storyshop, LLC, a documentary production group, and has been producing for public television and independently.
An Architectural and Interior Designer, a project visualizer, daylight analyzer working with Energy Opportunities, Inc. His goal is to move the world into a more sustainable and equitable future by helping expand the capabilities of disenfranchised and traumatized communities using regenerative building practices.
A Mechanical Engineer who joined Energy Opportunities, Inc., a 7group company, after completing his BS in Engineering at Messiah College. Tyler uses energy modeling and daylighting analysis to simulate the energy performance of commercial building designs and estimate the impacts of alternative design strategies. Tyler serves as a reviewer and consultant for the energy and HVAC-related credits within the LEED rating system.
Those who say it cannot be done should expect to be interrupted by those who are doing.
