The Building Equity Standard™ (the Standard) aims to advance equity through the design of our buildings, spaces, and communities.
Research & Programs
The Standard supports architects, designers, owners, and building managers in gathering insights through community-engaged design and translating the data into tangible design solutions. Ultimately, the approaches and design solutions outlined in the Standard serve as a roadmap for addressing the specific and unique needs of end-users and communities.
The Building Equity Standard is an initiative powered by SWA, drawing from our decades of experience navigating complex building rating systems such as LEED, WELL, Living Building Challenge, Passive House, Enterprise Green Communities, among others.
Learn more and access the Standard at buildingequitystandard.com.
Program Overview
Architects and designers have a unique opportunity to advance building equity by designing housing, educational spaces, places of employment, cultural institutions, and other environments that all people can access, enjoy, and benefit from—using the Building Equity Standard as roadmap for success.
The Standard outlines two types of Building Equity Awards that projects may pursue, indicating to industry leaders, state and local governments, public agencies, community members and potential building end-users that equity was prioritized during design and post-occupancy.
Building Equity Design Award
(Design Phase)
The Design Award verifies that a project adopted an equity-centered lens during design. A project may pursue this award independently or in addition to the Experience Award.
Building Equity Experience Award
(Post-Occupancy Phase)
Granted at least six months after project occupancy, the Experience Award verifies that equity-centered design impacts have been assessed through a post-occupancy survey.
The Building Equity Awards are received by meeting the Standard criteria, which is comprised of 7 Essentials organized by 4 key Building Equity Pillars. Essentials 1-6 must be met to receive a Building Equity Design Award and Essential 7 must be met to receive a Building Equity Experience Award.
A set of Pathways is outlined for meeting each Essential. In most cases, alternative Pathways may be proposed by the project team that demonstrate the same intent as the outlined Pathways. Alternative Pathways will be discussed, documented, and approved with Building Equity Verifiers during the project kickoff meeting. For a full list of the Standard criteria, download the Building Equity Standard.
