Green Buildings have been a through-line for the Kendeda Fund since its earliest days. Hospitals, college dorms, nature centers, workforce housing, libraries and affordable housing...Kendeda has invested in greening them all. We also funded the support systems and infrastructure needed to champion greener and healthier buildings, including transparency of building products and adaptive reuse, certifications for measuring impact, greening building energy systems, and policy impacts.
Green buildings have been a hallmark of Kendeda’s funding for two key reasons: they give building owners a chance to live their values, and those who engage with green buildings often see new possibilities for a healthier and more sustainable future.
Kendeda’s partnership with Georgia Tech on the Living Building-certified Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design has provided an ever-widening ripple of impact in the Southeast and across the country.
The building, achieving full-petal certification in 2021, serves as a beacon of inspiration throughout the region.
The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design at Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA
The Kendeda Building solar array is a 330 kW (DC) system, with 917 solar panels that generate more than 455,000 kWh per year, sized to generate 140 percent of the building's energy load
Visitors tour the Kendeda Building for the first time at the grand opening in September 2019. The project earned full Living Building certification in March 2021.
Southface Institute has been a stalwart partner to Kendeda from its earliest days of funding, and key to shaping and championing a Southern approach to greener buildings and regenerative design.
The pathway to greener buildings often involves taking incremental steps, and seeing positive results.
Grants to Green was a uniquely transformational program designed to empower nonprofit organizations to reduce energy and water costs, and to invest the savings in the fulfillment of mission. Initiated and funded by the Kendeda Fund in 2008, Grants to Green generated more than $8 million in nonprofit utility savings over the course of a decade. Eventually, the program evolved into GoodUse, where it continues to offers non-profit building owners a chance to improve their building energy and resource use performance, leading to financial savings that can support mission and programs.
Georgia Interfaith Power & Light focuses on improving resource efficiency in religious buildings throughout the state. Energy and water are not the only ways to save on resources. The Lifecycle Building Center in Atlanta gives a second life to building materials, reducing the waste stream, while also creating workforce opportunities for those trained in building deconstruction.
An employee at Georgia Works building floor panels for the Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design.
Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design, floor detail
A green building tells the story better than a thousand words. Kendeda has helped support hallmark buildings that engage, inspire and transform our understanding of what a greener and healthier future can be.
Hitchcock Center for the Environment at Hampshire College, Amherst, MA
Aeon The Rose Housing, Minneapolis, MN
American Indian Hall at Montana State University, Bozeman, MT
The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, Montgomery, AL
Bridger View Neighborhood, Bozeman, MT
Southface Institute Headquarters, Atlanta, GA
The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design at Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA
Bozeman Public Library, Bozeman, MT
Trees Atlanta Kendeda TreeHouse, Atlanta, GA
Native American Hall at Montana State University, Bozeman, MT
Bridger View Neighborhood, Bozeman, MT
Trees Atlanta Kendeda TreeHouse, Atlanta, GA
Kendeda has invested in ensuring that buildings meet the greenest standards in their sectors, supporting the Better Buildings Challenge, Green Communities Index, Earthcraft, the Green Guide for Healthcare, Pharos, and the Living Building Challenge.
These measurements and certifications focus on building type (commercial and residential), specific building sectors and overall building transformation.