Weidlinger was among the handful of engineers named to the first list of leading green firms compiled by Engineering News-Record magazine.

NEW YORK, NY - Weidlinger Associates was listed one of “The Top 100 Green Design Firms” by McGraw-Hill Construction's Engineering News-Record (ENR). Most of the firms on the list are architects; only a very few are structural engineers. This is the first time that ENR’s annual design firm survey has included questions relating to the volume of green projects. Rankings are based on 2007 design revenues from "projects that were registered and actively seeking certification from major third-party environmental standards or ratings organizations," such as the Green Building Initiative or the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).

Weidlinger’s contributions to a green project may be as direct as designing a green roof or more efficient underground water retention system, as complicated as choosing the best recycled or local materials within tight budget and schedule constraints, as challenging as expanding the definition of a structurally efficient structure to include green options, or as inventive as quantifying the embodied carbon advantage of retrofit over new construction. According to a statement released by ENR, "the market for sustainable design has passed the tipping point and is rapidly becoming mainstream." Cumulatively, the listed firms generated design revenue of $1.74 billion from green projects in 2007: $1.62 billion in the U.S., and $121.2 million abroad.

Weidlinger joined the U.S. Green Building Council in 2007, when many local projects got a boost from Mayor Bloomberg’s plaNYC 2030, a comprehensive sustainability plan for New York City’s future. A dedicated group of Weidlinger engineers began to meet regularly as the firm’s official Sustainability Committee. Their immediate goal was to educate themselves and others about rapidly evolving green technologies. Major long-term goals are to initiate original research in sustainable materials and systems and to publish the results in peer-reviewed journals. Management generously supports their objectives, which include carbon-neutral offices, LEED certification of all professional staff, and a green-inspired in-house seminar series.

“I am personally committed to developing new sustainable solutions and designing structures that are both greener and safer,” said Raymond P. Daddazio, firm President and CEO. “Weidlinger has a long history of innovation in the design of structures to resist earthquakes, hurricanes, and blast; now we are engaged in also making them green and in supporting others who are pursuing this goal with new ideas and analysis tools.”

Although many owners of Weidlinger’s greenest projects have dispensed with the formality of a LEED rating, several dozen of the firm’s projects have earned, or will earn, accreditation. Some of the most significant are government sponsored. These include:

The EPA Research and Administrative Facility in Research Triangle Park, NC, a 14-building laboratory and office complex and early showcase of sustainable features that won many federal green awards

The American Embassy in Sophia, Bulgaria, the first embassy to be LEED certified and the only embassy certified to date

The Queens Botanical Gardens Visitor and Administrative Center, which earned a LEED Platinum rating and a national AIA COTE Top Ten Award, as well as one of the first NYC Green Building Awards

The NYC Office of Energy Management Headquarters and the Seabury Child Care Center, two of several Weidlinger projects singled out by the NYC Department of Buildings for meeting their high-performance green guidelines

The 36-acre former Naval Homeport Site in Stapleton, Staten Island, selected by the LEED Neighborhood Development program for pilot testing of new high standards for community infrastructure

The Cambridge City Hall Annex, that city’s first green government building

Delta Airlines’ Terminal A at Logan International Airport, the first U.S. airport project to be LEED certified

As innovative research has always distinguished Weidlinger from other structural firms, some of its most promising green initiatives are research oriented, including:

The Big Dig House in Lexington, Massachusetts, by architects Single Speed Design, constructed entirely from recycled temporary structures from Boston’s Big Dig (named one of the 10 best new buildings of 2006 by BusinessWeek magazine)

Protection of critical underground utilities during the demolition of the New Haven Coliseum, using high-tech analysis to design and predict the behavior of low-tech temporary structures made of on-site recycled materials

Weidlinger’s patented air guns, an environmentally friendly substitute for explosives testing of warships, proof of concept successfully established in tests sponsored by the U.S. Navy’s Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program

Software modeling of a new fuel injector made out of stack actuators that increases fuel efficiency in any vehicle with a diesel engine (also U.S. Navy SBIR sponsored)

PZFlex, Weidlinger’s proprietary virtual prototyping software, a green analysis tool that reduces the number of physical prototypes required for designing new piezoelectric and ultrasound devices (used on the fuel injector project described above)