When 7group started co-creating high-performance, cost-effective green building projects, we wanted to change how the built environment is developed. Initially, this meant actualizing built environment projects that would do less harm to nature. We knew that projects needed to be considered more holistically. We knew that project teams needed to think systemically. We knew that design and construction teams needed to break free from traditionally siloed roles. In short, we were called to innovate – to develop and evolve integrative process. We adopted (somewhat humorously) the tagline “protecting the public from conventional thinking”. We also were inspired by working on the development of LEED during the very early days of the green building movement.

These initial rumblings emerged for us in 1996, when most of 7group’s original partners were working together on the South Central Regional Office Building for the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), a project often called Pennsylvania’s first green building. Immediately afterwards, the same team worked on co-creating DEP’s Cambria District Office Building. These two projects were among the first 13 LEED Certified projects in the world. They also cemented strong working relationships and friendships between the seven of us who would become 7group’s founding partners.

Through our work on these early projects, we were able to explore and demonstrate how employing a robust integrative design process can produce high-performance green buildings at below-market first cost. With this shift, we also realized the value of consolidating our diverse expertise under one umbrella, so in January 2000, 7group was formed. That same year, the LEED rating system was officially offered to the public. Congratulations USGBC for creating such a transformative tool to drive change in our built environment: Happy 25th Birthday LEED!

Over the past 25 years, 7group has fostered holistic systems thinking and advocated integrative design process. We have worked with project teams worldwide to produce more than 350 green building projects. We also shared what we were learning from these projects in our book The Integrative Design Guide to Green Building: Redefining the Practice of Sustainability, published in 2009. This book provides a step-by-step guide aimed at helping building owners and industry professionals incorporate integrative design practice into every phase of any project.

Our theory of change has evolved considerably. We continue to learn. We now see that doing less damage is not enough. Our current work employs integrative process regeneratively. Our regenerative practice understands built environment projects as instruments for evolving the vitality and viability of the living systems (ecological and human socio-economic communities) in which these projects are embedded. In other words, such practice builds all of our capacity to understand how built environment projects serve to advance how technical innovation, community vitality, and ecological health entangle and co-evolve in each unique place. Such projects serve to heal ecological and cultural wounds. We are excited to continue this journey of discovery as we continue to ask: What if we could use our built environment projects to heal?  

Check out the rest of our newly launched website for highlights of how 7group’s technical expertise, integrative process, and regenerative approach has evolved and transformed over the past 25 years. Stay tuned for exciting celebrations throughout 2025: Happy 25th Birthday 7group!

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