The term "sustainable" is becoming mainstream. Where once green design filled a small niche in corporate America, buildings designed to be sustainable - like Bank of America's LEED high rise in New York, Pittsburgh's PNC Firstside Center, and Seattle's REI flagship store - are now commonplace.

Each of these buildings exhibits varying ways environmental intelligence can be integrated into construction design when committed leaders such as Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels drive positive change by adopting green building principles and the Kyoto Protocol, inspiring other cities and businesses to do the same.

Today, sustainable is synonymous with high-quality and high-performance buildings, while going green bridges political gaps by directly affecting the bottom lines of building owners.

CEOs know that people are a company's most important asset and most important investment. Because the largest annual costs for most companies are employee costs, it is essential that the place where employees are housed - the building - be a place they love to be, a place that is enriching and healthy. Highperformance buildings help companies retain and attract the best and the brightest. Sustainable buildings minimize workplace risks to employee health, because green strategies improve air quality, give access to the natural environment, and provide daylight, all of which bolster morale, harness talent, reduce absenteeism and increase retention and productivity.

By planning sustainable sites, buildings and interiors for water and energy efficiency, private and public organizations reap substantial savings in long-term and short-term operating costs. In harnessing natural light, for example, companies can expect to save between 20 and 50 percent on lighting costs. And by employing natural ventilation strategies, companies can save 20 to 60 percent. CFOs looking for investment returns can cite a recent new Mithun-designed building at Portland State University, where high-performance energy and water strategies resulted in a combined 19 percent return on capital investment.

All new construction can lessen environmental impact. Many technical strategies and financial mechanisms are available to reach such goals, but the basic principles remain the same: reduce demand, move to positive impact and integrate with natural systems.

At the same time, building owners can use such facilities to make bold statements about their commitment to smart resource use and bolster their position in the community and among their clients. Google's recent announcement about powering its California campus with the largest solar project in corporate America is a prime example.

With its newfound place in the consciousness of business leaders, sustainable design has become synonymous with quality and sound marketing. To stay competitive, a leading businesses must embrace the image of the company as corporate citizen, and that means employing sustainable strategies. Not only do responsive, responsible choices reflect positively on employees, but colleagues and clients also see the value in a corporation's sustainable leadership, which, in turn, reflects on the company's brand. And brand perceptions cannot be bought.

Our own architectural firm, Mithun, is one example of a company that has taken the corporate citizen idea to heart. Along with Starbucks, REI, the University of Washington and the City of Seattle, Mithun is a founding member of the Seattle Climate Partnership, a voluntary group of Seattle-area employers pledged to reduce their own emissions. Mithun is also a member of the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), a voluntary, legally binding, rules-based system for reducing and trading greenhouse gas emissions. Mithun, carbonneutral since 2004, is also an associate of the Bonneville Foundation, a nonprofit corporation for funding watershed restoration programs and clean, environmentally preferred renewable energy projects. Initiatives of this kind and our leadership in green design help bring the brightest and the best from throughout the world to Mithun. Demand for green design has doubled the firm's growth since 2002.