Echo
Synchronizing the Natural and Built Environment
Empathy, Responsibility, & Efficiency
At Corgan, we believe sustainability is an echo of performance; that if we truly optimize the places we create for our users’ needs and consider the environment as an essential part of meeting those needs, a new level of intelligence and balance can be achieved. One that not only serves the future but creates an immediate impact for our clients.
In our studios, sustainability doesn’t symbolize sacrifice. It inspires performance. It means a chance to reimagine, to pioneer for our clients, to create solutions that address current problems and create future opportunities. We seek not only to use less, but to create buildings that do more — for our clients and users, and for the environment. Because when we ensure the viability of the whole system, we create positive outcomes that reverberate well into the future.
Our Services
In our work, sustainability stems from meticulous analysis of each project’s unique goals, challenges, and resources. It weaves through our work and unifies every aspect of our design, and it’s guided by our mission to create places where our clients thrive.
• Goals, Metrics, & Regulatory Requirements
• Passive Design Optimization
• Massing & Envelope Optioneering
• Green Infrastructure
• Building Loads Assessment
• Operational & Embodied Carbon
• Visual & Thermal Comfort
• Indoor Air Quality
• Healthy Materials
• Biophilic Design
• Bespoke Sustainability Frameworks
• Third Party Certifications (LEED, WELL, Fitwel, ILFI, BREEAM)
• Existing Asset Assessments (building, portfolio, & campuses)
• Carbon Accounting (Scopes 1 & 2)
• Whole Building Life-Cycle Assessments
• Climate Risk Assessment
• Risk Mitigation Through Design & Operations
• Organizational Level Approach to Sustainability
• Environmental & Social Impact
• Organization Level Decarbonization Strategy
Sustainable Design & Innovation
Environmental context and human wellbeing remain the focus of our design approach and place making. We strive to align our design approach of the built ecosystem with its contextual natural ecosystem. In doing so, we achieve a higher performing architecture that is both environmental and human centric.
We are always looking for ways to incorporate sustainable design principles in all our projects. Be it early phase environmental analytics, decarbonization strategies - both operational and embodied, human comfort and well-being or material health, every aspect of our sustainability intervention ripples into greater impact on the project.
Corgan is ranked #8 on Interior Design's Sustainability Giants List & #17 on ENR's Top 100 Green Building Design Firms.
Bringing Wellness to the Built Environment
At the core of our efforts is a single, firm-wide ambition: to create environments where our clients thrive. WELL and Fitwel certification are instrumental in delivering on that ideal. These performance-based certifications systems help ensure the built environment has a positive impact on human health and well-being, which is why Corgan has over 30 WELL and Fitwel accredited professionals working in our studios. Certified environments include criteria like higher air quality, daylight views, close access to drinking water, lactation rooms, and sit-to-stand desks, among many others. Once viewed as luxury features, WELL and Fitwel criteria now represent the new standard.
We've designed more than 50 million square feet of WELL workplaces in the past five years — including the first WELL-certified building in Texas. Our own headquarters is WELL Gold Certified, and our NYC and Phoenix offices have received 2-star Fitwel certifications.
It’s important to us to provide enhanced well-being to everyone who enters our doors, and to follow the same practices we recommend to our clients.
Corgan Mass Timber Carbon Calculator
To better estimate the carbon emissions inherent in mass timber, we have developed a tool that includes assessment of CO2e emissions from slash left behind in the forest. By incorporating often-overlooked emissions, along with those from manufacturing and transport, our tool provides a more comprehensive CO2e estimate.
Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT) Headquarters
Toyota North America Headquarters
The Club SFO by Airport Dimensions
Wells Fargo Corporate Campus
Cypress Springs Elementary School, Dripping Springs ISD
LAX West Gates at Tom Bradley
Lady Bird Johnson Net Zero Middle School, Irving ISD
Corgan Achieves Carbon Neutrality Across Global Operations
Analysis Tool Targets Hidden Sources of Carbon in Mass Timber Projects
Revealing Interior Design’s 2025 Sustainability Giants
Sustainability Street: The Truth About Mass Timber
The Mass Timber Carbon Gap No One Talks About w/ Varun Kohli of Corgan
Understanding Real CO2e Emissions in Mass Timber Production
Mass Timber – Understanding Biogenic Carbon Emissions
Mass Timber Tool Reveals Hidden Carbon Emissions
Corgan launches free mass timber carbon calculator
Corgan offers a tool to measure mass timber’s real production carbon footprint
Corgan Unveils CO2e Emissions Calculator for Mass Timber
BREEAM: Design for Sustainability & Performance
Office market emphasizes novelty, wellness in 2025
Corgan's Climate Action Plan - Moving Towards a Decarbonized Future
Designing for brain health now has an advocacy group
