Office Building Designed by Ashley McGraw Architects Recognized by Fast Company's 2021 World Changing Ideas Awards

NEW YORK, NY — The winners of Fast Company’s 2021 World Changing Ideas Awards were announced earlier this month, honoring the businesses, policies, projects, and concepts that are actively engaged and deeply committed to pursuing innovation when it comes to solving health and climate crises, social injustice, or economic inequality.

Designed by Syracuse based Ashley McGraw Architects, the Sustainable Energy Fund’s Net Zero Energy Office Building was selected as Honorable Mention in the Architecture Category. The new Net Zero Energy office building was designed and built to demonstrate that a Net Zero Energy approach can be used for a leasable office building for a similar development cost to comparable office buildings. With its cold winters and hot summers, the Lehigh Valley is a great proving ground to demonstrate the potential of energy-efficient building. The SEF building will consume about 75% less energy comparable commercial structures in the region while generating 30% more energy than it needs - on site!

Now in its fifth year, the World Changing Ideas Awards showcase 33 winners, more than 400 finalists, and more than 800 honorable mentions—with Health and Wellness, AI & Data among the most popular categories. A panel of eminent Fast Company editors and reporters selected winners and finalists from a pool of more than 4,000 entries across transportation, education, food, politics, technology, and more. Plus, several new categories were added, including Pandemic Response, Urban Design, and Architecture. The 2021 awards feature entries from across the globe, from Brazil to Denmark to Vietnam.

Showcasing some of the world’s most inventive entrepreneurs and companies tackling exigent global challenges, Fast Company’s Summer 2021 issue (on newsstands May 10) highlights, among others, a lifesaving bassinet; the world’s largest carbon sink, thanks to carbon-eating concrete; 3D-printed schools; an at-home COVID-19 testing kit; a mobile voting app; and the world’s cleanest milk.

“This project provides a blueprint for achieving net-positive energy within the financial structure of a speculative building,” said Andrew Schuster, Ashley McGraw’s Principal-in-Charge of the project and leader of the firm’s commercial architecture practice. “We were excited to collaborate with a client like SEF who set this bold goal and shares our commitment to regenerative design and the proven value it offers to all stakeholders.”  

“There is no question our society and planet are facing deeply troubling times. So, it’s important to recognize organizations that are using their ingenuity, impact, design, scalability, and passion to solve these problems,” says Stephanie Mehta, editor-in-chief of Fast Company. “Our journalists, under the leadership of senior editor Morgan Clendaniel, have discovered some of the most groundbreaking projects that have launched since the start of 2020.”