ERH Consulting & Specifying takes a transformative view of specifying practice. As such, an integrative approach leads to better performance outcomes for project contracts (teams and processes), as well as design and construction of sustainable buildings and landscapes. Specifying relies on a foundation of practice standards established by the Construction Specifications Institute and other professional organizations. New expertise is developed through rigorous research toward customization and innovation. Clients and project teams are engaged along common values related to technical design, quality management, project delivery planning, and design for sustainability, in support of design intent and improved performance outcomes.
Specifying contributes to project goals of time, scope, cost, and quality as an integral and supporting aspect of aesthetic design. Technical design through specifying involves aligning specifications with design intent, including material selections and architectural vocabulary, and further customizing that draws upon the wealth of industry resources, such as technical journals, industry associations, product representatives, textbooks, and other design professionals.
Work involves specified quality assurance and control measures for construction as well as design-side documentation quality and collaborative workflows. Tertiary production tools are engaged that schedule, report, and subsequently track and verify targets under a quality management framework toward intended project outcomes and contract deliverables. A system of managed resources emerges in which a supporting resource environment is informed by contracted project work through continuous improvement.
Specifying work involves preliminary-phase documentation, such as narratives, outline specifications, and performance criteria, which supports innovation, cost-control, and early decision-making toward integrative project delivery and lean construction approaches. Planning for construction project delivery and multiple-work packages involves identifying and exploring options in preliminary design for contracting and procurement methods and tactics.
Work involves gathering the best professional and industry research and recommendations and extrapolating into design and construction specifications toward climate action planning. Sustainability goals can accommodate an entire spectrum of project types and budgets. Broad applications include sustainable building design, clean energy economy and renewables, sustainable sites, green infrastructure, social equity, community resilience. Specific applications may include green building program general requirements, material selections, reducing embodied carbon, indoor environmental quality, vegetated roof systems, stormwater BMPs, and ecological restoration.
ERH Consulting & Specifying employs a system of practice methods applicable to design and construction contract work, along with supporting resources, that address complexity and achieve continuous performance improvement.
Systems-thinking methods involve mapping work processes, distilling challenges down to essentials, identifying components and interrelationships. Subsequently leverage points are established to improve processes and outcomes, while correlating results to established goals and industry knowledge.
Gathering collaborative intelligence through virtual platforms and participatory workshops engages team members and develops transformative capabilities beyond conventional instructional learning, thereby inspiring design excellence and improving project delivery.
Methods employed are based on conventional A-B-C approaches to more advanced descriptive – normative value analysis applied to both project and supporting resources to establish criteria and performance values.
Methods include those used traditionally by the National Park Service including interpretive what–how–why analysis to develop better understanding, appreciation, and long-term protection of natural, human, and business resources.