The firm also will attempt to donate about 20% of its time to the projects of its charitable arm, the Green Warrior Society.  "We will have two halves," McLennan says. "We will work with clients that have means to do just about anything—and see breakthroughs. That for-profit work, in essence, will underwrite charitable work, where fees will either be reduced or waived."

Two Green Warrior projects are the William Jefferson Clinton Children's Center, which is an orphanage in Haiti, and Save a Warrior Village, a Kansas City, Mo., project that will help U.S. veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.

ILFI runs the Living Building Challenge, Living Community Challenge, Living Product Challenge, Net Zero  Energy Building Certification and other programs. Its most high-profile project is Seattle's 52,000-sq-ft Bullitt Center. ILFI is a tenant in the speculative office building, which sustainability experts consider the world's greenest building.

The goal of the eco-friendly buildings group is to scale up its programs and spread them to a broader audience. "Living Buildings should be possible for everyone, not just the wealthy," Sturgeon says.

To that end, the group has 11 pilot projects with affordable-housing developers, including Enterprise Communities.