The green buildings sector is growing at a rapid pace and LEED® guidelines, especially the LEED®-NC for commercial buildings, have emerged as the most recognized rating systems in the United States. When selecting a LEED building project team, owners and designers look for general contractors, construction managers and subcontractors who demonstrate an understanding of these requirements and whose organizations show capabilities to handle these projects successfully. As electrical contractors become familiar with LEED requirements, many see this building sector as a potential business opportunity. As electrical contractors develop LEED-related expertise and start pursuing these projects, they realize that their business proposals need to reflect their LEED-related capabilities in order to present themselves as “valueadded” partners on the LEED project teams. Because this building sector is so new, very little literature or reference manuals are available to assist electrical contractors in developing effective proposals for LEED projects.

This research report provides a sample business proposal/capability statement for electrical contractors pursuing LEED-NC projects. This report includes elements of a typical business proposal/capability statement with additional sections highlighting an electrical contractor’s capability to handle LEED projects successfully. The report is written using XYZ Electrical Company as the example company and is written in the first person as if it were an actual proposal. An electrical construction company can use this document as a template to develop their own business proposal/capability statement/statement of qualifications for a LEED-NC project proposal.

Most of the sections of this report were developed based on ELECTRI International-sponsored research, including recently completed research work at Michigan State University. The preliminary output was finalized based on the review and comments from Industry Task Force members.