“We are master builders committed to craftsmanship and strict environmental protection. Our mission is to build the most comfortable, healthy, efficient, and environmentally responsible homes possible.”

Style is the synthesis of experience, innovation and design. Imagine a home designed around you, your family, and the way you live. You talk, we listen. Ideas, thoughts, issues, concerns, and costs, all of it gets considered in the design process. Out of that process, your home will emerge, a vivid, vital expression of who you are, giving your home a unique style you can call your own.

SDG has been a pioneer and innovator in green high performance homes for decades. We have developed numerous building and renewable energy products and technologies to maximize comfort and health while minimizing operating costs and environmental footprint. Our attention to detail results in homes that can be self-sufficient and completely independent of the electricity, water, and sewer grids.

SDG President John Spears has been designing and building healthy, energy-efficient, green, solar homes around the world for over 35 years with an emphasis on self-sufficient buildings and communities. He has designed sustainable communities in Mexico, South Africa, and China, including the Beijing Olympic Village. Over 6,000 of John Spears' Earth Homes™ have been built around the world, and he has consulted on numerous LEED projects.

John Spears
Sean de Launey

Sustainable Design Staff:

John Spears, President
Sean de Launey, Vice President
Audra Harleman, Project Designer & LEED Green Associate
Brian Carroll, Project Designer
Kathleen O'Hearn, Architect
Richard Crenshaw, Senior Architect

Sean de Launey, Vice President - Operations

Vice President, Operations - Sustainable Design Group

Sean joined Sustainable Design Group in July 2009 as VP of Operations bringing 13 years of experience in the commercial and residential construction industry. Sean began working with John Spears to expand upon the existing architecture firm, helping to establish a new home construction and remodeling company focused on sustainable building. He developed the infrastructure for the new company including estimating, construction management, finance, and operations support as well as SDG’s administrative and accounting departments. His main focus is on managing the day-to-day operations of the company and improving the delivery of product to ensure client satisfaction.

Before joining Sustainable Design Group, Sean acted as a design consultant, estimator and project manager for a high-end design build firm. During his tenure he was a key contributor to multiple award-winning projects featured in numerous National/Regional publications and local news programs. Publications include Metropolitan Home, Money Magazine, Home and Design, Washington Post, NBC 4’s “Going Green”, Spaces, Metro Washington Home Improvement Magazine and Remodeling Today. In 2006 he was named as one of the top designers in the United States by Kitchen and Bath Design Magazine. In that same year he also won a national award for universal design by National Association for the Remodeling Industry. Since 2005, Sean has been named in 11 National Association for the Remodeling Industry awards.

He received his bachelors of science in chemistry from George Mason University in 2006. Raised in Charlottesville VA, Sean now lives in Lovettsville, VA with his wife and two children.