Certification standards for four building philosophies were incorporated into the building:

• LEED, the current industry standard for green buildings, consists of a multilevel rating process intended to verify performance in metrics such as energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, and indoor environmental quality.
• The Living Building Challenge advocates the most advanced principles of sustainability in the built environment possible today, and consists of seven performance areas: water, energy, health, materials, equity, and beauty. The SL Center will meet most of these criteria.
• Building Biology is mainly concerned with the interaction between the built environment and the health of the occupants.
• Maharishi Vedic Architecture is an ancient system that uses factors such as building materials, orientation, proportion, and placement to enhance the well-being of occupants at both concrete and subtle levels of awareness.