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WHAT EXACTLY IS A LEED CERTIFIED BUILDING? Thursday, August 18th, 2011

 

What exactly is a LEED Certified building?  Well, I’m glad you asked.

As the country quickly becomes more versed in green technology, perhaps it is a good time to pause and review what it means to be “green”, or more specifically “LEED”.  A recent conference in New York examined the difficulties of the green industry in communicating with the public in general, and clients in particular, on the benefits of a “green” building.  But what exactly is a “green” building?

To start, one should recognize what it is not.  For starters, it’s not as substantial a cost increase as some argue.  In many cases, a LEED certified building has been shown to increase costs by as low as 2%.  With the decrease in long term operating costs, it really is a cost saving, not cost prohibiting, venture.  Also, saying it is green is not green.  Some panelists at the “Speak Green” June 2011 conference in NYC, organized by the Urban Green Council, www.urbangreencouncil.org pointed out the problem of green washing that is taking place.  Just because a developer says he is building green is not enough.  As businesses see the exponential growth of sustainable design in our culture, business owners are more on board than ever, even if just for profits.  And there is a notable presence of green marketing in the country.  But is it the real thing?

To be clear, there are several recognized indices of “green” building that exist in the world, but for this article we are going to focus on the US Green Building Council, (USGBC) a non-profit, non-governmental agency that is behind the “LEED” certification of buildings.  www.usgbc.org   Now you may be wondering why a non-governmental agency is behind what you might think is the role of government.  Basically it is because there was a vacuum, and the founders of USGBC filled it.  While European countries were developing their own sustainable strategies in the early 1990s, “sustainability” in the US architecture field was still a dirty word.  Local lore is that the founders of the USGBC, who were in the offices of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in Washington, approached the AIA to get on board.  Reluctant to do so out of fear that their members would not join and that their clients would not go green, the USGBC had to develop on their own.  Now the AIA is playing catch up and supporting notable efforts to get back in the sustainability game.

But I digress.

What exactly does LEED mean? LEED is simply the acronym for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) the point based certification system that the USGBC developed to rate buildings (new and existing) through a rigorous process to determine if the building meets certain criterion to be noted “certified”.  Depending on the number of points achieved, the building is certified at a different level: Certified, Silver, Gold, & Platinum.   Some have characterized the point system to a beauty contest for the marketing world, and certainly the certification does not rate the building’s design excellence.  But when 39% of US energy consumption is due to buildings (29% for industry & 32% for transportation) there is no doubt we have to create as many incentives as possible for buildings to be more energy efficient.  The good news is that federal & local governments (with California leading the way) have legislated more and more economic incentives for buildings owners to go green.  For example the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) recently announced additional support for hydroelectric, wind and biofuel energy projects that will power 145,000 homes per year.  www.nyserda.org  They also provide assistance for LEED certification.

To review: Buildings can become LEED certified through an extensive review process that the building owners submit at the beginning of the project.  You cannot get certification once the project has started or retroactively for past projects.  One of the critiques of the USGBC at the June conference is that the details of a building’s certification are not made public.  Another complaint is that a building’s certification is primarily based on conditions at the opening of the building, and not based on the actual energy measurements throughout the life of the building.  To be fair, the USGBC is open to changes, and does require “commissioning” of the building to review energy measurements after substantial completion of the building.  In their words, USGBC is coordinating a “national consensus effort to provide the industry with tools necessary to design, build and operate buildings that deliver high performance inside and out.”  But commissioning is not a requirement throughout the life of the building, nor is the building’s LEED certification contingent on the actual long term building’s efficiency but rather through demonstrated performance standards at the onset.  As the number of building types that attempted certification expanded, USGBC also expanded the type of rating systems to help focus the effort.  There are now nine rating systems which include “New Construction & Major Renovations” (NC), “Existing Building: Operations & Maintenance” (ED: O&M), “Commercial Interiors” (CI), “Core & Shell” (C&S), “Schools” (SCH), “Retail”, “Healthcare” (HC), “Homes” & “Neighborhood Development” (ND).

Now let’s take a look at the rating categories that USGBC measures in determining LEED certification for a specific project.  Points are accumulated by meeting enough requirements of the various categories.  In most of the categories there are prerequisite requirements, without which your building will not be certified.  The current LEED 2009 requirements vary depending on the rating system of your project.  For example, “New Construction & Major Renovations” has the following categories: “Sustainable Sites”, “Water Efficiency”, “Energy & Atmosphere”, “Materials & Resources”, “Indoor Environmental Quality”, “Innovation in Design” & “Regional Priority”.  This last one was added with the adoption of LEED 2009 to encourage more local focus.  At this time the next rating system, LEED 2012, is in the works with even more credit categories such as “Integrative Process”, “Location & Transportation” & “Performance”.  The current comment period will close on September 14, 2011.

Another note to remember, buildings are LEED “Certified”, people are LEED “Accredited”.   Remember those points that need to add up for certification?  Well in order to understand better the certification goals, the USGBC has establish the LEED Accredited Professional status, basically a recognition that the person has demonstrated a thorough understanding of green building practices and familiarity with LEED requirements upon passing a rigorous examination administered by the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI).  www.gbci.org   Starting in 2009 the LEED AP status was expanded to include specialty credentials which currently include “Building Design & Construction” (BD+C), “Interior Design & Construction” (ID+C), “Homes”, “Operation & Maintenance” (O+M) & “Neighborhood Development” (ND).  A person with LEED AP status can count as one point towards certification.

Also starting in 2009 was the “Green Associate” credential which was created for those who could not qualify for the more rigorous requirements for the LEED AP exam which now include actual LEED certified building experience.  All of this sounds very complicated and no doubt it is.  As Kermit the frog taught us long ago, it’s not easy being green.  But at the same time, it is also critical that economic factors do not get ahead of what is truly the goal: a cultural change to save our planet.  We need to maintain and improve legitimate controls that can measure and create incentives for all of us to lower our carbon footprint.  On the other hand, all our collective efforts to genuinely decrease energy consumption, LEED certified or not, are desperately needed.  And at no point should we assume that being LEED certified is enough.  (Check out the Living Building Challenge, www.ilbi.org which in some ways is pushing USGBC’s envelope even further).  For example, at one recent green conference a fellow participant pointed out that despite all the noble goals of low-flow plumbing fixtures in LEED, it is no comparison to the water savings of not eating one pound of meat which requires (depending on who you believe) 2,500 to 12,000 gallons of water!  www.vegsource.com/articles//factoids.htm

So we have a lot of work to do.

J.C. CALDERON is a Yale trained licensed architect, registered in New York and New Jersey.  He is a member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and an Accredited Professional for LEED, the green building certification system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).   J.C.’s specialty credential as administered by the USGBC is in Building Design & Construction (BD+C).  Founder and CEO of J.C. CALDERON ARCHITECT PC in New York, J.C. has designed buildings in both North and South America.