The green building movement sweeps the country
“Pepsi Co. facility goes green, strikes gold.” “PNC Bank is in the green.” “Buildings go green to save energy.” “New standard for bringing green building practices into the mainstream.”
Headlines from coast to coast herald the tidal wave of green building. Until recently, the domain of environmentalists, academics, scientists, government agencies, and a minority of building professionals, the green building movement now counts developers, building owners, property managers, and business executives among its adherents. The reason, as one developer client recently put it, “is good business.”
Three fundamental elements of green building define a “good business”:
Economic. Studies of high-performance green buildings show:
– Average 30% reduction in energy costs, 30-50% reduction in water use, and more than 50% savings in waste costs
– The value of assets increases on average by 7.5%
– Increased occupancy rates averaging 3.5%, with an average lease premium of 3%
– Customer Demand: Many cities, states, and most government agencies require their projects to meet the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system.
Atmosphere. Buildings exert a great influence on the environment:
– In the US, buildings consume 36% of the total energy generated and almost 70% of all electricity produced;
– Consume 12% of all drinking water in the country
– They represent 30% of all raw materials produced
– Generate around 136 million tons of waste per year
– They emit 30% of all greenhouse gases, one of the main contributors to global warming
Health and Community A growing body of research correlates green buildings with the health and productivity of their occupants:
– Employee productivity increases ranging from 0.7% to 26.1%
– Improved employee health (i.e. reduced absenteeism) by an average of 41%
– Improvements in student performance of 20% in green schools
– Higher average sales per square foot in green commercial buildings
Of course, not all green buildings are created equal, and not all achieve such stellar results.
Understanding the ‘Green Building’
To determine if your building will benefit from ‘going green’, it’s important to first understand what it means. The US Green Building Council (USGBC) defines green building as “design and construction practices that significantly reduce or eliminate the negative impact of buildings on the environment and occupants in five broad areas”:
1. Sustainable site planning
2. Water protection and water efficiency
3. Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energies
4. Conservation of Materials and Resources
5. Indoor Environmental Quality
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
The USGBC created the LEED rating system to provide a consistent and credible benchmark for the design, construction operation, and certification of the world’s greenest buildings. The LEED rating system includes standards for all phases of a building’s life cycle: new construction, building core and shell, and commercial interiors focus on green design and construction strategies. LEED for Existing Buildings focuses on green operations and maintenance. Buildings achieve tiered levels of certification: Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum based on the number of credits earned for achieving credits within the five broad areas listed above.
The costs associated with achieving LEED certification include the initial costs involved in achieving the selected credits and the administrative costs of the certification process. Depending on the level achieved, a study of LEED projects built in the last ten years shows an average initial ‘green premium’ cost of 1.8% over a non-LEED building. Other studies indicate a premium cost range of 0% to 7%. Although each building is unique, experience shows that you can minimize any cost overruns by hiring a project team that is intimately familiar with
with green building principles and incorporating green features as early in the process as possible. Many of the projects in the study achieved payback periods as short as 3 years.
Energy is the first step towards greening your building
The LEED system can seem daunting, especially for smaller new construction projects and older existing buildings. It is not to worry. The Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy jointly developed the ENERGY STAR performance rating system. ENERGY STAR offers tools and resources to help organizations improve their energy performance. The flagship Portfolio Manager tool is available to businesses of all sizes to help establish a baseline of building energy use and determine reasonable energy savings targets.
The ENERGY STAR Upgrade Handbook is a comprehensive guide for planning and implementing cost-effective upgrades to improve a building’s energy performance.
The manual details a multi-stage process and proven energy-efficient technologies that can provide energy savings of 35% or more. The steps begin with low-cost recommendations, such as building tune-ups, and gradually progress through lighting system upgrades to mechanical system upgrades. Each step produces both incremental savings and incremental cost. The best performing buildings are recognized with the ENERGY STAR label.
Construction Systems Lighting System Construction Reduce Mechanics
New commissioning plus upgrade plus envelope plus solar gain plus systems
and ‘tune up
The costs of energy efficient equipment can be partially offset by federal and state tax incentives. Energy performance contracts and savings share plans are popular vehicles for recovering capital outlays.
Earning LEED certification or earning the ENERGY STAR results in tangible cost savings, productivity improvements, recognition and marketing benefits. However, you do not need to implement the full range of green building strategies included in any of the programs, nor is it absolutely necessary to become certified. Implementing even a few of the techniques in any of the programs will produce real results.
The decision about which program to pursue, what level to reach, and whether or not to certify should be based on a careful examination of your organization’s objectives, construction project, and budget. Engaging experienced green building professionals will ensure you reap the benefits of going green without wasting your hard-earned green.