Green Building Goals and LEED

Most of the building industry is now concerned about sustainability. However, there is some question on the costs to achieve such green building goals. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development says that real estate and construction professionals overestimate the costs of green building by 300 percent—but experience does not bear that out. Going green shouldn't be considered an additional cost as it actually tends to be more cost effective with time. A report to California's Sustainable Building Task Force maintains that an upfront investment of 2 percent in green building design, on average, results in life-cycle savings of 20 percent of the total construction costs—more than 10 times the initial investment. McGraw-Hill Construction Green Outlook 2011: Green Trends Driving Growth details where building owners have realized cost benefits from sustainably designed and constructed facilities.

• Operating costs decrease 13.6 percent for new construction and 8.5 percent for existing building projects
• Building value increases 10.9 percent for new construction and 6.8 percent for existing building projects
• Return on investment improves 9.9 percent for new construction and 19.2 percent for existing building projects
• Occupancy increases 6.4 percent for new construction and 2.5 percent for existing building projects
• Rent increases 6.1 percent for new construction and 1 percent for existing building projects
• Owners of green projects report a 9.2 percent increase on average for retrofit/renovation green projects as compared to 9.9 percent on average for new projects

Interior sliding glass doors can help earn LEED points in several categories. Photo courtesy of Klein USA, Inc.

In addition, the U.S. General Services Administration's Public Buildings Service states that compared to the average commercial building, green buildings consume 26 percent less energy, have 13 percent lower maintenance costs, 27 percent higher occupant satisfaction, and 33 percent less greenhouse gas emissions.

LEED—A Major Determinant 0f Green Building

Green building rating systems have been developed to assess a building's sustainability. The dominant system today in the U.S.—and increasingly outside the country—is LEED. Tailored to various market segments, LEED is a point-based system where building projects earn credits for satisfying specific green building criteria. There are 100 possible points spread across five major categories: Sustainable Sites (SS), Water Efficiency (WE), Energy and Atmosphere (EA), Materials and Resources (MR), and Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ), plus an additional 6 points for Innovation in Design (ID) and an additional 4 points for Regional Priority (RP). The number of points the project earns determines the level of LEED certification as follows:

Certified 40–49 points
Silver 50–59 points
Gold 60–79 points
Platinum 80 points and above

LEED for Commercial Interiors (LEED-CI) is the recognized system for certifying high-performance, cost-effective green tenant spaces. It gives tenants and designers, who do not always have control over whole building operations, the power to make sustainable choices that can dramatically affect the indoor environment. LEED-CI was designed to work hand-in-hand with the LEED for Core & Shell certification system to prepare a building for environmentally conscious tenants. Individual tenants may seek LEED-CI for their spaces regardless of whether the building is LEED certified, provided it is a complete interior space distinct from other spaces within the same building in terms of at least one of the following characteristics: ownership, management, lease, or party wall separation. The candidate project must include a minimum of 250 square feet of gross floor area in a commercial interior and comply with environmental laws and minimum occupancy rates (50 percent for office interiors and 55 percent for hotel interiors based on time averaged over the performance period).