Much has been written about the U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC's) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System — the “voluntary, consensus-based national standard for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings”¹ — and why building owners and the design and construction communities should embrace it. Now, studies and reports identifying the cost of achieving a LEED rating are starting to emerge.

Of the many points a project can earn toward LEED certification, some are pursued almost universally. These could be called the lowest-cost points. Some owners and designers have learned which points these are through careful study of LEED, while others have learned through trial and error. This article will discuss ways to determine the lowest-cost points and ensure they are achieved. The article also will discuss how to identify points “left on the table” by LEED project teams.

Keys to achieving a “low-cost” LEED project include:

• DEVELOPING GOALS

  Developing clear, realistic goals at the project's inception.

• Assessing the design team's abilities.

• ASSESSING THE DESIGN TEAM'S ABILITIES

  Investigating local codes and regulations.

• Establishing the desired LEED level early and maintaining focus on it.

• INVESTIGATING LOCAL CODES AND REGULATIONS

  Conducting LEED design reviews at each stage of design and developing “LEED-friendly” specifications.

The development of clear, realistic goals should be treated in much the same manner and during the same period of time as architectural programming. Think of each LEED point as a child's building block. Organize the blocks into groups: points most worth pursuing, points possibly worth pursuing, points to continue considering, and points least worth pursuing. Experimenting with different combinations of blocks will result in an architectural program with LEED integrated into it, rather than one for which LEED is an afterthought.

ESTABLISHING THE LEVEL OF LEED DESIRED

The pursuit of LEED points often entails consideration of issues that may not appear obvious at first. For example, great daylighting, which involves more than additional glazing and locating occupants near windows, impacts HVAC-equipment size and may require automatic controls. During programming, the owner needs to understand the importance of these considerations, even though equipment will not be sized and systems designed until later. The owner's programmatic requirements may prove better-suited to a good-daylighting design than a great one, if site configuration and the desire for a dense development turn out to be limiting factors.

Know what the design team is capable of. Do not program into a project LEED measures that cannot be designed and/or documented properly. For instance, for a 20-story commercial tower built to the lot line, do not expect a photovoltaic (PV) system to be installed on the roof and provide 30 percent of the energy demand to help you earn several LEED energy points. There simply is not enough roof area. Installing PV panels on the exterior walls would cost more and require more area because the panels would receive less solar energy annually.

LEED certifications do not just “happen.” Owners are advised to put someone in charge of managing the LEED process and keeping everyone on track. This person should understand LEED and the design process well enough to discern whether a designer's explanation of how a system works and why it is consistent with LEED requirements is solid.

DESIGN REVIEWS AND SPECIFICATIONS

Before falling deeply in love with the LEED points you elect to pursue, make sure you have taken into account local codes and regulations. In many cases, LEED points that appear difficult to attain are, in fact, easy because they are required or almost required by local codes. For example, ductwork adhesives and sealants with volatile-organic-compound (VOC) levels lower than the one required by LEED are available. Your local jurisdiction might require you to use these lower-VOC products.

On the other hand, some LEED points thought to be cost-effective to pursue might violate local regulations. For instance, no-water urinals, which go a long way toward meeting LEED requirements for water-use reduction, might not be allowed by your local building code, which may state that urinals must use 1 gal. of water per flush. Your choices are to eliminate no-water urinals from consideration or fight a long battle with the local building department. If you choose to fight, the plumbing contactor, with the backing of the local plumbers union, may charge for equipment he or she otherwise would be installing, such as flush valves and supply-water piping.

There are four levels of LEED certification: Certified (26 to 32 points), Silver (33 to 38 points), Gold (39 to 51 points), and Platinum (52 to 69 points). As the level of LEED increases, so does the amount of work required to achieve it (Figure 1). That is not necessarily the case with cost, however. If the cost of going from Certified to Silver is $20,000, the cost of going from Silver to Gold will not necessarily be another $20,000. That cost will depend in part on the project goals, the design team's abilities, and local codes and regulations. Make sure increased costs are understood before deciding which LEED level to pursue. Failure to fully comprehend cost impacts could lead to an owner not getting what he or she paid for and, as a result, litigation. Be realistic about what you can achieve. It is better to require a Silver rating and achieve a Gold than to require a Gold and achieve a Silver.

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