Building owners considering LEED-certified buildings often ask what level of financial return they can expect. Owners may also be concerned about increased design fees and costs associated with achieving LEED certification.
Research and analysis is a critical first step for any LEED project. The project team should hold workshops to discuss overlapping systems, test alternatives and brainstorm solutions.
Identify the Scope of Work
The scope of work is the list of design tasks the architect/engineer (AE) will perform to complete the project. It includes preparing and conducting design charrettes, leading site surveys, performing code analysis, identifying LEED strategies and daylighting/energy efficiency. The AE must also conduct and coordinate cost information for all sustainable design strategies and include a preliminary LEED scorecard.
Preliminary LEED submissions should be carefully reviewed for consistency and clarity. A quality assurance review may help identify and resolve ambiguous or inconsistent language in the submission, particularly where numeric values appear across multiple credits. This can save time and expense by eliminating rework and change orders for construction.
Depending on the building type, some credits require commitment and cooperation from tenants in order to satisfy requirements. For buildings with leased space, this can be more challenging than for owner-occupied facilities. AEs should work with tenants to understand the impacts of LEED compliance and seek credits that do not require tenant involvement.
Keeping up with the latest materials and labor costs is important, as is anticipating any unexpected costs that might arise. Some products are backordered or otherwise limited in availability, and there are a number of other variables that can affect the final cost of a project. The estimating process should keep up with these changes to allow estimators to provide accurate pricing to clients.
Identify the Prerequisites
Buildings are made of numerous materials, each with its own environmental impact. Generally, LEED credits reward material reuse in place of new products, because reusing existing materials avoids the need for production and transportation of additional materials. However, the specifics of what qualifies as a reuse strategy vary by credit.
The best approach to LEED design is an integrative process where the entire team collaborates through research and workshops. The research includes reviewing references, testing alternatives, and generating ideas in small meetings. The workshops include goal-setting and refining the analysis, and they continue until all system-related strategies have been optimized and all reasonable synergies identified. This method also allows for iterative testing, refining, and verification of costs.
Many LEED prerequisites and credits require that the project submit data and documentation from the building’s operation during its performance period. These records are submitted to verify that the strategies are working as intended, and that building systems have been maintained to a high level of performance.
Identify the project boundary, and be sure that it is consistent with property lines. The project boundary affects many prerequisites and credits, especially those for Core and Shell and the Multitenant Complex and Campus programs. Also, refer to the Minimum Program Requirements for information on how to handle situations where multiple buildings share ownership, a common construction phase, or otherwise.
Identify the Credits
The credit library on the LEED website outlines each credit’s requirements and offers helpful tips for earning it. A step-by-step guidance section helps the project team determine what needs to be done to achieve the credit. The sections for each credit are arranged to flow from general guidance to specific tips. Each credit’s reference guide also provides a list of required documents, including those needed to show that a prerequisite is met.
For many credits, the project team must determine a method for tracking and documenting the performance of buildings and their occupants. This involves choosing a system and piloting it before using it for LEED certification so that any issues can be resolved. For example, for credits related to purchasing and waste management, the project must identify a way of gathering the necessary data and demonstrate that the chosen system works.
LEED certification has been linked to a higher market price for buildings and leases, as well as lower operating costs and increased productivity. But the upfront investment and time required to earn LEED certification may not be cost-effective for some building types.
A successful LEED design and construction process starts with a detailed site analysis that identifies specific conditions, such as topography, wind patterns, solar availability and shading, water bodies, view corridors, and more. This information can help the team select green design strategies that align with the owner’s or tenants’ organizational goals and priorities.
Identify the Materials
Many of the credits in the Materials and Resources (MR) category require the use of products that meet specific sustainability criteria. These criteria may include performance and cost as well as embodied impact considerations. The MR category also addresses the inclusion of recycled materials, carbon footprint reduction strategies and a variety of other environmentally preferable strategies.
MR credits apply to permanently installed building products, including framing, cabinets and casework, walls, doors, roofs, and interior finishes. The majority of these products fall into Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) MasterFormat Divisions 3-10, 31, and 32. MEP products, such as piping, duct insulation, conduit, and plumbing fixtures, are not required to be included in MR credit calculations. However, if MEP is included in cost-based credit calculations, the team should be consistent in how it applies the MR criteria.
The MR category provides an opportunity to leverage LEED to encourage market transformation of building products and improve the quality of databases. Through credits such as the Reduced Embodied Inertia credit, for example, the demand for more sustainable wood products has prompted a significant increase in recycled content and responsible harvesting.
The success of a project in the MR category is often determined by a thorough and early design process that enables the team to discover beneficial interrelationships between technical and living systems. For example, designing a building that catches and uses rainwater for heating can reduce energy costs while providing environmental benefits. The team should also reassemble periodically to discuss overlapping benefits, opportunities and tradeoffs and to identify ways to maximize the impact of a strategy across different systems and components.