Articles
"Green Rating System
Receives a Revamp", Engineering News Record, © Joann Gonchar, 11/21/05
Five year-old LEED, the rating system that has become widely accepted in the
U.S. as the standard of sustainability for buildings, is becoming more
user-friendly. Responding to complaints that the system is cumbersome, the U.S.
Green Building Council is implementing a revamped certification process. Changes
include a move from paper-intensive requirements to an online submittal and
review process, reduction of some required documentation and a simplified
pricing structure.
The new LEED, which will be in place by early 2006, will also allow project
teams more opportunity for communication with reviewers, claim USGBC officials.
Submittal will be split into design and construction phases, allowing the
opportunity to modify design documents prior to construction.
"Design and construction can take years. It is too long to wait for
feedback," said USGBC co-founder David Gottfried. San-Francisco based Gottfried
led the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-streamlining effort and
presented the changes at Greenbuild, the council’s annual conference, held Nov.
9-11 in Atlanta.
USGBC reports that 2,900 project teams have taken the initial step in the
certification process, by registering their buildings with the council. About
345 projects have successfully achieved certification, which follows building
completion. Registration to certification typically takes three to five years,
"depending on the size and complexity of the project," says Thomas Hicks, USGBC
vice president. He predicts 80% of registered projects will become certified.
With the move to an online system, project teams no longer will be required
to submit large binders that include product information, energy modeling and
waste disposal records. Attendees’ response was largely positive. "You have
blown away a significant barrier to certification," said one session audience
member.
Still, some users worry that a paperless system will result in less
accountability. "Where is the validation if all I have to do is check a box and
press submit?" asked Courtney France, LEED certification services coordinator
for Architectural Energy Corp., Boulder, Colo.
The new system’s developers insist it will not compromise accountability. For
building products, "at end of the construction phase the submitter must confirm
that the specified product was actually installed," says Gregory Shank, vice
president of CTG Energetics, Irvine, Calif. CTG helped develop the online forms
and is one of several firms that conducts certification reviews for USGBC.
The next anticipated step in LEED’s maturation is the release of a version
that takes into account local climate and utilizes life cycle assessment–a
methodology that evaluates factors like embodied energy, waste disposal and the
potential for global warming of building components. Release of this more
scientific system, known as LEED 3.0, is at least three years away, according to
the council.
One obstacle in adopting life cycle assessment is inconsistent protocols used
by U.S. manufacturers and the difficulty of obtaining the copious amount of
necessary data. Therefore, "LEED 3.0 won’t be completely LCA-based," said Nigel
Howard, USGBC chief technology officer. "But we want to make sure that the
relevant bits that can be LCA-based are."
Sources say this approach is appropriate. LCA is not suited to quantify
health or social impacts, says Berkeley, Calif.-based Tom Lent, in charge of
health-care standards and materials research for the Healthy Building Network.
"I am encouraged by the way [the discussion] is framed now. It is focusing LCA
on the things it is best suited to address."
Several sessions focused on efforts to quantify the performance of certified
projects. The Center for the Built Environment, at the University of California,
Berkeley, is using an occupant satisfaction survey to compare performance of
LEED and non-
LEED buildings. To date it has administered the survey to occupants of 212
buildings, 16 of which are certified. Results give certified buildings good
marks for overall satisfaction, indoor air quality and thermal comfort. There is
no statistically significant difference in responses on lighting or acoustics,
said CBE research specialist Charlie Huizenga.
In Seattle, an effort is under way to quantify the performance of two LEED
buildings–City Hall and the Justice Center. Final results, expected in mid-2006,
should debunk local press that characterized City Hall as an "energy hog," said
Barbara Erwine, senior consultant for Paladino Green Building Strategies,
Seattle.
USGBC plans its own performance analysis of 30 to 40 certified buildings. To
provide more robust data, it will collaborate with Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory and the council’s Pacific Northwest chapter, said Hicks.
Another conference theme was sustainable reconstruction of the Gulf Coast.
Approximately 160 Greenbuild participants, including about 20 local
representatives of preservation organizations, environmental groups and
government, took part in a series of reconstruction charettes.
Bob Berkebile, principal of BNIM Architects, Kansas City, Mo., presented
principles developed during sessions at a rebuilding conference held in New
Orleans. Success of the reconstruction effort now depends on the ability of
residents, officials and industry professionals "to overcome the inertia of the
way things were [before Katrina] and the disaster that has visited them," he
says.
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita "are not one-time occurrences."
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