May 24, 2009
by Environmental Building Strategies
in Green Building, LEED, Uncategorized
Tags: Design Charrette, LEED
5. Charrette – More the better
An Eco-Charrette is a crucial tool for success. All ideas are put on the table and all sustainability goals are addressed. You will also get a chance to see where the experience is in the room and then can decide how to coach those less experienced folk through the ins and outs of LEED.
Often called a Design Charrette (much more appropriate name), these “meetings” need to be approached with an open mind on all fronts. Often architects feel pressured in these meetings as needing to be the know it all and can be left defending their design. However if these are facilitated early in the process architects can influence sustainability to a large degree as can engineers.
The idea is to work as a team and make sure everyone’s expertise gets addressed and realized. Often General Contractors are the most difficult to convince and they see the “old way” of doing things as their only way. Work with those people who are most unconvinced about LEED and take them under your wing. Bring them to USGBC Chapter events or have a lunch with them and the owner of a LEED facility to which that person can share their success with the process.
–The EBS Team
May 18, 2009
by Environmental Building Strategies
in LEED
Tags: LEED, sustainability
This is the 4th Step in our 12 Steps to a Successful LEED Project series. Please read the following and let us know what you think – feel free to comment or inquire through our website.
4. Record, Record, Record
This goes along with what was mentioned last week about sharing the successes we incur in life. For any LEED project, you, me, and everyone should know about what happened and why it was great. That includes the USGBC. They want to know as well and maybe you will get some bonus exposure from it.
Beyond that however we want to be able to make the case about costs and the more records we have, the more power a sustainability push can be. Costs are the bottom line-ROI, NPV, NOI, and IRR are often used to describe the financial success of an asset and while we are moving toward Triple Bottom Line thinking, we need to document how that thinking helped the true “bottom line.” We can use those tools to restructure how financial institutions, REITs, and Developers think about sustainability – so please Record – then SHARE!
The EBS Team
May 4, 2009
by Environmental Building Strategies
in LEED, Uncategorized
Tags: Green Building, LEED, LEED 2009
2. Evaluate compliance and strategies
Teams must initially evaluate their projects ability to comply with LEED and which system is most appropriate. Sometimes costs will be too much of a hurdle to overcome especially with certain versions of the new LEED 2009 system. If region is a hurdle then often more expensive credits will have to be sought after such as Enhanced Commissioning or Thermal Comfort Verification. Some credits can be easily figured into a project at the end – these credits include the ID Credit for Green Cleaning or the EA Credit for Green Power
It’s important to understand that only two things are truly required in LEED – Basic Commissioning and an energy model demonstrating a 14% more energy efficient building than ASHRAE 90.1-2004 (now 2007). Evaluate your ability to get those credits first. They are the initial hurdle in any project and while they aren’t normally difficult, they do provide a good starting point for evaluation of costs and feasibility. Also, make sure you have read what is required of a team on a LEED project and verify that your team has the tools, resources, and drive to see it through to success. The documentation portion can be a frustration and sticking point – see Real Life LEED for more information on this.
I will say in closing however that documentation is supposed to be easier with LEED 2009. The latest update from a member circle event the other night was that many advancements had been made in the area of speed and reliability.
The EBS Team
May 1, 2009
by Environmental Building Strategies
in LEED, Uncategorized
Tags: Green Building Examples, LEED
We are starting this weekend off with a new series. 12 Steps to a Successful LEED Project.
In an effort to get updated with LEED 2009 we are offering up a document we’ve compiled to educate building owners and developers on how to organize their LEED project.
We’ll start with the basics and describe in relative detail the importance of each step. The first one is called Delegate or Hire a LEED Manager. This is an important first step in any LEED project and it’s crucial to get started down the right path. See below for more details.
1. Delegate or Hire a LEED Manager
This person will be the point of command for all paperwork and communication throughout the LEED process – this person should be copied on all e-mails regarding LEED requirements, training, preparations, and questions. This person should have an openness to learn something new and should be at least fluent with the version of LEED you are working with and/or a LEED AP+ in the project category.
This person will primarily be responsible for herding and making sure the team is on track. Often this can be performed by the LEED Consulting firm that is documenting the project; however it is a good idea to have this type of person in house on the project so as to not have to increase the time the LEED Consultants spend answering tedious questions.
This person should also be in charge of spreading the word. LEED is something that we want to use as a market transformation tool. In order to transform, we must spread the word about our successes and challenges. This person should constantly keep updated by reading articles and books, making sure the project has an online presence, and attending green building conferences and USGBC chapter meetings.
If this is a LEED for Existing Building Operations and Maintenance project then this person with often be the lead engineer or facilities manager however doesn’t need to be. Sometimes Facilities staffs don’t have the interest or ability to keep up with the paperwork and requirements of LEED. That being said, he will need to develop a comprehensive strategy for gathering information at the beginning of the project, and throughout in order to stay current with documentation/scheduling requirements.
Check back next week for more tips for Successful LEED Projects
The EBS Team
March 15, 2009
by Environmental Building Strategies
in Commissioning, Energy, LEED, Uncategorized
Tags: Green Building, LEED
The new version of LEED has some new and improved features and I wanted to discuss this idea of “weighting credits” that the USGBC has mentioned since GreenBuild.
To start with the new book is 674 pages – ridiculously big so plan on paying more for it than you did.
Secondly, they have decided to organize all Building Design and Construction into one book so CS, Schools and NC are organized under one structure. This gives that “bookshelf” type feel we’ve heard about. As far as ID+C I don’t know much and have no information about Homes (although I suspect there won’t be drastic improvements – except hopefully the cost issue).
Extra weight has been give to credits that matter towards Carbon Reduction and Global Warming. For instance high density and urban environments are given more credit through reduction in Single Occupancy Vehicle (SOV) reductions.
Also extra credits are assigned to the EQ 4 section. I am not exactly sure of the intent here except that if you know anything about what we breathe in buildings you know it’s an important issue.
Lastly the scale is 1-100. 40 is now the new benchmark to which we need to achieve in order to be minimum certified. Still necessary are skills like Energy Modeling and Commissioning so be sure that have those skills on board early in your project.
There is lots more to tell but I’ll wait till they roll it out to the public. Should be a couple weeks.
Until then…
The EBS Team
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