[Bldg-sim] Cost of LEED certification

Matutinovic, Luka LMatutinovic at halsall.com
Mon Jun 8 09:59:27 PDT 2009


I agree with Marcus on this on.  Langdon's study is a follow-up to his
earlier work and confirms the statement that LEED projects are
distributed across the cost spectrum rather randomly.  
 
It all depends what you are comparing against.  If you are trying to
design a high-performance building, there should be no construction cost
premium to go to LEED, provided you have an "experienced" design team
and construction manager / trades.  There may be some soft premiums for
additional documentation requirements, but LEED requirements are not
that onerous for design teams.  Mechanical consultants in particular
should be designing according to ASHRAE anyway for building code
compliance and modelling is an extension of the mechanical/architectural
integrated design process of optimizing buildings for low-energy use
starting with passive design and then high-efficiency systems.  If on
the other hand you want to build a code building, then yes there will be
a premium.  
 
Let's be serious, LEED is not rocket science, it should be code, not
some mark of distinction.  The fact that LEED is seen as difficult to
achieve just shows how far behind the eight ball we are in trying to
address the environmental impact of buildings.  
 
European buildings regularly achieve less than 100 ekWh/m2.  Yet in
North America, we're not only consuming 3 times that amount, but we have
managed to lower our energy usage by a mere 7% since the 1920s!!! (See
Graph 3 showing the CBECS data in this article:
http://www.buildingscience.com/documents/insights/bsi-012-why-energy-mat
ters/)  We have a long long way to go to Architecture 2030....roughly a
millennium if we keep this pace up!
 

Luka Matutinovic, B.A.Sc., LEED(r) AP

Green Building Consultant
 
T. 416.487.5257 ext. 317  
F. 416.487.9766  
Toll Free 1.888.425.7255
www.halsall.com 

HALSALL ASSOCIATES LTD. 
Toronto  Richmond Hill  Ottawa  Sudbury 
Burlington  Calgary  Vancouver  Dubai 

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2009 Globe and Mail
P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail

 
 

________________________________

From: bldg-sim-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org
[mailto:bldg-sim-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org] On Behalf Of Marcus
Sheffer
Sent: Monday, June 08, 2009 12:39 PM
To: paul.hay at phcjamaica.com; Bldg-Sim
Subject: Re: [Bldg-sim] Cost of LEED certification



Anyone's first LEED project requires an investment of time to learn how
to do it.  This learning curve is somewhat steep but once you learn how
to do, actually doing it takes considerably less time.  Outside soft
costs (commissioning, energy modeling and LEED documentation) if you are
spending a dime more for construction costs than conventional for LEED
Certified or Silver then you have made an optional choice or are not
properly applying the system.  Many projects attain the Gold
certification level without an increase in construction costs.  

 

There have been several cost studies over the years than do not show
that LEED requires the type of investment purported by the American
Chemistry Council.  Here are some links:

 

http://www.cap-e.com/publications/default.cfm

http://www.davislangdon.com/USA/Research/ResearchFinder/2007-The-Cost-of
-Green-Revisited/

 

The Davis Langdon study above is far more thorough and comprehensive
than the much older ACC report which relies on a considerable amount of
early anecdotal evidence.

 

In many respects the cost of LEED comes down to what you assign to LEED
as an "extra" cost.  Many teams have figured out how to neutralize even
the added soft costs through an integrative design process. 

 

Marcus Sheffer

7group 

 

 

From: bldg-sim-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org
[mailto:bldg-sim-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org] On Behalf Of P. Hay
Sent: Monday, June 08, 2009 11:36 AM
To: Bldg-Sim
Subject: [Bldg-sim] Cost of LEED certification

 

I recall someone once asked about the time needed to be spent on LEED
certification.  Well, I have just come across a report prepared by
Northbridge Environmental Management Consultants
<http://www.nbenvironmental.com> entitled Analyzing the Cost of
obtaining LEED Certification, which is available online at the following
link: 

 

http://www.cleanair-coolplanet.org/for_communities/LEED_links/Analyzingt
heCostofLEED.pdf

 

It indicates that the documentation takes 226 working hours on average
to prepare and costs between US$8,000 - US$70,000 per project: the first
project costing between US$30,000 - US$60,000.

 

Paul Hay

Managing Partner

PAUL HAY Capital Projects

 

Strategic Facility Planning and Implementation

 

15a Cassia Park Road

Kingston 10

Jamaica, W.I.

 

tel: 1 (876) 756-0631

cel: 1 (876) 324-4274

fax: 1 (876) 756-0631

 

web: www.phcjamaica.com

e-mail: paul.hay at phcjamaica.com

profile: www.linkedin.com/in/phcjam

twitter: www.twitter.com/phcjam

 

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