The LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System™ is a voluntary, consensus-based standard to support and certify successful green building design, construction and operations. LEED is transforming the marketplace by providing a nationally recognized certification system to promote integrated, whole-building design practices in the building industry.
For assistance in developing specifications for your LEED project, contact Verde Strategy Consultants to have a LEED expert from our company work with you to get the job done. For more information on LEED, consult the USGBC website.
The USGBC recommends that you have a LEED AP on your project team to function as the liaison for the LEED Certification portion of your project, to coordinate the certification application and documentation process, and to manage any subsequent appeals to the rating issued or to a rejected application.
Anyone involved in building design, construction, sales, financing, and management can use LEED, including architects, real estate professionals, facility managers, engineers, interior designers, landscape architects, construction managers, lenders and government officials.
No. LEED projects completed and certified to date demonstrate that certification does not have to cost more. Depending on your green building strategy and the level of certification you want to achieve, however, there may be higher upfront costs. These upfront cost premiums have been show to be offset by reduced costs and benefits over the lifecycle of the building.
Aside from the environmental benefits of green building practices, and the global responsibility in sustainable buildings, a new study by CoStar Group has found that sustainable “green” buildings outperform their peer non-green assets in key areas such as occupancy, sale price and rental rates, sometimes by wide margins.
The results indicate a broader demand by property investors and tenants for buildings that have earned either LEED certification and strengthen the “business case” for green buildings, which proponents have increasingly cast as financially sound investments.
According to the study, LEED buildings command rent premiums of $11.24 per square foot over their non-LEED peers and have 3.8 percent higher occupancy.
And, in a trend that could signal greater attention from institutional investors, Energy Star buildings are selling for an average of $61 per square foot more than their peers, while LEED buildings command a remarkable $171 more per square foot.
Yes, green design can be included in any design, whether it is new construction, existing building modification or an interior fit-out without completing all of the LEED requirements. LEED is a standard which allows the owner, operator or inhibitor a measure of the “greenness” of the space. The LEED system provides thresholds (Certified, Gold, Silver and Platinum) which clearly identify achievements by the design team, contractors, and owners in building efficiency and environmental consciousness.
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