David Hayes Comments on LEED Changes
November 7, 2008
Major changes to LEED, the nationally recognized green building rating system,could make it more difficult for projects to achieve green certification.
LEED is a rating system for green construction that assigns points for green and eco-friendly features like water-efficient landscaping, low-emitting paints and using
recycled or regionally produced materials.
In San Francisco, all new building and renovations will have to meet LEED Gold standards by 2010, and that means even tough-to-get or costly points are going to have to play into projects if a new certification system is approved.
“I think when you get to the gold stage, it’s going to be testing some people and is going to cost them some money,” said David Hayes, CEO of Skyline Construction.
LEED offers a number of categories for its certifications from the basic LEED rating
through silver, gold and platinum — the highest rating. In new construction, for example,
a basic certification requires 26 to 32 points, a silver rating requires 33 to 38 points, a gold rating requires 39 to 51 points and a platinum rating requires 52 to 69 points. There are also certifications for new homes, neighborhood developments, commercial interiors,
building cores and shells, schools, health care facilities and retail sites. Each has different point totals required to achieve LEED certification levels.
Under the current system, each feature, from installing bike racks to adding lighting
controls to using eco-friendly paints, is worth one point towards certification.
This month, members of the U.S. Green Building Council, the nonprofit that awards LEED
certification, are voting on a system that would set a benchmark of 100 possible points for
certification. The new system would give more weight (meaning more points) to green
efforts that can make big impacts, but might be more costly up-front — such as including
energy management systems — and less weight to less-costly features — such as bike
racks.
“My sense is it will be harder for some projects to get LEED certified,” said Ted van der
Linden, director of sustainability at San Francisco-based DPR Construction Inc. and a
U.S. Green Building Council national board member. “We want (builders) to spend less
time focusing on bike racks and focus more on resource consumption and energy
reduction, on green power like solar, and on water reduction, than they currently are.”
Lopsided system
Experienced green developers say that some green building features are far easier and less
costly to get than others under the current system.
For renovations, picking the right building to redevelop can contribute between three and
14 points if a building already is LEED-certified, is near public transportation or in an
urban area or has other features that earn extra LEED points.
If building green was a basketball game, site selection would be the layup for LEED points,
said Hayes of Skyline Construction, which specializes in commercial renovations.
“Depending on the facility, so many of the points can be achieved if it is a high Energy
Star-rated building or has close proximity to transportation … or has better use of water,
light and energy efficiency,” Hayes said.
Skyline Construction has completed more than 500,000 square feet worth of LEEDcertified
projects in the past year and has more than 200,000 square feet under
construction now, mostly renovations.
Hayes said easy points include, remarkably, diverting 75 percent of construction waste,
since San Francisco’s recycling program accepts nearly everything. A 75 percent reduction
is worth two LEED points. And using low-emitting materials when choosing adhesives
and sealants, paints, carpets and composite wood is easy, since those products are readily
available and not prohibitively more expensive than their non-point-getting counterparts.
Using low-emitting materials can provide four points toward LEED certification. Sourcing
building materials locally can also be an easy way to earn points.
“You can earn four points right there, or even five, simply by selecting recycled content
materials in a 500 mile radius. There’s an abundance of that,” Hayes said.
Some tougher to get
There’s also the points that are far more difficult to get, he said.
Installing daylight-responsive controls is expensive, while reducing energy use in heating
and air conditioning is expensive on the front end, though it pays itself off through
reduced energy bills.
Other costly green points include installing lighting and temperature controls. And
designing a space so that natural daylight reaches 90 percent of the area can be difficult
depending on the layout of the space. All of these features would likely be weighted higher
under the new system.