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LEED

Green design practices can substantially reduce negative environmental impacts and reverse the trend of unsustainable construction activities. In addition, green design reduces operating costs, enhances marketability of buildings, increases worker productivity, and reduces potential liability resulting from indoor air quality problems. Studies of workers in green buildings reported productivity gains, including reductions in absenteeism and improved work quality. Green design has environmental, economic, and social benefits that can be enjoyed by all building stakeholders, including owners, occupants, and the general public. 

As a LEED™ accredited professional, our primary role will be to coordinate efforts of the Team, to simplify the implementation of sustainable and energy efficient design and construction. Several aspects of the US Green Buildings approach are far easier to obtain if the initial approach is defined early, such as material selection, resource reuse and recycle content. Selection of the desired level of certification must be established early on, to establish priorities and budget implications.

Certification is a credit based system.

The Credit Categories are as follows:

• Sustainable Sites, which requires erosion and sedimentation control as a prerequisite (14 points).

• Water Efficiency (5 points).

• Energy and Atmosphere, which requires fundamental commissioning, CFC reduction and minimum energy performance control as prerequisites (17 points).

• Indoor Environmental Quality, which requires both environmental tobacco smoke control, and minimum IAQ as prerequisites (15 points.)

• Materials and Resources, which requires storage and collection of recyclables as a prerequisite (13 points).

• Innovation and Design Process (5 points).

There is a strong bottom-line for reducing the impact of your building project on the environment; money is also green. Energy effectiveness reduces the operating costs and the long-term impact on the general budget.  Improvement of the indoor environment facilitates productivity, and reduces absenteeism and associated staff expenses. Materials reuse reduces construction costs.

In order to achieve an environmentally sustainable building, we will implement integrated building design at the onset of the project. This cross-disciplinary approach is key to achieving a high level of sustainability in the construction of any building, because all building systems are closely linked. Effective lighting is achieved through maximizing day lighting which, in turn realizes energy savings through fewer luminaries and a reduction of the cooling load. Highly energy efficient windows, as well as a highly insulated building envelope reduce heating and cooling requirements, which translates into considerable savings.  This should include duct insulation as well. The best possible indoor air quality can be achieved by using paint and finish products with low voc’s and formaldehyde free wood products.  All new wood should come from certified forests from Pennsylvania, if possible.

Naturally, the most sustainable buildings will reuse existing materials (where and when feasible) and retain as much of the existing interior walls as possible. All new carpet and ceiling tile should be purchased from sustainable companies, and any carpet removed from the site should go to a recycling center.

Water saving plumbing fixtures and faucets should be used when replacing such fixtures. These measures coupled with the integrated design approach should go far to achieve an energy efficient building realizing benefits in operating costs as well as enhancing the individual health and productivity of the building occupants.

To learn more about LEED Design...

United States Green Building Council

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design  (LEED)