Going Green and Saving Some, Too
LEED building certification
reduces energy costsand improves the environment
By Kim Alan Pederson
"Up and up she goes, and where she stops,nobody knows.” Unfortunately, this twiston the old carnival barker line describesthe overall energy price trend these days.According to the U.S. Energy InformationAdministration, commercial building owners(excluding malls) spent more than $92 billionon energy expenditures in 2003. The total hasno doubt gone up substantially since then. Oilprices alone jumped from $32 per barrel in2003 to more than $75 per barrel today, a 134percent increase!
The energy cost component of building operations has become an increasingly important factor in project viability. Fortunately, owners and developers have a solution available to lower these expenses while contributing to a much greener environment: LEED certification.
What Is LEED?
LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is the green-building rating system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The LEED rating system comprises five categories that address specific environmental concerns and a sixth for innovations that might fall outside of or bridge the other categories. Each category contains specific design goal points. To qualify for LEED certification, a building must achieve 26 points. Adding more points gets a project to the LEED Silver (33 points), Gold (39 points), or Platinum (52 points) level.
The major LEED benefits are energy cost savings, healthier indoor atmospheres, and reduced environmental effects. The program also offers other important advantages. Foremost among these is the fact that certification lets the community, government officials, potential tenants, and investors know that owners care about environmental impacts, lowering energy use and the comfort and wellbeing of building occupants.
Growing in Popularity
Focused initially on new construction, the LEED system has expanded further into core-and-shell construction, interior build-outs, existing properties, and even residential projects. Demand has grown by leaps and bounds. “When I became a LEED-accredited professional in 2003,” says Dan Tisak, Director of Validation and Commissioning, Bala Consulting Engineers, Inc., King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, “there was interest but no projects. Now I have 20 LEED-certified projects.”
Tisak is working with Parsons Electric LLC and general contractor Kraus-Anderson Construction Co. at the Northsite office campus on a Liberty Property Trust Building for the Vanguard Group. The project consists of a call center and parking ramp in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Tony Watson, Electrical Designer for Parsons, who did the electrical planning on the Vanguard project, also acknowledges the boost in demand for LEED certification. “With the rising costs of energy,” he says, “people are looking for better ways of conserving it.”
The driving factors leading builders to embrace LEED have been the seeking of those lower energy costs, the improving of indoor air quality, and diminishing the environmental “footprint” through technology. Some of the technological innovations available to help meet these goals are light harvesting systems, which adjust lighting to take advantage of outside natural light, and occupancy and motion sensors, which make sure lights are only on when and where needed.
According to Marlin Kaelberer, Parsons’ Project Manager, the Vanguard building has approximately six light switches; everything else is monitored and controlled automatically. That way, he says, “there’s no chance of leaving a switch on in a low-traffic space like an electrical or elevator room, where someone typically shuts the door and the light’s on forever.”
Another factor behind the increased demand is government regulation. Mark Strelnieks, M.A. Mortenson Company, Minneapolis, notes that 17 states now require LEED certification on all projects. “Many federal government entities, like the Army, GSA, and Navy, encourage or require some level of LEED certification on all new projects,” he adds.
Two “Unshining” Examples
Among other things, LEED gives points for light pollution reduction. “One of the big things across the country right now is not having any light leave your property,” Kaelberer says. The Vanguard center in Scottsdale is three stories high and 132,900 square feet, with a four-story parking garage. That’s a lot of light to keep from “leaving the building.” The effort, however, is worth it. As Tisak points out, “When you walk through the city at night, you can see the stars.”
Parsons focused on that aspect and on the energy-saving interior lighting and control systems in helping Vanguard earn points toward LEED certification. Part of that certification includes a formal commissioning. “Parsons was instrumental in the program’s success,” says Tisak. “We worked closely with them to test the critical power systems to make sure the tenant’s operations would not be interrupted.”
According to Jim Moryn, Parsons’ Project Manager on the St. Mary’s Duluth Clinic project, the company’s role in Duluth also centered on lighting and commissioning. The St. Mary’s expansion is a new 265,000-square-foot, four-story clinic building that includes a cancer care and radiation therapy center, gastrointestinal endoscopy, orthopedic neurodiagnostics, outpatient diagnostic imaging, support areas, two high-occupancy patient areas, and an information technology data center. The SMDC project was completed in April 2006.
As with the Vanguard project, Parsons’ work at SMDC involved building sweep control systems and installing photo sensors, daylight harvesting systems, and lighting to minimize light pollution, which Moryn says was “pretty tough” because the clinic sits right on the property line. Parsons also installed “extreme lighting” fixtures that reduce wattage by 25 to 40 percent per square foot, which can earn St. Mary’s tax credits and power company rebates while cutting energy use by 20 percent.
By far the most challenging aspect of the St. Mary’s work, Moryn says, was the LEED commissioning process. Every system and piece of equipment, mechanical and electrical, had to be tested to make sure it met required specifications and was working properly. “Normally, a guy walks into a room and wires a piece of equipment and walks away,” says Moryn. “Then five years down the road, you might discover a fan blowing in the wrong direction.” The commissioning process ensures that scenario never happens.
An Eye on “Greener” Projects
With the growing interest in LEED certification, Parsons looks forward to helping more owners and contractors earn LEED points through electrical and lighting improvements. As Kaelberer notes, “We do a considerable amount of design-build work and design assist with engineering firms.”
Moryn agrees, noting that a much greater part of the work Parsons is managing has LEED involved in it. “We have at least five or six other projects (besides SMDC and Vanguard) going on right now,” he says. Not only because owners and developers are interested, he continues, but because general contractors are pushing it. According to Strelnieks, M.A. Mortenson alone will have 10 to 15 LEED-accredited professionals on staff by the end of 2006 in Minneapolis and 50+ LEED-accredited professionals on staff nationally.
LEED-certified buildings have lower operating costs, higher lease rates, and happier and healthier occupants than conventional buildings. For Parsons, being part of a construction trend with these benefits, plus tremendous environmental advantages, is, as Kaelberer puts it succinctly, “a no-brainer.”
