It’s hard to imagine “green building” in America without the USGBC’s LEED program. It was, and is, a pioneering effort to reward the real estate development community writ large for committing to sustainability it’s projects. It was the first large-scale benchmark in America for what a “green” building was.

However, among design/build professionals there is serious debate over whether or not LEED continues to define “green.” Some thoughts on this can even be found right on our blog.

Build2Sustain will approach LEED as a guideline to approach a renovation. The green standards LEED has set forth through it’s Silver, Gold and Platinum ratings are certainly strong benchmarks for any building to attain. But when you step back and look at the mission of Build2Sustain and who, ultimately, we want our clients to be, LEED accrediation doesn’t always make sense.

Our clients will range from well-funded major property managers to smaller businesses that may be tenants in a building looking to make energy efficiency gains. It’s not a universal given that LEED accreditation is necessary or desired by every single client.

The value proposition for any potential Build2Sustain client is this: The initial investment you make in efficiency gains and design improvements you make to your building will generate lower utilities costs for you and your clients, lower maintenance costs, and improve the marketability of your building to potential lessees. In competitive real estate markets LEED accreditation matters and have become something of the entry point into the market for young companies looking to lease space. But for many buildings/clients real energy gains that ultimately make a renovation cost negative can be made well under the various LEED thresholds. This model allows for flexibility in solutions sought and extensive cost control, which is key in the commercial market.

Ultimately, using our social media toolkit, and developing a set of best practices to make green renovation scale we don’t want to build a LEED school, we want to create a library of practices that other professionals can employ to make their client’s space more sustainable and cost-effective.

So will every Build2Sustain project be a LEED project? No. Will we be ready to go for LEED accreditation if that’s what our client wants? You bet.

Getting some emails wondering what Build2Sustain is up too and so I thought I'd share here. There are two major initiatives that we'll be kicking off this week. One of which I'd like to talk about now.

Build2Sustain is in the process of drafting a white paper, which will outline our thesis for what a sustainable commericial renovation would be. The goal of this white paper is two-fold. First, we want to establish an intellectual beach head and a thought leadership piece that will give potential clients and partners a framework to understand sustainability when it comes to existing buildings. The second, is to provide the thesis which is to be tested in our pilot project. The white paper is to outline is terms neither too general nor too specific, how Build2Sustain approaches a renovation, always with the client in mind and always with cost control at the forefront. The outline for this document will be presented to the advisory board by the end of the week and we will begin to the process of researching and preparing the document in the coming weeks. There is no firm publish-by date, though the goal is to have this done by December. When appropriate, pieces of primary and secondary research will appear here on the blog for review by the larger community.

In other news prepare to be introduced to the advisory board of B2S. I'm thrilled to have each and every one of these folks on board to help foster this concept, company and project from something floating around our heads, to something that make a difference in the real world. Over the course of the week we'll be introducing the larger design/build community to these wonderful and brilliant folks.

Do you have something to contribute? Are you a green building consultant, designer or engineer? Don't hesitate to get in touch with us here at B2S. We'd love to hear from you.