Green Building Sense: Do as the Locals Do

This month, we've invited Jill Bellenger to share some of her thoughts on the green building industry.  Jill Bellenger, ASLA, CPH is a founding principal at 3 Design Consulting LLC.  She is a Landscape Designer and Certified Professional Horticulturist, with a focus on the principles of the Sustainable Sites Initiative and LEED for Neighborhood Development.  She is an experienced Green Business advocate, with core expertise including conservation landscaping, LEED, graphic design, professional development programming and green building practices.

Living sustainably goes beyond what’s inside our homes, offices, and schools.  It also takes into account the connectivity of these uses, and how appropriate their locations are in relation to each other.  But not all green buildings are created equal.  It’s becoming more common to see buildings and even neighborhoods go through rigorous green certification processes, and depending on where you’re located, their design can be measured in a number of ways.

Primarily LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is paving the way for more sustainable residential, commercial, and mixed-use buildings and neighborhoods.  It’s one of the many recognized rating systems available (this one from the non-profit US Green Building Council) to make sense of all the potential ‘greenwashing’ that has, unfortunately, become a part of the whole Green movement. 

I say ‘many’ rating systems because as it turns out, LEED has really sparked the interest of quite a few municipalities.  Over the past decade, cities like Austin, Seattle, Portland, and San Jose have their own locally-based guidelines.  Some are complete with Green Building Task Forces or sustainability departments geared toward streamlining the program for its users.  Many of these are in response to the Federal Stimulus Bill, where cities need to use a given amount of funding for environmental programs.

Not to mention EPA’s Energy Star, which has a rating system of its own in an effort to decrease building energy usage by at least 15%.  While some homeowners may only be familiar with the Energy Star label for energy efficient appliances, the program can also be used building-wide in an effort to market it as on the cusp of sustainable design.

What happens when you are faced with so many of these rating systems is that building or renovating a project to the utmost green standards can really have varied results from design to construction.  For example, LEED has several credits that specify a building adhere to either an architectural standard such as ASHRAE or instead to a local standard, whichever is stringent. 

Having a variety of rating systems for green building is a step in the right direction, bringing light to some glaring concerns in the way buildings have been built over the past few decades.  But it’s also a little as if every city created its own version of ADA codes for accessibility, and designers could pick and choose which code to follow.  What you’d find is a genuine attempt to increase accessibility but no consistency on how to reach it. 

No matter which rating system you’re involved in, it’s best to become educated about what is available, the kinds of tax and other local incentives out there in your area, and the stake your area is claiming in regards to green building.  Until there is a nationally required rating system, LEED, Energy Star, and the many other options are slowly becoming mandatory benchmarks for sustainable design. While the future of green building is uncertain, it is extremely reassuring that there’s still a continual increase in the resources and organizations dedicated to improving the way we design. 

Getting a "C"

First of all, if you are a regular visitor to the Build2Sustain website, THANKS! We're sorry for some of the changes in design, we're working on a new layout and a stronger landing page, so things might be a little wonky for a bit. As always, we'd love your feedback.

Enough about us-let's talk about rating systems, or more specifically a new rating system from ASHRAE. I came across this article from DJC Oregon, its worth a read all on it's one. The article describes the current war of the rating systems between Energy Star and ASHRAE. Energy Star has a pass/fail system for being in the 75th percentile or above for energy effiency. Whereas the new ASHRAE system will grade with a letter system to exemplify the best performers with higher grades. As always we have no great devotion to any specific code but there were some specific quotes from the article that caught my eye.

Building EQ (the new ASHRAE system) focuses solely on energy, unlike Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, which considers other factors. As such, Building EQ will appeal to building owners who wouldn’t consider LEED, said Louis Starr, a commissioning agent for Heery.

“I’ve seen schools say, ‘We want to do something about energy efficiency, but we don’t want to go through the LEED process because it costs a lot and a lot of it doesn’t relate specifically to energy efficiency,’ ” Starr said.

This is the crux of what I was trying to say with yesterday's post. LEED is an excellent rating system and presents real thought leadership. But it's not always the right fit for a given client. As design/build professionals it's our responsibility to steer our clients toward the best long term solution for them and the environment. I'm happy to see national organizations working to create more intelligent and more stringent rating systems. This last quote codifies the spirit of competition more rigorous rating can engender.

...the competitive nature of the grading scale could easily leave Energy Star in the dust.

“We all know what it feels like to get a ‘C,’ ” Kane said. “And we all know we want to do better.”

What's your take? The comment section awaits.