News from USGBC Indiana

After Construction, LEED certification pays for itself.

Author: Claude Solnik
Source: Long Island Business News
Date Written: 9/4/2008

Russell Albanese loves LEED.

"I do believe it works on many different levels," said Albanese, president of Garden City-based developer Albanese Organization. "It's not only good for the environment, it's also good business. Corporate America is more looking to be in green buildings."

Created by the U.S. Green Building Council, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design sets construction standards for energy efficiency, sparing water usage, and other healthful and nonpolluting features.

Such construction often increases the cost of a building, and applying for the LEED designations - ranging from the lowest, certified, through silver, gold and finally, the highest, platinum - adds costly paperwork and requires a fee.

But for developers such as Albanese, the LEED cachet, which skeptics brush aside as hype, is becoming the equivalent of the movie critic's thumbs up. Prospective tenants look at LEED and foresee savings on utility bills and a more healthful environment than in a conventional building.

Those promises increase demand, Albanese said, and he keeps spending his green to prove it. His Solaire project in Lower Manhattan became the nation's first LEED gold high-rise residential building, and his Verdesian in Manhattan later became the first high-rise residential platinum, according to the USGBC.

Albanese's Visionaire, a high-rise condominium also in Lower Manhattan, was built to meet the standards of platinum certification.

And every time Albanese's tenants walk through the lobbies of those buildings, they pass the LEED plaques that proclaim his commitment to what he calls "green design and sustainability."

Albanese boasts the Verdesian is 40 percent more energy efficient than the standard building code requires. Adding to that practical advantage is the hip factor: Green building is the architectural equivalent of the Toyota Prius.

Cristina Salata, a spokeswoman for Albanese, estimates rents at his green-plaque properties are 20 to 30 percent above market value thanks to LEED certification, in part because people expect to save money due to lower energy costs.

"There are waiting lists to rent in those buildings," Salata said. "It's minimal turnover."

Green building is possible, even popular, without the LEED imprimatur; but the lure of that plaque is becoming difficult to resist.

Ronald B. Lanner, an architect at architecture and engineering firm H2M in Melville, said his firm built green for years without obtaining LEED certifications. But such award systems as LEED, he said, attracted clients.

"Why are people doing it?" Lanner said. "LEED is a third-party recognition that they're constructing a green project."

Although there are other systems such as Green Globes, LEED leads among builders, architects and the general public, and that translates into good marketing.

"Rating systems are great," said Jessyca Henderson, research architect for sustainability at the American Institute of Architects in Washington, D.C. "They're a tool for architects and designers. They're a part of the marketplace, helping drive sustainability."

She called LEED a "highly comprehensive rating system" that provides credibility and is "making improvements all the time."

Jonee Kulman Brigham, research coordinator at the Center for Sustainable Building Research at the University of Minnesota, sees LEED as a flawed but beneficial force.

"It's a net good," she said. "It has succeeded in part in transforming the market.

"It's created a common language and demand for green buildings. By translating into points and medals and a standard, it made it more accessible to people who didn't understand green."

And in the ultra-competitive realm of construction and development, builders and designers are noticing that clients have an altruistic side. Veronica Byrnes, project manager at H2M, said she knows at least one client who was "interested in green architecture and educating the community," and so sought LEED certification for a project.

Rising fuel prices probably will make LEED more attractive, increasing the value of all energy-saving practices and certifications.

Companies are "looking toward green building to help t hem with energy," Lanner said. "They want a proven standard, and LEED is a proven standard."

Oddly, LEED's success rather than its flaws threatens its role as a green-building standard.

"Everyone's saying eventually it won't be 'green or not green.' It'll just be good building practice," Winter said. "If eventually all buildings are green, there's no need for this policing. LEED consultants and (other promoters of green building) will have worked themselves out of a job. That's not a bad thing."