September 21-October 4, 2016 —
COLORADO REAL ESTATE JOURNAL
— Page 11B
EED Dynamic Plaque
is gaining some trac-
tion with commercial
real estate owners
and management companies
and may bring changes to the
market.
First, LEED O+M projects
are the only certifications that
expire – LEED Core & Shell
and LEED New Construction
certifications have no official
expiration date (their certifica-
tions “expire” only when sig-
nificant building renovations
occur). Expiring O+M projects
have three choices: follow the
path for LEED recertification,
“start over” with a new three-
month performance period, or
use LEED Dynamic Plaque.
Depending on the project, the
five-year cost to use LEED
Dynamic Plaque may be 20 to
65 percent of the cost of using
LEED O+M.
Secondly, we’ve seen that
LEED Dynamic Plaque scores
tend to track fairly closely
to what would be achieved
using traditional LEED O+M.
Suburban buildings that earned
LEED Certified or LEED Silver
are tending to achieve LEED
Silver with Dynamic Plaque.
Urban buildings that earned
LEED Silver or LEED Gold are
tending to achieve LEED Gold
with Dynamic Plaque. However,
we have also seen that chang-
ing the number of building occu-
pants can swing the score quite
dramatically … so, it is still pos-
sible that significant changes
in occupancy can produce the
result of different levels of
LEED certification year over
year (as the score recertifies the
building annually). Therefore,
if it is critical that a building
maintain its LEED Platinum
status, it may be worth the cost
to use traditional LEED O+M
to secure LEED Platinum for
the next five years. If the own-
ers just want the building to
be “LEED something” (i.e. it
doesn’t matter if the building
is LEED Silver or LEED Gold),
LEED Dynamic Plaque is a
more cost-effective way to keep
the certification.
Finally, LEED Dynamic
Plaque can allow projects to
focus budget dollars appropri-
ately. There are five tracks for
LEED Dynamic Plaque: energy,
water, waste, transportation
and human experience. If
building energy performance is
strong, the building will have a
high score on the energy track.
To pursue traditional LEED
recertification, actions would
still need to be taken to fulfill
the energy prerequisites. For
example, an ASHRAE Level I
energy audit and walkthrough
will still need to be performed,
even if a building has an
Energy Star score of 95.
With LEED Dynamic Plaque,
no actions would be required
as the performance is simply
captured in the score, which
is based upon the energy bills,
square footage and occupancy.
Once the information is entered
and the scores from each track
are obtained, projects can focus
their improvement efforts. If the
water performance score is low,
for example, the management
team can decide if turf reduc-
tion can be implemented over
time to reduce irrigation water
use and improve the score. If
the waste score is low, effort
can be put toward conducting
a waste audit or working with
tenants to
ensure recy-
cling contain-
ers are avail-
able at each
desk, kitchen,
copy room
and confer-
ence room.
Now, the
big news is
for buildings
that are not
yet certified
for LEED
and those
that are not
yet built.
Existing, occupied build-
ings that are not yet certified
for LEED O+M can opt into
LEED Dynamic Plaque if they
fulfill and document the LEED
v4 O+M prerequisites. This
includes policies and plans,
plumbing fixtures that largely
meet Energy Policy Act flush
and flow rates, building energy
and water meter documenta-
tion, an ASHRAE Level 1 audit
and walkthrough, an Energy
Star score of 75 or higher, no
CFC refrigerants (or no leak-
age), outside air testing for
ASHRAE 62.1 compliance and
no smoking signage at all build-
ing entries.
The next wave of game
change may be on the construc-
tion market, where LEED
certification has almost become
expected for Class A buildings
in metro Denver. LEED can
add approximately 2 percent to
a construction budget, accord-
ing to a survey of 146 projects
by Good Energies. Although an
incremental percentage, this
can translate to significant dol-
lars for larger projects. Some
developers may choose to forego
LEED for New Construction
certification and simply opt into
LEED Dynamic Plaque after
occupancy. What will this mean
for the construction market?
The theory behind LEED
Dynamic Plaque is that it cap-
tures performance. So, even
if developers bypass the con-
struction certification, green
features and energy efficiency
must still be incorporated into
the project to meet the prereq-
uisites and at least 40 points
for LEED Dynamic Plaque.
However, what will this mean
for the markets that have
developed for certified wood,
rapidly renewable products,
materials with recycled con-
tent, local materials, protecting
habitat during construction,
rainwater management, light
pollution reduction, construc-
tion waste management, com-
missioning, demand response,
advanced energy metering and
green power? None of those are
captured by LEED Dynamic
Plaque.
The concern is the significant
market transformation we have
seen from LEED over the past
decade, particularly with green
materials and supporting the
green power market. Several
jobs have been created simply to
complete LEED documentation
from the construction process.
In regard to LEED Dynamic
Plaque, only time will tell.
Amanda
Timmons,
LEED AP
President, Ampajen
Solutions, LLC
L
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