Colorado Real Estate Journal - September 2, 2015
One of the most common frustrations I hear from the development community is how stale the LEED green building rating system has become, and how meaningless the pursuit often feels as a result. And because there is a perception that LEED equates to the forward edge of sustainable buildings, many have a perception that sustainability is something they’ve already figured out – yesterday’s news. And yet there is an amazing array of industry-shaping trends that are raising the bar in the sustainability sphere that are worth paying attention to. The truth is that LEED really is woefully behind the times. Most projects are still using version 2009, which is the same year we were upgrading to an iPhone 2 and watching President Obama take up residence in the White House. In many places around the U.S. and the world, the LEED energy standard (ASHRAE 2007) is lower than local code. Boulder, for example, references ASHRAE 2010, and requires a 30 percent improvement to boot. And Denver is slated to update its code to ASHRAE 2013 by the end of the year. This means that if you’re working in a lot of places, including locally, you’re earning a lot of LEED credits just by not breaking the law. Fortunately, nature abhors a vacuum, and while the decline (hopefully only temporary) of LEED has been a setback for the advance of green building best practices, which range from energy, water, climate, human health and land-use practices, other standards have raised the bar and filled in some of the missing gaps, and those projects that are working on these newer standards are becoming more and more prevalent. Concepts and recently emerging certifications such as Net Zero Energy, Living Buildings, WELL Buildings, Sustainable Sites, and even LEED v4 (available now, but required for new LEED registrations in mid-2016) are all acting as significant drivers for projects seeking to move the dial steadily forward on sustainability. While just five years ago it would have been a distant possibility to work on a project seeking Net Zero Energy or seeking to be identified as a “healthy building or workplace,” or to use innovative financing options like a solar power purchase agreement, now these themes are becoming more and more common on projects of all shapes and sizes. And before the end of 2015, Colorado is expected to launch its version of the Property-Assessed Clean Energy financing mechanism, which will make financing sustainability projects even more accessible. One of the main questions we get is how to make sense of so many of the emerging trends and programs, whether a team is looking for a certification program to distinguish their project from the general rabble, or whether they just want to use a rating system as a guidepost for meeting best practices. So here is a rundown of the top choices: WELL buildings. Launched only last fall, this program is the best healthy building certification program out there, and has gained quick market share with several projects in Colorado now using the standard or pursuing certification in one form or another. For a primer on all of the aspects that go into healthy buildings, see my recent CREJ article on the topic. The WELL Building Standard covers everything from air quality, to water quality (when’s the last time you tested to see what chemicals were coming out of your tap?), acoustics, daylight, food options, mental well-being, physical activity, etc. Or for a more general approach to healthy buildings, check out the Urban Land Institute’s Building Healthy Places Toolkit. Living Building Challenge. While deep into the bleeding edge, the Living Building Challenge gives us an ideal and an aspirational goal to shoot for. No credits, no well-meaning design intent; just mandatory performance requirements. LBC buildings are all about the absolute: Net Zero Energy, Net Zero Water, Net Zero Stormwater; all occupants must have access to daylight, operable windows and all materials should be free of chemicals that are harmful to the inhabitants or that are released in the production or disposal. Net Zero Energy. If the full Living Building Challenge is too much to bite off, many projects opt only for Net Zero Energy certification, which basically involves demonstrating that your project uses only the energy it collects from onsite renewable energy sources. Sustainable Sites Initiative. If you have a significant site and are looking to manage it so that it creates usable outdoor areas, uses landscape and natural systems to manage stormwater, creates habitat, grows food, and improves acoustics and air quality, then this is the rating system for you. Especially for master-plan projects, where LEED-ND feels flat, SSI has a lot to include as best land-use practices. LEED v4. If LEED has a hope for resurrection and regaining its past momentum, it lies within LEED v4., available for use now, but not required for new projects until mid-2016. It’s more accessible than something like the Living Building Challenge, and does what LEED does best: balancing human and environmental health into a broadly holistic system. Yes, you can still drive yourself crazy with point chasing credits that may not make the most sense in your particular application, but the improvements and new credits are really significant, from interior lighting quality to daylight to quality transportation access to material ingredient transparency. And whether or not you’re seeking a certification, it serves as a great definition for the metrics and best practices that define green building. To be fair, many projects are using LEED 2009 as a solid foundation from which to incorporate other sustainability and health-related features, and to admirable and successful ends. But to view this outdated version of LEED as the forefront of the green and healthy buildings movement would be turning a blind eye to the areas that are really driving the industry forward. There is impressive movement afoot to make the built environment a healthier, more livable and more sustainable place in ways that are adding value to projects in increasingly meaningful and relevant ways.