LEED Existing Building Services January 14, 2010

A review of an existing building to see if it meets the Department of Energy’s Energy Star program will usually take between one and two days of time, and thus cost appropriately for most firms to provide that service, including ours. To engage in an analysis of an existing building to see if it can achieve LEED EB (Existing Buildings), can take up to one year, consume hundreds of hours of time, and produce up to 2,000 pages of documentation. At this point, you are asking, “What is LEED EB and why should I pursue it?”

LEED EB is simply the rating system created by the US Green Building Council (USGBC) that measures the operations and maintenance, on a consistent scale, with the goal of maximizing efficiency while minimizing environmental impacts. The main reason most companies pursue such an ambitious goal is market differentiation of their building. With the highly competitive market for tenants that the last year’s economic realities have produced, many building owners are trying to position their buildings so that they will not be rendered non-competitive as the transformation of the green building movement continues to grow. In other words, with all other things being equal, most tenants would much prefer to rent office space in a LEED building versus a non-LEED building.

Such an endeavor obviously costs money that building owners could be using on other improvements in the building, so the next question is “Is LEED EB worth the cost?” Another very good question that cannot be easily answered. In all the studies done so far on LEED properties, the normal indicators are a positive indication (increased rent, increased property value, lower operating costs), but whether they are worth the cost takes into consideration much more than that. Trying to do the right thing when it comes to having a positive impact on the environment is not something that always falls easily into a Return on Investment calculation.

Lastly, the question of “What does LEED EB cost?” is raised. LEED EB is unique for each building, so costs do vary, but an owner must take into consideration that it can take up to a year in time, the documentation can easily be between 1,000 and 2,000 pages of information, and the process can take hundreds of hours of a consultant’s time. The cost on a per square foot basis can vary from $0.15 to $0.45, so you can see, the cost is difficult to nail down. The best way to confirm if a building is even suitable for the LEED EB criteria is through a LEED gap analysis.

Quite simply, a LEED gap analysis assessment looks at the viability of an existing building as to whether or not it is feasible for that building to pursue LEED EB, and what the major hurdles and/or cost implementations such a goal will entail. It looks at the “gap” between the existing maintenance and operation of a building and the LEED EB requirements for the maintenance and operation of a building. Some buildings and property owner management practices make it much less difficult to achieve LEED EB status, while others make it quite an aggressive, and costly, goal. The gap analysis will quickly tell you whether the time and cost is worthwhile to a property owner.

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