Everblue LEED News & Updates

It seems that most of the building industry is wondering what is the future of LEED?  How will it shape my work?  What’s interesting is that many cities and states are at the forefront of LEED with LEED mandates and incentives for government and commercial buildings.

Many are realizing that the ‘all growth is good growth’ and ‘grow at all cost’ mentalities have not always been the best long term policies.  LEED projects currently take more effort, thought, and sometimes cost to build but they are better, healthier buildings that improve our quality of life.  

LEED is not going away and will only become more prevalent.  As a great example, below I’ve posted a recent article from a municipality in the process of legislating LEED mandates.  Good job, Jersey City and you can find the original article at the Jersey Journal.

GREEN CITY GOALS

In the past, calling Jersey City a “green” city may have conjured up images of pools of chromium-infested water.

But the city is now trying to put on a more environmentally friendly face, with Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy rolling out proposals aimed at energy-efficient and pollution-free vehicles, buildings and supplies. 

One ordinance Healy is asking the City Council to consider would require the city to purchase hybrid electric vehicles or cars that use alternative fuels like biodiesel or ethanol, unless the cost is 30 percent higher than that of a normal vehicle. In that case, the city would have to buy a fuel-efficient car getting at least 20 miles per gallon in the city and 29 mpg on the highway.

City building projects, including renovations costing at least $1 million, would have to conform to the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards for energy efficiency, resource conservation and waste reduction set by the U.S. Green Building Council. The standards could be waived if meeting them boosts costs by 20 percent, according to another proposed ordinance.

A proposed new headquarters for the Department of Public Works and the Jersey City Incinerator Authority would have to meet the LEED Platinum rating, the highest USGBC standard, officials said.

In addition, the city would provide incentives to private builders, offering refunds of between 10 and 25 percent of permit fees, depending on which level of LEED certification is reached.

Yet another measure would require the purchase of green products and materials that are certified by the federal Environmental Protection Agency or the nonprofit organization Green Seal. The city could waive the requirement if the products cost 75 percent more than conventional products.

These proposals have been sent to the City Council for review and are expected to be introduced next month.

Officials from the state Department of Environmental Protection say the initiatives make up the most comprehensive “green” effort in the state.

“This really puts Jersey City as one of the leaders,” said Athena Sarafides, of the DEP’s sustainability and planning office. “It’s a pretty substantial step.”

Healy also wants residents to pitch in by doing things like taking mass transit and using their own canvas shopping bags to cut down on “urban tumbleweeds.”

“I’ve hated plastic bags for 30 years,” Healy said.
 

Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2008 7:14 AM

Reply from GBCI

This a question we have been receiving a lot of lately, but unfortunately the decision about whether to take the current version of the LEED AP Exam is up to the individual candidate.  

You should ask yourself the following questions: What is my study timeline? How much time will I need to fully prepare for the test, including attending a workshop and gaining practiceexperience? Am I working on a project which will be registered under LEED 2009? Will it be beneficial to my professional development to study LEED 2009 or to study one of the current LEED Rating Systems?

To help you with these questions I can offer the following information.  We are still in the high-level planning stages for the LEED 2009 exam program and do not yet have a solid timeline, but a standard turnaround for an exam would be 3-9 months after LEED 2009 is launched next year. We will provide public announcements and press releases as the program takes shape, and you will have plenty of advanced notice about when we will stop offering the current LEED AP Exams.  Also, you need to consider that if you take the current version of the exam and fail, you might not have the opportunity to take the same version of the exam again before it is retired.  I hope this information will help you make a decision.

Accreditation currently does not expire.  However, as stated on page 19 of the attached candidate handbook, we will announce our plans for accreditation maintenance this year to ensure that the credential continues to distinguish those who maintain current knowledge and skills.

I hope you found this information helpful; if not, please don’t hesitate to contact me with any other questions.

Regards,

_________________________________________

Isabelle Willson

Credentialing Communications Associate

Green Building Certification Institute

1800 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Third Floor

Washington, DC 20036

202 828-5110 (fax)

exam(AT)gbci.org

I came across an interesting website today called ‘Green Bean: Built, in-progress, and unbuilt Green Projects‘ in and around the Chicago area. There is a specific tag section call “LEED Certified” which shows off the LEED projects around Chicago. Although, we work with LEED and Energy Star, this blog is another reminder that there are a trove of Green Building Programs out there. Check out their right side for the local Chicago flavors of Green Building.

Dear USGBC Constituents:

In recent weeks, a wave of fear and pessimism propagated by the world financial crisis has stolen the headlines, gripped the nation, and challenged our movement. In conversation after conversation, people are asking what will happen to the green building movement if our community is plunged into a recession.

And I have an answer for them. The greed that led the world economy into crisis will not defeat our commitment to good work. Fear will not dominate our agenda. And our commitment to change - even in the face of so great a challenge - will not waver.

Change doesn’t wait on Washington. And it doesn’t depend on Wall Street. Change comes from within. The green building movement has been demonstrating that fact for more than 15 years. Before there was a single government green building policy, before the business community stood up and took notice, before there was a LEED - there was you. Thousands upon thousands of committed individuals dedicated to doing better by doing good. You’ve built this movement. You’re building sustainable communities. And every single one of us has a contribution to make towards pulling our country out of this crisis.

We cannot lose sight of our mission. It is within reach.

How? It’s time for the green building movement to deploy the expertise and capacity we’ve built in new construction to green what we’ve already got. Ninety-nine percent of achieving our mission is wrapped up in our existing homes and buildings. It will save money. It will save energy. It will help save our climate. And directly relevant to today’s economic environment, it will create good, green, local jobs. As just one example, USGBC estimates that a 100% commitment to greening existing commercial buildings alone would create more than 1.5 million new opportunities for employment for out of work Americans.

In four weeks, we will meet together at Greenbuild. And when you get to Boston, we will celebrate everything that your individual commitments have accomplished so far. We’ll enjoy the fellowship of more than 20,000 friends and colleagues who share our vision for a sustainable future. And we will keep moving forward, together. I’ll see you there.

With gratitude,

S. Rick Fedrizzi
CEO, President and Founding Chair,
USGBC

Technorati Profile

As I surf around the web I like to stay abreast of the trends related to LEED and the LEED Exam.  One thing that intrigues me is what people blog or write on forums about their experience taking the LEED Exam.  Here’s a summary of the interesting out takes:

Number One

“Passed today with a 173.  My last attempt was a 165.

This was my second attempt, so just a few notes.  The first test had many water credit questions, especially water reduction (flush rates, etc.).  But the one I took today was much harder and had questions I had never seen before.  It had only 2 WE3 questions, if I am remembering correctly.  But many of the questions on the second test were on light trespass and focused on SS8 and EA 8.1 and 8.2.  There were also a few on ventilation which I had never encountered before in any of the study material.  That really surprised me because I was unprepared for them, even though I was scoring between 88 and 91 on the greenprep exams.

I came to the testing center very confident because I felt I had greatly enhanced my understanding of the material since the first test.  I fully expected to pass with 185 or more.  

Sadly, the only way to pass this thing is to do what others have suggested.  Memorize the whole thing, and then really understand what it means and how the credits interrelate.  And the ease of the test is a luck of the draw, so God Speed, work hard, expect the worst.  

Thank you all for the helpful discussions, questions and answers.  Oh - and to answer an earlier post.  I began studing in May, it is now October.  I am 51.  I am happy to have my life back!

 

NUMBER TWO

I passed today at my first try and got 189 with correct percentage as follows: 89% 72% 87% 93%. Not an easy test, honestly speaking. You need to really get into the materials if you don’t want to burn money by taking a second time. My study lasted for about two months though I really concentrated on it for two weeks by studying 4 hrs per day (after work - just graduated this summer and started working in a landscape group).

 

Have you taken the LEED AP Exam?  If so, let us know your thoughts.

It’s always interesting to speak with people about energy conservation and liberating America from its Energy Dependence.  Last night, I attended a wine party in my neighborhood and the conversation invariably turned to politics and energy.  Once I tell people that we have created a company aimed at improving quality of life (sustainable development) and liberating America from its disastrous dependence on foreign oil (resource efficiency), people usually get excited.  Every person agrees that Energy is a matter of great national importance and most people claim to despise the suburban sprawl that has feed our appetite.  However, last night I met two interesting people that really made me think.

I met a well educated gentleman, a PHD Engineer in fact, who though that the most important thing we could do as a country was “Drill, Baby, Drill.”  What!  How incredulous that people actually think we can drill our way to energy independence!  I’m not against drilling on American soil and shores.  However, that is in no way an liberating energy policy.  In fact, if it did lower energy prices though domestic drilling, that would be counter-productive.  I hate paying $4.00 per gallon of gasoline, but it surely made me think about how much oil cost us every time I filled up that tank.  Additionally, another person said proudly that the most important thing she’s done for the environment was get her company to change the Styrofoam cups to paper ones.  Wow!

In reality, I corrected her because the most important environmental decision that she’s made was to buy a house in our densely built, mixed use community where we can access the gym, the movies, restaurants, shops, grocery stores, and more without the need for a car.  Compared to how much energy that decision saves by not wasting land and saving energy on every errand she doesn’t drive her car for, the styro-foam cups almost don’t matter.

So at the end of the party, I was left thinking that the average person has no clue how they can meaningful help their country with regards to energy  use.  How about planting trees to shade the sun from your home in the summer?  How about a more fuel efficient car?  Lower the hot water thermostat? 

Properly  insulate your home?  Air-seal your home?  These are realistically achievable measures.  WE AS A COUNTRY NEED TO CHANGE THE CONVERSATION.  The new badge of honor needs to become “Can you believe that I saved $100 last month on my electric bill?” or that “I only drove 3 miles last week.”  That second statement is one that I can make.  I work from home and cut out my 15 miles each way commute.  Each week I’d drive over 200 miles and now I run to the gym, walk to the supermarket, and can go a whole month on a tank of gas – that is change!

So what have you done for our country and our planet?  How have you saved your energy?

The debts run up in recent years are particularly unfortunate, because they stole resources from the future without laying the groundwork for future growth. “If you told me we were spending like crazy to build schools and send everyone to college, that would have infinitely different implications than borrowing like crazy to finance current consumption,” said Christina Romer, an economist at the University of California at Berkeley.

The above quote sums up what I’ve been saying for a long time.  Debt fueled spending today pulls forward the future’s rewards.  So we have a higher GDP today, a shiny new car, a bigger house, that flat screen TV, whatever it is WE HAVE IT NOW.  The problem is that we spend tomorrow’s money to have that now.  And, here we are seeing that it is tomorrow!  Now we have to pay the bill.  No doubt about it, paying down our debt will be painful. 

However, there are ways to make it less so.  The biggest way is to be more productive and more valuable.  If your work produces more than you had in the past then your increased your value and your debt load is relatively less painful. 

So what is productivity?  Productivity is producing more with less.  It’s amazing but Energy Efficiency and Water Efficiency are two areas of tremendous productivity potential.  If you air seal your house, then you’re home is now more efficient and the energy you use more productive because your using less of it to accomplish the same means.  If you take a new job closer to your home then you’re using less gasoline to accomplish the same work – that’s a form of productivity!  You can use the gas savings to pay off your mortgage, your student loans, your auto loan, or your credit cards.

As a society, we’ve spent the future in many ways and now it’s time to pay the piper.  Let’s get too it and focus on ways to increase our value to society!

The down market has changed the tune of many builders/developers.  Two years ago, the building industry motto was that people would buy anything “so who cares what I build as long as I build it as fast as I can.”  We also heard, “People don’t buy energy efficiency.”  And, “That’s nice but people would rather have a granite counter top.”  At the end of the day, these attitudes translated into home and buildings that shortchanged our future because we built relatively inferior structures as fast as we could.  We’ll be paying those energy bills for many years to come.

Now adays, builders and developers are racing to differentiate themselves just as buyers (the ones with money left to buy) are both more sustainably aware and more discerning about what they buy.  This convergence of factors has led to an impressive Green Building wave accross the country that should bode well for our future.

However, there are a few notes of concern that will be hard for Sustainale Building (Green Building, if you must call it that):

1 - Many beneficial Sustainable practices require a higher first cost with a payback over the building life-cycle.  As long as credit remains tight, builders won’t have the fund to do Solar Energy, Garden Roofs, etc.  The challenge will be creating the incentives to ensure that decisions are made incorporating the entire building lifecycle vs just the initial build cost.  Why does the builder care what the operating costs are if he plans to sell the building after construction anyhow.  As a society for these items as they are as important as they are to the future’s owners and tenants.

2 - For sustaiable building to really matter we need to preserve large swaths of open space and curtail development in inappropriate places.  This will mean that some current property owners will be on the losing end of that proposition.  if I currently own wetlands and the state wants to say I can’t develop on them, then they are taking away my property values.  How do we compensate for that loss of value?

3 - Right now, most local jurisdictions pursue a “Growth at all cost strategy.”  It doesn’t help that most local politicians are developers themselves.  This is natural because developers are vested in the local level political decision making process.  How do we change that dynamic so that more towns and cities come to realize that smart growth is in their citizen’s long term interest vs just worrying about next year’s tax revenues?

So at the end of the day, the markets and consumer awareness are definitely helping Green Building while credit tightness, property laws, and zoning proclivities still present significant challenges. 

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200810u/how-to-support-our-troops

Bill Murphy Jr. wrote an op-ed on “how to support the troops” that’s available in the online version of The Atlantic.  In the article, he quotes one of our Principles, Chris Boggiano:

And sacrifice. “If we didn’t need oil anymore,” one captain wrote, “then we wouldn’t have to fight wars to secure it. We could just stop caring about places like Iraq - kind of like we do with lots of other countries around the world (especially the ones in Africa). So, if I could ask folks to make a real sacrifice for the troops, I would ask them to use less energy. Buy a more fuel efficient car. Put more insulation in their house. Turn lights off. Live closer to where they work so they won’t have to commute so far. Use mass transit even though it’s inconvenient.”