Council's new LEED certification program recognizes Green Design

Building Operating Management, May 2000

Building owners perplexed by the question of just what is a green building can now turn to the nation's first green building benchmark, the the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED Green Building Rating System, and the first certified green buildings as examples.

LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a comprehensive rating system that provides direction and definition for sustainable design and construction.

Illustrating the diversity of green design, the Council recognized 12 certified green buildings at the USGBC's Fourth Annual Federal Government Summit in Washington, D.C. From a corporate technology center to a tropical hotel, the projects show that any building, with the right tools and guidance, can be green.

"These first 12, which were certified through the standards set by the LEED pilot program, are only the beginning," says Christine Ervin, president and CEO of the USGBC. "They represent a diverse group of building types and prove that any building can be sustainably designed and built."

Despite the projects' diversity, there were many common elements, says Steve Keppler, LEED program manager, such as highly cooperative design and construction teams and innovative sustainable technologies and practices.

A closer look at several of these projects reveals what Keppler calls good environmental vision with sound economic results.

The Bachelor Enlisted Quarters at the Great Lakes Training Center in Great Lakes, Ill., comprises seven buildings and more than 365,000 square Feet of space. A glance at the project's features offers a compendium of green strategies and technology. The quarters used recycled content, low VOC and local materials. It features reflective roof surfaces, bicycle lockers, operable windows and indigenous landscaping. And it saves even more energy than the stringent Navy Energy Design Budget requires. The project team did this all without a single dollar spent on change orders.

On the shores of the Pacific Ocean, the 85,000 square-foot Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management for the University of California, Santa Barbara, takes full advantage of its location to cut energy. To be completed in 2001, the building is designed to use natural light, and passive heating and cooling. Glazed windows will reduce heat load while lighting controls help control the amount of electric light. The landscaping will shade the building. Reclaimed waste water will be used for the toilets and irrigation.

Johnson Controls' Brengel Technology Center in Milwaukee is a showcase For urban redevelopment. Located in downtown Milwaukee, the new building mirrors the architecture of the original adjacent buildings. The building supports environmentally minded commuters by providing showers for bicyclers and accommodating employees who wish to take the bus. Advanced lighting technology blends daylight with electric light. A roof-mounted weather station helps in forecasting building load. And an open courtyard provides green space.

Set within acres of green space, the Kandalama Hotel in Damulla, Sri Lanka, provides both environmental and social benefits to the Mahaweli region. Oriented carefully on a 55-acre site, this 162room, 253,000 square-foot facility uses 10.57 percent of the land and is built on columns so as not to interfere with the natural flow of rainwater off a nearby ridge. More than 80 percent of the hotel's roof is a living roof with grass and shrubs growing on it, reducing its cooling load and helping to blend the hotel into the environment. Almost three-quarters of road surfaces are highly reflective to reduce urban heat island effect. Most employees live in a village created for them and use bicycles or buses to get to work. And the hotel meets ASHRAE 90.1-1989 energy standard though the government does not require it.

Also having a minimum impact on the natural environment is the Phillip Merrill Environmental Center Headquarters of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation in Annapolis, Md. The new 60,600 square Foot facility was built on the existing 15,000 square-foot footprint of a previous structure. The building uses only 23,000 btu per square foot per year, besting ASHRAE requirements by 50 percent. About 30 percent of the building's energy load will be provided through a building-- integrated or directly connected renewable energy sources, including ground-source geothermal, photovoltaics and passive solar domestic water system. Rainwater catchment and composting toilets significantly reduce use of public water sources.

Low water usage and low maintenance landscape are part of the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank building in Duquesne, Penn. The food bank not only works for the greater Pittsburgh community but also works in it by reclaiming a brownfield site. The 95,000 square-foot distribution warehouse and processing center uses passive cooling and natural daylight. Storm water run-off is diverted to a bio-retention area where it is treated naturally. The building is replete with recycled and reclaimed materials. The structural building pad is made of industrial by-products.