Using LEED as the Starting Point for Greater Sustainability

Published December 17, 2010

Congratulations. You've been LEED certified. Now what?

That is the question facing the owners and operators of over one billion square feet of commercial space that have obtained LEED status under the U.S. Green Building Council's green building rating system.

What they (and you) decide will make a big impact -- it will mean the difference between one billion square feet of truly sustainable real estate, and one billion square feet of potentially sustainable real estate.

The gap between real and potential sustainability lies in the way LEED is perceived.

If you think attaining LEED is attaining sustainability, your answer to the "now what?" question might well be "nothing," since you've already achieved your goal.

But you would be missing the point because LEED does not equal sustainability. It merely opens the door to sustainability. True sustainability is a process.

Think of it this way. Would you walk away from your garden after carefully planting your seeds? Or would you continue to tender and monitor it to make sure it thrives?

With LEED as the seed, what's next is to ensure that sustainability blooms.

So back to the question. Now what?

Well, first, go ahead and hang that LEED plaque up on your wall. You deserve it. You've made a great start. To reach your full, sustainable potential, here's what you must do beyond LEED:

1. Establish a long-term environmental management system

In a nutshell, this means putting in place a plan to ensure the continued improvement of your building's environmental performance following a Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle. Beyond LEED, this means that other sustainability efforts should be constantly evaluated and added when necessary. This may include programs like ISO 14001 and 9001, ENERGY STAR, supply chain lifecycle analysis and carbon footprint reporting.

2. Measure and manage with a sustainability metrics

Is your building saving as much energy as its LEED certification predicted? Are the bathroom retrofits lowering water consumption? Is the recycling program being fully utilized? These questions can only be answered if a building's sustainability performance is being measured and managed. Right now, little of that is being done. USGBC research suggests that a quarter of new LEED buildings are not saving as much energy as expected, and that most buildings do not track energy consumption.

I applaud your article posing

Dean Stanberry, CFM, LEED AP (not verified), December 20, 2010 - 08:44

I applaud your article posing the question of "what next" following LEED certification. The steps you mention are a good start and definitely necessary, but you don't mention the ongoing operations and maintenance aspects of sustainability. One of the challenges owners will face is the lack of training for their facility managers in how to operate a sustainable facility. The real savings and benefits of LEED are derived from the lower resource utilization and environmental impact over the life of the building. However - that presumes the design intent is carried out in the buildings' operation.

Congress just passed H.R.5112/S.B.3250 Federal Buildings Personnel Training Act of 2010. This bill allocates funding for training of Federal Facility Managers, in recognition of the significant stimulus investment in upgrading federal facilities to improve their sustainable performance. Even Washington realizes the investment will be moot if operations does not deliver the promised benefits...

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Using LEED as the Starting Point for Greater Sustainability

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I applaud your article posing

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Using LEED as the Starting Point for Greater Sustainability

Comments (1)

I applaud your article posing

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