Certification, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is both a professional certification in sustainable building practices, and a grading scale on a structure’s environmental impact and sustainability (USGBC, 2008).
A LEED certified professional is recognized as having completed the required course of curriculum in LEED and has successfully passed the LEED Certification exam. This allows a LEED certified professional to be able to work with colleagues of the construction industry in all aspects of a project to develop a LEED certified structure.
Using LEED ensures a structure to be designed and built with the utmost attention to detail to assure that the structure is as environmentally friendly as possible. LEED Rating Systems exist for every area of the construction industry and range from the interior finishes of commercial buildings right down to resource consumption and health risks of residential structures (USGBC, 2008).
The LEED certification exam covers the entirety of the LEED AP Handbook as well as several industry standard construction practices.
The exam and handbook together will run almost $700 for a non- USGBC member to take and nearly $600 for members of both the USGBC and GBCI to take (GreenBuild, 2008).
The exam is very rigorous and the study time required to take the exam is substantial. Most people take about 2 months of 20 a week study time to prepare for the exam (GBCI, 2008).
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Contrary to popular belief, becoming LEED Certified is not something that a person achieves, but it is the building that achieves it. The process of LEED certification has five different categories that insure that the build is a “green” building.
There are five categories that are taken into account when building a LEED certified structure. They are sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality. This means that if all of these categories are met the building will be considered Green. It sounds easy, but is not that simple because there are different stages of being certified. The building is then, as the USGBC website says: “LEED certification provides independent, third-party verification that a building project meets the highest green building and performance measures.
All certified projects receive a LEED plaque, which is the nationally recognized symbol demonstrating that a building is environmentally responsible, profitable and a healthy place to live and work. ” (GBCI, 2008).
The way that professionals achieve the ability to certify building is through attending LEED specific classes that are offered on the USGBC website. The USGBC’s website provides many different ways to become an accredited LEED professional. The first way is through online courses that are self-paced learning. The second way is through in house seminars.
The online option offers three different classes to help increase an individual’s knowledge. The first course is the 100 level, awareness. This course is highly recommended for anyone who wants to take the more advanced 200 or 300 level courses. This course introduces a person to the principles of Green building and also serves as a base in which the person is able to build off of. The next Level of LEED certification is the 200 level, Understanding. In this level the person begins to take courses that deepen their knowledge of LEED and Green building.
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The first course on this level is the Essentials of LEED Professional Accreditation. This course was developed for people getting ready to take the LEED Accredited Professional exam. The next two just help the person understand Green building even more. They are LEED for Homes Program Review and LEED for General Contractors/Construction Managers. The third and final level, 300 Level: Application & Implementation offers several courses that offer courses that make the student apply their knowledge to real life situations and it challenges them to apply what they learned in the 200 level (GBCI, 2008).
There are many different benefits that you can achieve by being having a LEED Certification. It proves to many people that you have achieved your environmental goals. Having a LEED Certification means that you have many government incentives, marketing benefits, and increased property values, which can help, boost the presses interest in your current project. building green can also greatly reduce the cost to construction managers and tenants (USGBC, 2008).
There are four different levels of certification that you can achieve. These are: Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum.
Each level has its own special incentives to it. To gain a higher ranking you must accumulate credits. To accumulate credits you must have certain standards in your projects that benefit the environment. These consist of sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality (GBCI, 2008).
Green Buildings can help the earth in so many ways. Being certified means that you build more environmentally friendly, which means that building green friendly can reduce the negative effect buildings and operations have on the environment.
Also green building greatly decreases the chances of fire, explosions, spills or splashes. Building green also reduces health problems such as allergies. Finally, if you’re building green it calls for green cleaning. This means that the products used in cleaning these green buildings are also very environmentally safe. For example a stain on a carpet is taken care of with a mild cleaner. This not only protects the environment but can also help protect the furnishings in the long run (USGBC, 2008).
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Commissioning is a prerequisite of the LEED process.
Commissioning involves an outside team of individuals that is not part of the design and construction team. The area of responsibility is to ensure compliance of “fundamental building elements and systems” with the LEED guidelines. The estimate commissioning cost is to be in the range of 0. 5 percent to three percent of construction costs (DCD, 2008).
LEED has certain requirements on architects and engineers because these designers must assess how a project could best attain certification and prepare the design and specifications to reflect these additional requirements.
In either case, participating in the LEED process adds time and effort to the design and specification phase of a project. The estimate is that traditional design costs range from eight to twelve percent of construction costs, and then the additional design costs for green buildings are in the range of 0. 4 percent to 0. 6 percent of the total construction cost. A significant weigh down of the LEED system is the need to document compliance with the various criteria in order to submit a package to the GBC for review and a decision on certification.
This requires the establishment of a tracking and reporting system, which is often performed by a LEED consultant, rather than the design and construction team itself, and the tracking down of information that otherwise is not standard practice in specifying or sourcing systems and materials. The estimate of documentation and application fees as a percentage of total construction costs were found to be; the costs averaged 0. 7 percent of construction costs with a range from 0. 05 percent for a very large project to 3. 8 percent for a very small one (DCD, 2008).
Where is LEED certification taking the construction industry?
So far, businesses and governments worldwide are taking advantage of going green and looking into LEED. Several LEED certified buildings have already been built, but the future for green buildings is just now getting started. The past decade in green building has been a revolution in the construction industry and has no indication of a slow down. With numerous grants available for LEED projects by Governments and green organizations, LEED certified buildings are becoming more realistic and within reasonable costs to construct. We are just in the dawning of the “green age” and things are just starting to catch on with LEED.
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With new technologies, techniques, and equipment being invented all of the time, going green is becoming easier faster (Botelho, 2007).
As for the future of the LEED industry, Governments are now starting to place requirements on construction projects to comply with their green specifications. Sometime in the future, every building constructed will have to meet Government specified codes that pertain to LEED. All of this is for the benefit of the environment and aims towards a better and healthier Earth (Botelho, 2007).
In conclusion, LEED is taking the industry in a new direction and could someday be the standard for building any structure.
Most professionals support the idea and there should be a take-off for green building in the near future. As for the cost, it ends up paying for itself over a period of time. LEED is proving more and more reasons why the construction industry needs to start adapting to the green future.
