The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) is the organization that formulates the energy, ventilation and thermal comfort codes that become a part of the building codes of most of the states through the ICC (International Construction Council). At the ASHRAE convention in New York City in January, 2008, there were several seminars on the legal ramifications of green buildings. In June of 2008, Lexis Nexis, the reference guide of many attorneys, published a book entitled “Current Critical Issues in Environmental Law: Green Buildings and Sustainable Development”. This book, which I co-authored with two attorneys, explained USGBC and LEED® Guidelines, mentioned various state and federal incentives for green buildings and pointed out some of the complexities for owners, architects, engineers and contractors relative to designing and constructing them.
Some of the legal issues brought forth are:
• who is responsible for the level of certification
• which party or parties are responsible for tracking, collecting, assembling and submitting the supporting documentation
• who is responsible if the project fails to achieve the desired sustainable rating, and what damages might flow from such a failure
• might green construction procedures, construction materials, systems or techniques not comply with existing state or municipal regulations. Remember, codes and standards typically are behind technology by at least 2-5 years.
• might the time frame for completion of the project be extended
These are only a few of the potential complexities that are added to the already complex procedure of building construction.
For design professionals, there can be additional liability when signing credit submittal templates for certification under LEED. These could potentially trigger an exclusion in professional liability policies.
When I gave my first talk on Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) at the convention of the International Facility Management Association (IFMA) in Baltimore in 1990, there had been no jury trials in IAQ cases. By the mid-1990s there were entire floors of attorneys making lots of money on IAQ cases.
This same thing is starting to happen relative to Green building. Be careful!
In 2003, I attended my first GreenBuild Convention, held in the new convention center in Pittsburgh, a very Green Building. At that convention there were approximately 4,000 attendees and less than 100 exhibitors. At the 2010 convention, only 7 years later - and in those distressed economic times - there were more than 28,000 attendees and almost a thousand exhibitors.
At the 2003 convention, one of the speakers stated that in the Pacific Northwest, an area that was involved in Green and Sustainable design projects earlier than most, A/Es and contractors who didn’t have LEED experience could not quote many of the Requests for Proposal (RFP).
Today there are RFPs being written in many jurisdictions around the country that ask for the respondent’s LEED experience – and some even want to know how many LEED Accredited Professionals are in their firm or associated with them. We have partnered with a number of A/E firms and contracting groups around the country because of our vast and varied experience in LEED projects. LEED is here to stay! Not because it’s LEED – but because designing and constructing to save energy, to make buildings healthier and more pleasant to be in, to make the occupants of those buildings more productive, and to design for sustainability is not only the right thing to do but also positively contributes to the bottom line.
In the last article, we mentioned that a LEED "Certified" or even a "Silver" rated building can be designed and built at minimal extra cost over a standard non-rated building. Let’s look at how that can be accomplished.
The primary key to a successful "Green" project is to have the understanding and unwavering commitment of the Owner. Without this commitment, the probability of the project getting the desired rating is slim. The Owner must be willing to look at more than simply the first cost of a project – the long-term owning and operating costs have to be analyzed and understood.
The establishment of the green design goals before the design process even begins, a commitment from the entire project team to meet these goals after the project begins, and continuous re-commitment during the life of the project is imperative to the success of a green project.
How is this accomplished? By establishing what are called "Design Charrettes", one of the terms you will get to know when you get involved in green design. While most architects are familiar with this term, as you will read in the next paragraph, it is a new one to most other construction people.
The term "charrette" was coined over a hundred years ago at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. Students in the School of Architecture were expected to meet strict deadlines for the completion of design projects. When the deadline arrived, a small cart (in French, a "charrette") was wheeled down the aisles of the studio.
The students had to place their drawings, whatever their stage of completion, into this cart; the failure to do so was to get a zero on the project.
Today, one definition of charrette might be "a time-limited event in which a diverse group of experts (and lay people) strive to produce a mutually agreeable answer to a complex design problem."
These design charrettes have proven to be an exceptionally effective tool for creating more suitable and integrated projects, provided they are led by people who are intimately familiar with the principles and the process, and can transmit that knowledge and commitment to the others in the group.
There is a common misconception that a "Green" or LEED®-certified building has to cost considerably more than a run-of-the-mill design that just meets minimum building and energy codes. While this was true in the early days of the US Green Building Council LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Guidelines, it is no longer the case 10 years later.
With thousands of LEED-certified buildings in the United States, there is now a considerable body of statistical evidence that demonstrates that the LEED "Certified" rating, and even the "Silver" rating can be attained at minimal additional cost. The proviso is that the Architect, the MEP Engineer and the General Contractor must all have had experience in designing and constructing buildings to LEED Guidelines – and the owner must have been planning to build a building that was somewhat better than the minimum codes.
With the changes in the 2009 version of the LEED Guidelines it is really not that difficult, or expensive, to achieve the Certified or Silver ratings. There must be personnel assigned to the project who are familiar with the LEED system of prerequisites and credits throughout the six checklist categories. These people must be knowledgeable and able to guide the team in achieving the certification requirements. This will minimize the additional time required to coordinate the design, the trades and the paperwork.
The key is to get everyone involved in the project, including the Owner, on the same page and working together - from the beginning of the project. The next article will address how to do this.
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