Green Building Rating Systems – Summary

I’ve reviewed three of the more-well-known green building rating systems in previous weeks. Since the strategies for building green are fairly similar, a lot of the information used in determining the green building ratings are somewhat similar. The delivery systems of these rating systems differ.

The best way to see which system is going to work best for your organization and your school is to do more research applicable to your specific goals. There are resources available to help you determine which is best. You can hire a green building consultant to lead your school district or school through a needs assessment, and after obtaining information on the systems, you can make a decision. Do the research; the data is out there to show that green building does not necessarily cost more. When you think about green from the standpoint of how much money is spent over the lifetime of a building, you need to build green from a standpoint of spending your money wisely. If you know that you can build a building that will alleviate utility costs, provide a healthier environment, and reduce absenteeism, why wouldn’t you build that way? Use ACEF as one of your resources. Start with a district-wide Indoor Environmental Quality program.

A few takeaway facts:

CHPS: 86 completed CHPS schools and approximately 300 underway seeking CHPS recognition.

Green Globes: Over 150 commercial facilities in the U.S. have been certified using Green Globes.

LEED: There are 8,508 LEED Certified projects and 23,775 LEED Registered projects.

You can build green for both new and for existing buildings. Industry projections point to an avalanche of existing building green building certifications in the coming years, since there are so many more existing schools than new. Existing schools have many more challenges to overcome in maintenance and Indoor Environmental Quality, among other issues. Thirty to forty percent of a typical building’s life cycle costs occur during the design and construction phase, with the remaining sixty to seventy percent cost occurring during the rest of the building’s life. Since the design and construction phase of a building’s life cycle is typically 2-5 years, with the rest of the life cycle at 45-50 years, it only makes sense to maximize the return on the more expensive phase of a building’s life cycle (that’s in constant dollars).

www.chps.org
www.gbci.org
www.greenglobes.com
www.nist.gov