by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
Today, green building in this area is what builders want to do.
In five years, it may be code. It already is in many cities in the United States.
Builder Chuck Harcrow says green building is not a fad and that builders need to learn about Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design - for short, LEED.
“I will tell you this, in five years, it will be the building code in Jacksonville,” said the owner of NewCom Development. “I will bet anyone in this room right now. Boston has already adopted LEED as its building code. Washington D.C., their building code is LEED. The California legislature has a bill on the floor to make LEED its state building code. Every major city in the California has a LEED-based building code. Europe, not an issue.”
The Northeast Florida Builders Association’s Commercial Council held a panel discussion surrounding sustainable building practices last month at the NEFBA office and Harcrow was joined by Bruce Doueck, manager of conservation programs for JEA; Ellen Leroy-Reed, a LEED accredited professional with Breaking Ground Contracting; Emily Carrier, a LEED accredited professional with TLC Engineering for Architects. Donna Gainer of Nodarse & Associates was the moderator.
The LEED Green Building Rating System encourages and accelerates global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices through the creation and implementation of universally understood and accepted tools and performance criteria.
LEED is a third-party certification program and the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. It gives building owners and operators the tools they need to have an immediate and measurable impact on their buildings’ performance and promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.
“Why do you think developers, clients and owners are looking at green building and sustainable construction?” asked Reed. “Well, probably it has a lot to do with the savings that are inherent with green buildings. There are energy savings, carbon savings, water use savings and waste cost savings.
Inevitably, these savings turn into dollar figures and they are incorporated into the bottom line.”
Green building also has an impact on natural resources and the environment.
“We stand to make a much bigger impact if we focus on the energy efficiency of our structures,” said Reed. “The U.S. Green Building Council is a non-profit third party verification of green building standards. Their mission is three-fold: people, planet and profit.”
Reed explained LEED to be quantifiable evidence as to how a building was designed and constructed.
“It’s comprehensive and holistic,” she said. “Buildings are certified, people are accredited.”
Incentives or rebates associated with green building are hard to find at this time, the panel agreed, but in the long run the savings will be quite evident.
“The non-financial incentives are probably greater,” said Doueck. “One of the things that we’ve learned over the last several decades about building science is that a lot of these things that are done now in LEED and other programs actually help mitigate risk for building owners and operators in terms of giving us healthier buildings and buildings that tend not to have problems with indoor air quality and durability and those types of issues.”
Federal and state incentives offered are found at IRS.gov or myflorida.com, said Harcrow.
“The incentive for most of us is not ‘What am I going to get from the federal government?” he said. “If I get that incentive, that’s great, but it’s gravy. We do this because it’s the right thing to do, not to get a buck from the federal government. And it does make money. The three P’s work. If you are looking out for the planet and the people, the profit will be there.”
In the current market, a developer may build green now and not be able to charge more money for rent or be able to sell it.
“But when people do buy, they will not buy anything buy green,” said Harcrow. “You will get money back, it will just take longer.”
The cost to build a green building can run the gamut. Prices can go as low as $58 a square foot to as high as $385 or higher.
“The numbers speak to me,” said Reed. “If you get the right design and construction team and you are doing the right thing for your client you can make the numbers work.”
Carrier said you can convert a building to LEED standards and it doesn’t have to cost the company a lot.
“The trend is starting to take off here,” said Carrier. “In the last two to three years, we are seeing about 10 percent of our work strictly in LEED consulting, administration, commissioning that are all related to green building practices.”
Doueck added, “It will be the only way to build in the future. It’s just a question of how quickly do we get there and how quickly can we learn to do it right. We need to get on the bandwagon or we will be left behind.”