GREEN BUILDINGS

What are the characteristics of green buildings?

Green buildings are

Energy efficient
Water efficient
Provide better indoor environment and hence better living conditions
Use environment-friendly or sustainable materials
Produce less waste
Have lesser transportation requirement
Protect/restore habitat
The above characteristics results in reduced environmental impact throughout

the lifecycle of the building.

What is the significance of green buildings?

The major environmental challenges today are

Climate change
Depletion of resources
Ozone depletion
Land pollution
Water pollution
Air pollution
Buildings directly contribute towards all the environmental pollution. Green

buildings can become a major part of the solution to these environmental issues.

How a building can be certified as green building

Buildings are certified as green buildings by various green building rating
systems. Green building rating systems are tools which assess the building on various
aspects like energy efficiency, water efficiency, materials used, indoor environmental
quality, location of site, etc., and certify the buildings if they qualify their preset criteria.

What is LEED?
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is one of the most
popular green building certification programs used worldwide. Developed by the nonprofit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) it includes a
set of rating systems for the design, construction,
operation, and maintenance of green buildings, homes,
and neighborhoods that aims to help building owners and
operators be environmentally responsible and use
resources efficiently.
LEED features include

Third party verification that a building or community is designed, built, and

operated in a sustainable way
Voluntary certification system
Developed on consensus based approach.

LEED rating systems are developed based on the triple bottom line (3Ps):

Social Responsibility (People) better living conditions for people

Environmental Stewardship (Planet) less impact on environment
Economic Prosperity (Profit) reduce the lifecycle cost of building

Economy

Enhanced
Quality
Environment of Life

Social

HISTORY OF LEED
From 1994 to 2015, LEED grew from one standard for new construction to a
comprehensive system of interrelated standards covering aspects from the design and
construction to the maintenance and operation of buildings. LEED also has grown from
six volunteers on one committee to 119,924 staff, volunteers and professionals. LEED
standards have been applied to approximately 83,452 registered and certified LEED
projects worldwide, covering around 13.8 billion square feet (1.28 billion square meters).
Many U.S. federal agencies and state and local governments require or reward
LEED certification. However, four states (Alabama, Georgia, Maine, and Mississippi)
have effectively banned the use of LEED in new public buildings, preferring other
industry standards that the USGBC considers too lax.
Unlike model building codes, such as the International Building Code, only
members of the USGBC and specific "in-house" committees may add, subtract, or edit
the standard, subject to an internal review process. Proposals to modify the LEED
standards are offered and publicly reviewed by USGBC's member organizations, which
number almost 12,216.

USGBC's

Green

Building

Certification

Institute

(GBCI)

offers

various

accreditation to people who demonstrate knowledge of the LEED rating system,

including LEED Accredited Professional (LEED AP), LEED Green Associate, and since
2011, LEED Fellows, the highest designation for LEED professionals. GBCI also certifies
projects pursuing LEED.
LEED Rating Systems
There are five classifications of LEED Rating System. Each of these rating
systems is applicable to different project typologies. There are 21 LEED adoptions in
LEED V4.

LEED for
BD+C

LEED for
ID+C

LEED for
O+M

Applicable
for new
construction
and major
renovation of
buildings

Applicable
for projects
whose
scope is
limited to
interior fit out

Existing
buildings
undergoing
improvement
Minor
upgrade
may be
included

LEED for ND
Applicable for
land
development
projects,
mixed used
developments
, etc.

LEED for
Homes
Applicable
for all
residential
projects
except high
rise
residential
building

Rating systems
LEED has evolved since 1998 to more accurately represent and incorporate
emerging green building technologies. The pilot version, LEED New Construction (NC)
v1.0, led to LEED NCv2.0, LEED NCv2.2 in 2005, and LEED 2009 (previously named
LEEDv3) in 2009. LEEDv4 was introduced in November, 2013. Until October 31, 2016,
new projects may choose between LEED 2009 and LEEDv4. New projects registering
after October 31, 2016 must use LEEDv4.
LEED 2009 encompasses ten rating systems for the design, construction and
operation of buildings, homes and neighborhoods. Five overarching categories
correspond to the specialties available under the LEED Accredited Professional
program. That suite currently consists of:
Green Building Design & Construction

LEED for New Construction

LEED for Core & Shell

LEED for Schools

LEED for Retail: New Construction and Major Renovations

LEED for Healthcare

Green Interior Design & Construction

LEED for Commercial Interiors

LEED for Retail: Commercial Interiors

Green Building Operations & Maintenance

LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance

Green Neighborhood Development

LEED for Neighborhood Development

Green Home Design and Construction

LEED for Homes (The LEED for Homes rating system is different from LEED v3,
with different point categories and thresholds that reward efficient residential
design.
LEED also forms the basis for other sustainability rating systems such as the

Environmental Protection Agency's Labs21.

To make it easier to follow LEED requirements, in 2009 USGBC helped
BuildingGreen develop LEEDuser, a guide to the LEED certification process and
applying for LEED credits written by professionals in the field.
LEED 2009
After four years of development, aligning credits across all LEED rating systems
and weighting credits based on environmental priority, USGBC launched LEED v3,
which consists of a new continuous development process, a new version of LEED
Online, a revised third-party certification program and a new suite of rating systems
known as LEED 2009.
Under LEED 2009, there are 100 possible base points distributed across six
credit categories: Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials
and Resources, Indoor Environmental Quality, Innovation in Design. Up to 10 additional
points may be earned: four additional points may be received for Regional Priority
Credits, and six additional points for Innovation in Design (which includes exemplary
performance credits for existing credit categories).

Certification level

Buildings can qualify for four levels of certification:

Certified: 4049 points

Silver: 5059 points

Gold: 6079 points

Platinum: 80 points and above

Goal of the credit system

The LEED 2009 performance credit system aims to allocate points "based on the
potential environmental impacts and human benefits of each credit." These are weighed
using the environmental impact categories of the United States Environmental Protection
Agency's Tools for the Reduction and Assessment of Chemical and Other Environmental
Impacts (TRACI) and the environmental-impact weighting scheme developed by the
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Prerequisites
To participate in LEED 2009, a building must comply with environmental laws and
regulations, occupancy scenarios, building permanence and pre-rating completion, site
boundaries and area-to-site ratios. Its owner must share data on the building's energy
and water use for five years after occupancy (for new construction) or date of
certification (for existing buildings).
Each of the performance categories also have mandatory measures in each
category, which receive no points.

Credit Weighting Process

The weighting process has three steps:

1. A collection of reference buildings are used to estimate the environmental

impacts of any building seeking LEED certification in a designated rating
scheme.
2. NIST weightings are used to judge the relative importance of these impacts in
each category.
3. Data regarding actual impacts on environmental and human health are used to
assign points to individual categories and measures.
This system results in a weighted average for each rating scheme based upon actual
impacts and the relative importance of those impacts to human health and
environmental quality.
The LEED council also appears to have assigned credit and measure weighting
based upon the market implications of point allocation.
From 2010, buildings can use carbon offsets to achieve Green Power Credits for
LEED-NC (New Construction Certification).

Certification Body
The Green Building Certification Institute is the third-party administrator of the
LEED certification program. GBCI performs the technical reviews and verification of
LEED-registered projects to determine if they have met the standards set forth by the
LEED rating system. Dedicated technical experts ensure building certification meets the
highest levels of quality and integrity.

Process
The certification process for design teams is made up of two consecutive
applications: one including design credits, and one including construction credits. All of
the LEED credits in each rating system are assigned to either the design application or
the construction application. The design credits include those that are the purview of the
architect and the engineer, and are documented in the official construction drawings. The
construction credits include those that are predominantly under the purview of the
contractor, and are documented during the construction and commissioning of the
building.
The application review and certification process is handled on LEED Online,
USGBC's web-based service that employs a series of active PDF forms to allow project
teams to fill out credit forms and upload supporting documentation online. The GBCI
also utilizes LEED Online to conduct their reviews.

Benefits and disadvantages

LEED certified buildings are intended to use resources more efficiently when
compared to conventional buildings simply built to code. However, analysis of energy
and water use data from New York City shows that LEED certification does not
necessarily make a building more energy or water efficient.
Often, when a LEED rating is pursued, the cost of initial design and construction
rises. There may be a lack of abundant availability of manufactured building components
that meet LEED specifications. Pursuing LEED certification for a project is an added cost
in itself as well. This added cost comes in the form of USGBC correspondence, LEED
design-aide consultants, and the hiring of the required Commissioning Authority (CxA)
all of which would not necessarily be included in an environmentally responsible project,
unless it also sought a LEED rating.
However, these higher initial costs can be effectively mitigated by the savings
incurred over time due to the lower-than-industry-standard operational costs typical of a
LEED certified building. This Life cycle costing is a method for assessing the total cost of
ownership, taking into account all costs of acquiring, owning and operating, and the
eventual disposal of a building. Additional economic payback may come in the form of
employee productivity gains incurred as a result of working in a healthier environment.
Studies suggest that an initial up-front investment of 2% extra yields over ten times that
initial investment over the life cycle of the building.
In the progression of sustainable design from simply meeting local buildings
codes to USGBC LEED (Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum) to the Architecture 2030
Challenge, the Living Building Challenge is currently the most stringent sustainable
design protocol. The LBC sets 20 imperatives that compel building owners, designers,
operators and tenants beyond current USGBC LEED rating levels.
LEED is a design tool and not a performance measurement tool. It is also not yet
climate-specific, although the newest version hopes to address this weakness partially.
Because of this, designers may make materials or design choices that garner a LEED
point, even though they may not be the most site- or climate-appropriate choice
available. On top of this, LEED is also not energy-specific. Since it only measures the
overall performances, builders are free to choose how to achieve points under various
categories.
LEED is a measurement tool for green building in the United States and it is
developed and continuously modified by workers in the green building industry,
especially in the ten largest metro areas in the U.S.; however, LEED certified buildings
have been slower to penetrate small and mid-major markets. Also, some criticism
suggests that the LEED rating system is not sensitive and does not vary enough with
regard to local environmental conditions. Another complaint is that its certification costs

require money that could be used to make the building in question even more
sustainable. Many critics have noted that compliance and certification costs have grown
faster than staff support from the USGBC.

FAMOUS LEED CERTIFIED BUILDINGS

All across the world, LEED projects are reaching new heights. From the tallest LEED
certified building in the worldto one of the most iconic buildings ever constructedsome of the
most epic skyscrapers in the world are providing breathtaking views, while also embracing green
building practices.

1. TAIPEI 101 - Taipei, Taiwan

Project Details: 1,667 feet high, 101 floors

TAIPEI 101 became the tallest LEED certified building in the world and an industry leader
in green building when it received LEED Platinum certification for LEED for Existing Buildings:
Operation and Maintenance in 2011. A model for resiliency, the building was designed to
withstand typhoons and earthquakes. Green building practices include energy efficient retrofit
projects that have generated impressive results, including an annual reduction in energy
consumption by 33.41 million kWh, cost savings of more than US$2 million per year and savings
of about 28 million liters of potable water annually. These projects have ensured the building's
leadership in the green building sector: the ENERGY STAR database reported that TAIPEI 101
ranks in the top 30% of high-rise office buildings in the world.

2. Kingkey 100 Tower - Shenzhen, China

Project Details: 1,449 feet high, 100 floors. (Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons.)

The tallest building in Shenzen and the 14th tallest in the world, Kingkey 100 was
awarded LEED Gold certification for LEED Building Design and Construction: Core and Shell in
2013. The building contains office space and a hotel and was designed as a green model for the
city by providing a building where people can eat, work, live and play, reducing overall demands
on transportation. Sustainability features include notable reductions in water use, including a 40%
reduction in baseline indoor water use, a 50% reduction in wastewater generation and a
100% reduction in potable landscape water use.

3. Jin Mao Tower - Shanghai, China

Project Details: 1,380 feet high, 88 floors. (Photo Credit: Flickr Creative Commons user cdschock.)

Built in 1999, Jin Mao Tower became the longest-operating LEED existing building project
in mainland China when it certified at the LEED Gold level in 2013. The project is unique because
the building's design embodies a traditional Chinese architectural style, while still using the
world's latest architectural technologies. Conservation efforts at the Tower have resulted in 70%
of all durable goods being used or recycled, and a 70% diversion of waste resulting from facility
alterations and additions.

4. Two International Finance Center - Hong Kong, China

Project Details: 1,352 feet high, 88 floors. (Photo Credit: Flickr Creative Commons user ADTeasdale.)

Two International Finance Center serves as an icon for Hong Kong, setting quality and
performance benchmarks for commercial buildings in Asia and represents Hong Kong's position
as one of the world's leading financial centers. It was awarded LEED for Existing Buildings:
Operation and Maintenance Gold certification. A key design feature of the building is its unique,
almost column-free floors with low-e glazing that maximize natural light, while also minimizing
solar heat gain and noise intrusion.

5. Empire State Building - New York City, U.S.A.

Project Details: 1,250 feet high, 102 floors. (Photo Credit: Flickr Creative Commons user Grenn Beltz.)

The tallest and most well-known building in the U.S. to receive LEED certification, the
Empire State Building was awarded LEED Gold certification for LEED for Existing Buildings:
Operation and Maintenance in 2011. To meet the needs of 21st Century businesses, the building
underwent a renewal and repurposing project to meet modern energy conditions. The projects
success has been impressive and energy efficiency measures implemented in the building have
generated energy savings that beat forecasts. In 2012, the building saved $2.3 million on energy
costs and $2.4 million in 2011, toping estimated savings by 4% and 5%, respectively. The
Empire State Building is also carbon-neutral: in 2011, Anthony Malkin of the Empire State
Building Company agreed to buy carbon offsets totaling 55 million kilowatt hours per year of
renewable energy to achieve this.