Green Building Costs, Benefits
Local advocates say the investment is worth it in the long term
Sustainable building design and construction are becoming more common, but the cost and time involved in meeting environmental certification criteria can still scare some customers away.
“A few customers are sometimes put off by the cost and the time involved, but more large corporations are coming in and saying ‘we’re doing this,’” said Scott Richardson, a founder and principal in Gorman Richardson Architects Inc. in Hopkinton. And customers who decide not to pursue certification can still benefit from the many sustainable design features such as energy efficient plumbing and electricity, including sensor-sensitive plumbing and lighting, which have come out of sustainable design practices, he said.
“When sustainable design principles are used they can save 30 to 50 percent in energy use and costs over a similar size building without them,” Richardson said, adding that savings continue every year.
Filing Fees
The U.S. Green Building Council, a nonprofit organization that has developed widely accepted criteria for green building, offers Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, certifications on several levels: certified, silver, gold and platinum. Points are awarded for a wide range of sustainable practices and materials, including landscaping, and the number of points determines the certification level, with platinum being the highest level.
But certification — and the requisite paperwork — comes at a cost. The certification paperwork fees are based on the square footage of the building and some of the environmental features can be more expensive than long-standing construction features.
The costs for the average green building in Richardson’s practice, depending on its size, ranges from $30,000 to $100,000 for filing fees and gathering the data required by the USGBC for certification. However, Ashley Katz, a spokesman for the USGBC said the average filing fee at the council is $2,000.
Because the council now offers online templates for its forms, allowing for an all-electronic process, Richardson said, submitting the data is easier and feedback from the council is quicker. But there is still a lot of data that must be gathered and entered by both the architects and the construction companies, then rechecked and sent on to the council. Also, when a company decides to pursue LEED certification, a lot of sustainable pre-planning and design is necessary to get a certain level of points.
Other changes the council has made include offering LEED certification for renovated or rehabilitated buildings.
And that’s what drew Worcester State College to the process. The school has taken advantage of the rehabilitation program to redo its administration building and in the process, put on an addition.
“In 2002, the college wanted to make the administration building a more student-centered building, where students could get all of the things that they needed done, like financial services and other business offices,” said Lea Ann Erickson, the college’s director of public relations and marketing.
The college is able to do the right thing by the environment by pursuing LEED certification for the building, and abiding by Gov. Patrick Deval’s executive order “Leading By Example-Clean Energy and Efficient Buildings,” Erickson said. The order spells out the administration’s expectations that state agencies reduce energy and water use, including the expectation that new construction and renovation will adhere to LEED certification criteria.
Underway is the recycling of 75 percent of the construction debris from the administration building, which is also part of the LEED certification criteria, along with a number of other environmentally sound practices like installing a photovoltaic solar panel system that will save enough electricity to power 20 homes; using biodiesel fuel for heating; and buying new Energy Stars computer to reduce energy use.
“We’ve embraced sustainable practices; we think it’s important to reduce our carbon footprint. It’s the right thing to do, but our students demand it as well, it’s also very, very important to them,” Erickson said.
History Of Sustainability
At another Worcester school, sustainable practices have been in place for many years.
“Clark University has always tried to be energy efficient. We’re not a very rich school despite what some people seem to think. We try to spend our dollars very well so we can keep tuition costs down,” said Paul Bottis Jr., head of the school’s facilities.
In 1978, Clark was the first university in Central Massachusetts to have computer-controlled heating and cooling systems and in the 1980s it was the first school in the state to have its own cogeneration plant.
So, while Clark kept energy efficiency in mind when having its buildings designed and built, LEED certification seemed like a perfect move when it was created, Bottis said.
Clark’s Lasry Center for BioScience is LEED-certified Gold, and its new residence hall Blackstone Hall, is up for the same designation.
“A big piece is the preparatory work that is necessary, but hiring a third set of eyes through outside engineers is really invaluable,” Bottis said. “We also choose contractors that have the same values as we do and see sustainability as an important part design and construction.”
And going through the process only saves you money in the end, year over year, he said.
The energy efficient, sustainable practices in construction like the LEED program, as well as in many other areas, will just continue to grow as more people want to use less resources and have energy-efficiency as an important concern, Richardson said.
“We just consume way more than our fair share of energy and sources,” he said.
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