Monday, January 30, 2006

R.E. & Economic Development

Controversy exists over rating system for green buildings

By Terrell JohnsonACBJ Wire Service

Genzyme Corp. last fall was awarded the highest possible rating - platinum - for its Genzyme Center in Cambridge from the U.S. Green Building Council, becoming the largest commercial office building ever to earn the platinum rating under the council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System.

The practice of green building got its start seven years ago when the Washington, D.C.-based Green Building Council introduced the set of LEED guidelines that established a point system tracking a construction project's adherence to green building principles.

For each eco-friendly measure a developer incorporates into the design and construction of a building, LEED points are awarded in one of five major categories: site sustainability; water efficiency; impact on energy use and the atmosphere; use of materials and resources; and indoor environmental quality. The number of points awarded indicates how "green" a building is.

Out of a possible 69 points, buildings can be classified as certified (26 to 32 points), silver (33 to 38), gold (39 to 51) or platinum (52 or more). Different point systems are used based on whether a building is new or existing, as well as for commercial interiors, core-and-shell construction and neighborhood developments. To date, only 13 buildings have earned the platinum designation.

"It's really a formalized mechanism for recognizing sustainable design, and it's a way of promoting it," said Joe Greco, an architect with Atlanta-based Lord, Aeck & Sargent Inc. "Instead of this vague concept that you're helping the environment, LEED attempts to quantify it and target the things that you can do that have an actual impact."

However, because the measures taken to make a building LEED-certified vary widely - one point is awarded for installing bicycle racks outside a building just as one point is awarded for installing a more expensive and complex water system that collects and reuses storm water for toilets and urinals - some critics say the system allows developers to reap the public relations benefits of constructing a "green" building too easily.

Dennis Creech, executive director of the Southface Energy Institute, an Atlanta-based nonprofit dedicated to promoting green building, said he's well aware that some developers pursue LEED certification on the cheap, without putting in place measures that would significantly reduce their building's impact on the environment.

"We use the term 'greenwash' (to describe such situations)," he said. "There's a lot of greenwash out there."

In addition, some developers balk at the costs and paperwork associated with the certification process.

Fees for LEED design and construction reviews can range as high as $23,000, and that's before the implementation of a single eco-friendly design change such as installing a photovoltaic cell to capture solar energy or orienting a building to face south instead of north.

Unexpected costs can be avoided, Creech said, when developers plan upfront.

"When people say it's so expensive to do LEED, it's because they tried to do it at the last minute and because they tried to put Band-Aids on at the end of the project and didn't take an integrated approach," he said.

Genzyme Center has also received awards from the Environmental Protection Agency, the American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment, the Association of General Contractors, the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association and the Environmental Business Council of New England.

The center is a twelve-story, 350,000-square-foot building located in Kendall Square. Situated on the former site of an industrial plant, the building is helping to transform a polluted "brownfield."

Mass High Tech staff contributed to this report.