About four years ago, Indiana based audio and music equipment supplier Sweetwater Sound Inc. began running out of space and started looking for other options. After ruling out the ability to add to their existing facility, they decided to build something new.
Gunnar Hubbard’s passion for sustainable building came at the age of 12, when his parents moved him from New York to Vermont. There, he helped his family peel logs for their own log house, which had no electricity but did have a composting toilet and a gravity-fed water system
Mark Albertson, AIA, in Petaluma was certified as a LEED accredited professional by the U.S. Green Building Council.
Lisa Saunders
Lisa Saunders, a project engineer with Delta Consulting and Engineering in St. Helena, became a LEED accredited professional.
Mill Valley architect Elizabeth Suzuki, a partner in the firm Sutton Suzuki Architects, was certified as a LEED accredited professional.
Mark Miller says his dealership is one of two in the country--to achieve gold leed certification. He says all the work is worth it.
Architect Ray Kappe designed the first (and now iconic) LivingHome in Santa Monica, and now, he has a new multifamily design that LivingHomes will prefabricate for a site in Los Altos, California.
By LEDYARD KING
GANNETT NEWS SERVICE
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Green Building Council has recognized nearly 100 schools as eco-friendly under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program.
CCA committee suggests owners educate contractors involved in LEED projects
Companies eyeing a move to the Springfield area may soon have a significant incentive to build here.
The Springfield City Council will consider giving a 25 percent property tax break for 10 years to businesses that meet LEED energy and water conservation standards.
If approved, it would be the first property tax abatement of its kind in Missouri, according to Matt Schaefer, senior planner with the city of Springfield.
At tonight's meeting, the City Council will have its first reading of the proposal and hear public comments.
The tax break would be available in the Springfield Enhanced Enterprise Zone, an area that includes most of Springfield, Battlefield and some areas in Greene County adjacent to Springfield.
Because the enterprise zone extends beyond Springfield, Greene County commissioners and the Battlefield City Council also will consider approving the tax abatement plan. All three groups must approve the plan for it to go into effect.
"The Enhanced Enterprise Zone is an economic development tool that Springfield uses to help recruit new business and to create new jobs," Schaefer said.
"We may be able to attract additional business with this new property tax abatement."
How it works
Businesses that meet certain job creation requirements in the Enhanced Enterprise Zone can already get a 50 percent property tax abatement for 10 years.
They could earn an additional 25 percent tax abatement if their buildings -- or expansions of existing buildings -- can achieve a silver level or higher certification from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program.
LEED is sponsored by the U.S. Green Building Council, which encourages sustainable green building practices.
Buildings can achieve four levels of certification based on points assigned for energy and water conservation elements. The categories are certified, silver, gold and platinum.
Schaefer said building to a high LEED standard may cost a bit more initially.
"But over the long term your operating costs are a lot lower because you're saving on energy and water usage," he said.
City Councilman Dan Chiles said natural gas prices are likely to soar this winter, so it makes sense for businesses to cut their energy costs through LEED building practices.
"It is time for us to start thinking about this," Chiles said. "We're trying to attract other businesses to this area and this is one way to do it."
He called the proposed tax abatement for LEED certification "quite a carrot" for companies considering a move to Springfield.
"We're not sacrificing anything to do this," he said. "This is attracting new business that otherwise may not have come here."
Ryan Mooney, vice president of business development at the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, said a company has already inquired about any green-building incentives the city might offer if it chose to move here.
"We're hoping that in two or three weeks we can talk more about it," Mooney said.
It’s no secret that sustainability has become one of the biggest buzz words in media today. With climate change documentaries dominating our televisions and energy prices soaring, few issues are drawing as much attention as the current state of the environment. While many issues remain controversial, one issue has not: We have a limited supply of resources, and the cost of doing business is skyrocketing as world demand for those resources increases.
During the past two decades, the focus on green building by environmentalists, architects and engineers has gained considerable acceptance in the business community. Beyond the perceived moral implications that green building addresses, recent studies performed by the U.S. Green Building Council suggest that sustainable design can reduce a business’ operating costs by 8-9 percent, and increase building values by nearly 8 percent.
But what is sustainable design? Since its inception in 1993, the U.S. Green Building Council has taken a leadership role in defining the process. Comprised of more than 15,700 member companies and organizations, the USGBC developed the Leadership in Engineering and Environmental Design certification system that provides universal benchmarks and standards for planners, architects and engineers to use when designing or renovating a green building.
Developed by the USGBC through the late ’90s and established in 2000, LEED is more than just a certification process for green building. It includes a comprehensive set of objectives aimed to define and integrate the green building process, promote competition among green builders and raise public awareness about the benefits of building green. Moreover, its goal is to encourage planning teams and developers to design projects that can sustain themselves indefinitely.
Through the use of a point system, building projects can obtain one of four certification levels – LEED Certified, LEED Silver, LEED Gold and LEED Platinum. While LEED Certified requires the fewest number of points, none of the certification levels are easy to obtain. Ideally, the developer, architect and engineering team need to be committed from the beginning to obtain the certification. Typically, the project should be registered as a LEED project with the USGBC prior to commencement.
Once registered, the team must track the progress of the project and document each effort to maximize water efficiency, promote sustainable site-selection and energy efficiency, interior environmental quality and overall innovation and design of the project. There are several ways that the planning team could accomplish these objectives. One common practice is diverting water used for cooling into sewage conveyance systems – which provides two separate water uses from the same source. Another innovative way
that architects and engineers maximize water efficiency is by using decomposed granite instead of pavement in walkways and areas surrounding the building. This provides a two-fold benefit. First, the granite reduces water run-off, thereby percolating and irrigating the surrounding landscape. The granite also minimizes reflective or absorbed heat (called hardscaping), which causes a cooling effect to the surrounding environment. The reduction in heat leads to decreased energy usage for the facility.
To illustrate the competitive nature of the LEED Certification process, only 14 new construction projects in Texas received the Gold level or higher during the past decade. And to date, there has only been one Platinum level certification in the state.
Today, the LEED certification process is driving the entire building industry toward the use of renewable materials and energy-efficient building products from the earliest stages of development. According to USGBC estimates, the annual U.S. market in green building products and supplies has risen from $7 billion in 2005, to $12 billion today. The growth of this industry has also spurred the USGBC to encourage LEED development in areas beyond new construction.
In its earliest stages, LEED has already made a significant impact in the way that city planners, architects and engineers develop our communities. By changing the focus from short-term profit and tax revenue generation, to long-range sustainability, communities will benefit from the reduced strain on local infrastructure and natural resource consumption. Businesses will benefit financially from reduced operating costs and better employee health and wellness. And, individually, we will all benefit from a better quality of life.
Eric Claycamp is an associate principal with Hahnfeld Hoffer Stanford. He was the LEED coordinator for the J. Lindsay Embrey Engineering Building at Southern Methodist University.
