Detailed Overview for the LEED Green Associate Exam

Transcription

1 Detailed Overview for the LEED Green Associate Exam the Introduction The material and information in this document constructs a more detailed perspective of the LEED process than what is presented in the Studio4 6 Step Outline for the LEED Green Associate Exam. Many exam candidates begin their exploration into the study process completely overwhelmed by the volume, perceived complexities and, on occasion, inconsistencies and contradictions with available study resources, often starting out in a confused and misguided direction. It would be difficult to comprehend the information necessary to pass the Green Associate exam without fully understanding the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and the mechanisms established under USGBC s control the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI) and the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Rating Systems. Simply reading the vast amount of material defining each doesn t necessarily provide the matrix that connects each and how this pyramid functions. As disconcerting as this may seem, perhaps it would be helpful if we developed our analysis of LEED, as a whole, as compared with something more familiar. Shortly it should become apparent the role of the U.S. Green Building Council with regard to environmental stewardship and the organized green movement. In order to understand the structure within this organization and its team of supporting players, we need to recognize and appreciate the hierarchy created, a hierarchy somewhat similar to that of a military command structure. Visualize a General, high atop a hill, accompanied by his Majors, overlooking the venue being fought in the trenches by the Lieutenants, using all the tools afforded them by their General and Majors. Their coordinated mission is to identify, analyze and defeat the elements that attack our environment water and energy consumption, CO 2 emissions, indoor environmental quality and the depletion of our natural resources. The mission plan, drawn up by the General, is given the code name Green Building, our General is USGBC, the Majors are the GBCI, and the Lieutenants are professionals, such as LEED APs, using the tools provided to them the LEED Green Building Rating Systems. the Team To begin, we need to identify the prime players that makeup the team. Everything we read, study or create will fit, somewhere, in one of these players arena: Green Building U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Next, defining the origin and purpose of these players: Green Building: The buildings in which we live, work, and play protect us from nature's extremes, yet they also affect our health and environment in countless ways. As defined by the EPA, Green Building is the practice of creating structures and using processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle from siting to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation and deconstruction. A green building is also known as a sustainable or high performance building. Page 1 of 11

2 USGBC: Established in 1993, USGBC is a 501 c3 non-profit organization whose mission is to transform the way buildings and communities are designed, built and operated, enabling an environmentally and socially responsible, healthy, and prosperous environment that improves the quality of life. The responsibilities of USGBC include creating and maintaining the LEED Green Building Rating Systems and their LEED based education and research projects. Develops LEED Green Building Rating Systems Provides and develops LEED based education and research projects GBCI: Established in 2008, GBCI is an independent, third-party organization that administers professional credentials and certificates and project certifications, validating that LEED professional credentials and LEED building certifications have met specific criteria. Provides third party LEED professional credentials Provides third party LEED project certification LEED: Developed by USGBC in 1998, LEED provides third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance in energy savings, water efficiency, CO 2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts. LEED provides building owners and operators a concise framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions. the Mission Green Building Identifying issues and quantifying their negative impact on the environment has been an ongoing process for many years an important process for establishing and improving the framework necessary to create successful sustainable strategies. It s much easier to learn about USGBC, GBCI and LEED if we understand the impetus behind these elements. For this reason, Green Building becomes our working introduction into the world of sustainability. Before there was green building there were, well, just conventional buildings. But from these conventional buildings we have gathered a great deal of important data. In the U.S., buildings account for 39% of the total energy use; 12% of the total water consumption; 68% of the electricity consumption; 38% of the carbon dioxide emissions; 40% of the raw material use; 30% of the total waste output. For Green Buildings to be sustainable, we must not only know what the issues are, but also analyze what caused them. With regard to energy, the DOE (Energy Information Center) data collected indicates, by wide margin, space heating is the largest user of energy at 38%, followed by lighting at 28%, water heating at 8%, cooling at 7%, ventilation at 7% and so on. Similar studies and data are readily available that provide Page 2 of 11

3 insight where the current focus needs to be for reducing our water consumption, waste output, carbon dioxide emissions, electricity and, importantly, the impact of our current design and construction practices to the overall health and comfort of the building occupants. We know conventional building practices are not sustainable. However, according to the EPA, we can expect the following benefits when we adopt Green Building practices: Social benefits Enhance occupant comfort and health Heighten aesthetic qualities Minimize strain on local infrastructure Improve overall quality of life Environmental benefits Enhance and protect biodiversity and ecosystems Improve air and water quality Reduce waste streams Conserve and restore natural resources Economic benefits Reduce operating costs Create, expand, and shape markets for green product and services Improve occupant productivity Optimize life-cycle economic performance Two important aspects of Green Building are Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Cost: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a cradle-to-grave analysis that examines the building along with its materials and components. From their extraction, manufacture and transport, to their use, reuse, recycling and assumed disposal, the process of life cycle assessment minimizes the negative impacts on people and the environment. LCA is essential to sustainable design. Life Cycle Cost (LCC) analysis assesses the total cost of ownership, taking into account all costs related to design and construction, ownership, operations and the eventual disposal of a building and its parts. By definition, sustainable design requires an analysis of a building over its entire life and life cycle cost analysis identifies which high performance building systems will save money over the life of the building. For example: Product A may cost less and have a life expectancy of 5 years whereas Product B may cost a little more but have a life expectancy of 15 years, making Product B a better choice due to it having a better life cycle cost. Nearly every LEED sustainable strategy should be analyzed by how it measures to LEED s adoption of the Triple Bottom Line. The triple bottom line, with regards to sustainability, establishes a measurement to recognize performance in three areas: Social Responsibility: impact of a person s happiness, health and productivity Environmental Stewardship: impact on air, water, land and global climate Economic Prosperity: impact on a corporation s bottom line Another way to think of the Triple Bottom Line: People, Planet, Profit Page 3 of 11

4 Green Building has emerged as one of the fastest-growing segments of the construction industry, representing just 2 percent of the housing market in 2005, but expected to account for as much as a quarter of commercial construction starts and one in five new homes by USGBC Since 1993, USGBC has been researching, developing and improving processes that address current environmental issues. Subsequently, USGBC has developed a group of tools to provide education and guidance to owners, operators and professionals for ensuring Green Buildings are designed, built and operated to certain criteria. These tools are the LEED Green Building Rating Systems and USGBC s Education and Training programs. LEED Green Building Rating Systems are flexible enough to apply to all types of commercial and residential projects and were developed to improve performance in: energy savings water efficiency carbon dioxide emission reduction waste reduction natural resource stewardship the quality of the indoor environment It is important to understand how ratings systems have been structured to allow consistency across the entire rating system spectrum. Each LEED Green Building Rating System is made up of the following categories (except as noted): Sustainable Sites (SS) Water Efficiency (WE) Energy & Atmosphere (EA) Materials & Resources (MR) Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) Innovation in Design (ID) & Innovation in Operations (IM) Regional Priorities (RP) Locations & Linkages (LL) LEED for Homes only Awareness & Education (AE) LEED for Homes only Smart Locations & Linkages LEED for Neighborhood Development only Neighborhood Pattern & Design LEED for Neighborhood Development only Green Infrastructure and Buildings LEED for Neighborhood Development only Each LEED Green Building Rating System category is comprised of the following two components: Prerequisites: mandatory requirements that must be achieved; any project seeking certification must meet all the prerequisites for the rating system being used Page 4 of 11

5 Credits: optional requirements that are used to achieve a performance level; the total number of credits achieved determines the level of certification awarded There are other important factors associated with credits: Harmonization: Provide consistency so that credits and prerequisites are consistent across all LEED 2009 rating systems. Credit Weightings: Credits have different weightings depending on their ability to impact different environmental and human health concerns. As such, credits are worth different amounts. As a result, LEED 2009 will operate on a 100-point scale. Regionalization: For a project s specific location, six LEED credits have been prioritized because they address the specific environmental issues. The project will be awarded up to four extra points (one point per credit) for earning the priority credits. Each LEED Reference Guide is specific to one or more LEED Green Building Rating Systems: LEED Reference Guide for Green Building Design and Construction o LEED for New Construction and Major Renovations o LEED for Schools o LEED for Core & Shell o LEED for Retail o LEED for Healthcare LEED Reference Guide for Green Interior Design and Construction o LEED for Commercial Interiors LEED Reference Guide for Green Building Operations and Maintenance o LEED for Existing Buildings: Operation & Maintenance LEED Reference Guide for Green Neighborhood Development o LEED for Neighborhood Development LEED for Homes Reference Guide o LEED for Homes Each LEED Green Building Rating System allows four levels of certification, based on the total credit points achieved: Certified: points Silver: points Gold: points Platinum: 80+ points LEED Green Building Rating Systems are available to address the following building types: LEED for New Construction and Major Renovations (NC) LEED for Commercial Interiors (CI) LEED for Core and Shell (CS) LEED for Existing Buildings: Operation and Maintenance (EB O+M) LEED for Schools LEED for Retail Page 5 of 11

6 LEED for Healthcare LEED for Homes LEED for Neighborhood Development (ND) In addition to meeting compliance with all the rating system prerequisites, for a project to be eligible for certification it must also comply with a set of requirements as defined by the LEED Minimum Program Requirements (MPR) USGBC offers a diverse collection of Education and Training courses for green building professionals across all market sectors. LEED Green Building Rating Systems and Education and Training programs are created and managed by USGBC. However, LEED is a green building certification system that provides third-party verification, and is made available as a tool for use by a variety of professionals. Typically, people in the industry who use LEED as a tool are LEED accredited professionals. As such, USGBC has delegated two mission critical responsibilities to GBCI. GBCI GBCI has two responsibilities: Professional Credentialing: management of the LEED professional credentials, including the LEED Green Associate and LEED AP credentials, through structured exam development, application, registration, and delivery. GBCI also oversees the Credential Maintenance Program (CMP) for LEED professionals, which guarantees that LEED professional credentials are the industry s agreed-upon way of driving ongoing excellence in green building practice, providing certainty and relevance for the marketplace. GBCI also develops professional certificates for those involved in the verification of green building projects. Project Certification: In early 2009, GBCI assumed responsibility for administering the LEED certification. GBCI coordinates the work of global certification bodies with expertise in validating international standards (ISO-compliance), ensuring that the third-party certification and verification of buildings under the LEED Rating System is of the highest quality and integrity. Select any rating system box in this link to see a description of the project type for that specific LEED Green Building Rating System. The process of certification begins with registration via LEED Online, a tool for managing project details, uploading supporting documents, communicating with reviewers and, finally, earning certification. This Page 6 of 11

7 service is only available to registered project team members. It is important to understand how this service manages the entire certification process. us the Green Building Plan Activity often commences on Green Building projects before LEED is introduced. Typically, the client will seek out and meet with an architect (could be a developer or builder) to discuss a project. Information is gathered with a commitment from the architect to return with preliminary site and building sketches along with budget costs. Client accepts the submitted sketches and budget and enters into an agreement to go forward. Architect refines the conceptual siting and building sketches until they confirm the owners requirements are being met, calls in the civil engineer, then the structural engineer and then, at some point, the mechanical and electrical engineers and so on. All have been informed this will be a green building. All have proceeded in their own little capsule with little or no communication with other members of the design team. This is not a recipe for a successful green building. If the client expresses an interest in or the architect promotes sustainable design, it should be brought to the client s immediate attention that building green requires a different approach right out of the gate. To achieve the best chance for sustainable success, a coordinated effort by an integrated project team should be gathered and deployed at the earliest phase of the project. A project team is the group of key stakeholders who contribute to the decision making process. They should include the owner/client, architect, engineers (e.g., civil, plumbing, mechanical, electrical, etc.), landscaping contractor/architect, interior designer, commissioning authority, general contractor, building operations and/or maintenance staff and the building occupants. Other types who may be appropriate would be vendors and material suppliers, soils testing engineer, environmental engineer, structural engineer, energy modeling engineer, lighting engineer, community and utility officials, school boards and so on. An integrated project team is this same group of team members working together as a cohesive think tank, attending regularly scheduled meetings to brainstorm and share ideas and strategies. Each member hears what other members are planning and can readily bring to the front any potential impact another member s work may have on theirs both positive and negative. These effects are called synergies and trade-offs. Synergies are generally good and trade-offs generally not so good. As an example, the owner or interior designer may want to change the color scheme of the walls and floor coverings, not even remotely aware that doing so may have negative effects to the lighting and heating/air conditioning systems. If a darker range of colors is being considered, heat absorption from the sun s energy increases and light reflection off the darker surfaces decreases. Hence, additional air condition and artificial lighting may be necessary. And if so, this may result in increased energy consumption as well. All due to an innocent change to the color scheme. Once again - to achieve the best chance for sustainable success, a coordinated effort by an integrated project team should be gathered and deployed at the earliest phase of the project. Okay, so what and when is the earliest phase of the project? Page 7 of 11

8 Generally, projects go through a series of milestone phases: Predesign: collecting owner s requirements, gathering information and establishing goals Design: includes schematic design, design development and construction document subsets; schematic design reviews design options and establishes the scope of work; design development begins the refinement of the conceptual plans and begins designing energy systems; construction documents are the documents submitted for bidding and permitting Bidding: project sent out for bids that will establish project costs and contracts awarded Construction: actual construction of the project and includes substantial or final completion and certificate of occupancy Occupancy: facility turned over to owner/client, typically after substantial or final completion Predesign would be the preferred phase to begin with the integrated project team. The team collects the owners project requirements (OPR) and begins formulating the Basis of Design (BOD). At this stage, a review of a LEED rating system Project Checklist can help determine which rating system is more appropriate and which credits should be considered to achieve the level of certification being sought. Importantly, the first item of business for the project team is to determine if project can comply with the mandated prerequisites. If, for whatever reason, these cannot be met, the project cannot be certified. At the time the project team has reviewed the LEED Project Checklist and, along with the owner/client, feel comfortable they are on the right path, they should register the project. The project team will select someone as the Project Administrator to register the project, and at that time the Project Administrator will have full and total control of the certification process, via LEED Online. The only way any project team member can access LEED Online is by invitation of the Project Administrator. The Project Admin will review each and every prerequisite and credit and select the appropriate team member, or members, to be responsible for delivering the proper information, required submittal documentation, calculations, or whatever else is necessary for that particular prerequisite or credit. For example, the Project Admin would likely select the civil engineer for many of the Sustainable Site credits. From time to time, the Project Admin will review the status of the project to see how far along the project is with regard to credit compliance. This is important for determining the proper timing for document submittal. There are several options available for GBCI review of the prerequisites and credits. On this link, select the ORANGE drop down arrow to the right of the Chose a Rating System. Select a rating system, such as LEED for New Construction. Select a section (project Registration, Prepare Application, Submit Application, Application Review, Certification) for a description of the requirements that pertain to that stage of the certification process. Occasionally, the project team will encounter a prerequisite or credit where they may be uncertain if the strategy they are considering will meet the intent and requirements necessary for compliance. When this occurs, via LEED Online, the project team may request a review and interpretation by the GBCI reviewer assigned to the project. This process is referred to as a Credit Interpretation Ruling (CIR). Page 8 of 11

9 the project Okay, you are now familiar with the team and their rules. It s time to see how all this fits together. LEED certification is awarded by meeting the Minimum Project Requirements (MPRs), all the mandatory prerequisites and a minimum number of credit points. The minimum credit points required is 49, which is the low end of the Certified level. 48 points and the project fails certification. Therefore, whatever level of certification the project targets, the project team should add a few points for insurance. Plan on GBCI denying some credits. Recall back in the Green Building section, the discussion about the Triple Bottom Line? People, Planet, Profit? Well, as the project team looks at each credit they may be interested in achieving, they should consider how their sustainable strategies relate to the Triple Bottom Line. How will they impact a corporation s bottom line? How will they impact an occupant s happiness, health and productivity? How will they impact the air, water, land and global climate? As the project team looks at each sustainable category, they need to know the structure of the key environmental elements of the category. Within these key elements will be credits available to address the relative environmental concerns. Although each sustainable category will have at least one prerequisite, not all credits will be available to all projects. For example, the Sustainable Sites Brownfield credit is not available for a project building on a greenfield site. The Materials and Resources credit for renovating existing buildings will not apply to new construction projects. Sustainable Sites (SS) Sustainable Sites address these key elements: Transportation Site selection Site design Stormwater Heat Island Effect Light Pollution Water Efficiency (WE) Water Efficiency is addressed by focusing on three key elements: Indoor Potable Water Use Reduction Outdoor Potable Water Use Reduction Water Efficiency as a Teaching Tool Energy & Atmosphere (EA) Energy is addressed by focusing on four key elements: Energy demand Energy efficiency Page 9 of 11

10 Renewable energy Ongoing energy performance The atmosphere portion of Energy & Atmosphere focuses on protecting the earth s ozone layer by managing the types of refrigerants used in the building s mechanical systems. Managing refrigerants to eliminate CFCs Materials & Resources (MR) The Materials and Resources category addresses environmental concerns relating to: Sustainable materials o Minimizing the environmental impact of the building s materials o Life Cycle Assessment (Cradle-to-Grave) Waste management o Waste disposal o Waste reduction Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) The Indoor Environmental Quality category addresses environmental concerns in these areas: Indoor environmental quality Occupant health, safety and comfort Energy consumption Air change effectiveness Air contaminant management The quality of the indoor environment is improved by implementing the following strategies: Improved ventilation Managing contaminants Low VOC material selection Occupant controllability of systems Increased daylight and views Acoustics (Schools) Innovation in Design (ID) The Innovation in Design credits IDc1.1 - IDc1.5 provide bonus points for projects that incorporate innovative and sustainable building features that improve performance above and beyond the LEED Rating System requirements as directed in each credit. With the Innovation in Design credit series there are two strategies available to receive points. The first is to exceed a credit s requirements and is referred to as exemplary performance, where the general rule is that the ID requirements meet the next incremental increase or double if incremental levels do not exist. The second option is to address a sustainable topic not covered in the LEED Rating System, and this is referred to as innovative performance. Page 10 of 11

11 For IDc2, a LEED Accredited Professional is an important member in the makeup of the project team for a coordinated path toward a project s certification efforts and LEED rewards the project that has a LEED AP involved as a principle participant. IDc3 is available only to EB O&M and School projects. Regional Priority (RP) Since environmental priorities may differ between different geographical regions in the U.S., the Regional Priority category tackles the unique challenges and opportunities for addressing critical environmental issues for various regions throughout the country. the Certification The project team will prepare the construction documents, incorporating sustainable strategies relative to the credits they are attempting. They can either upload their credits in a phased submittal or all in the construction submittal, after all construction has been completed. nav/building certification/certification guide/leed for newconstruction/about.aspx This link is for the LEED for New Construction Certification Process: Registration» Prepare Application» Submit Application» Application Review» Certification Page 11 of 11