LEED Certification

LEED is not a topic I've discussed thus far, but it is a topic Beth and I spent many weeks researching and discussing. If you're not familiar with LEED, it is the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program started by the U.S. Green Building Council. In a nutshell, it is a certification program for buildings that adhere to a certain minimum number of requirements designed to reduce energy consumption, be more environmentally friendly, and create a more inhabitable and safer environment. Originally crafted for commercial buildings, the program has grown and has been available for residential buildings for a couple of years now.


Why in the world would we want to do this? You might think we're one of those urban couples that has jumped on the bandwagon of green trendiness and we're ready to flaunt our greenness with the latest fads and certifications that let of our friends and neighbors know just how much we care about the environment. Well...., that's just not us. I don't consider myself green, Beth and I both drive those old fashion cars that run on unleaded gasoline, and I have no interest in determining what our carbon footprint is. However, I do not like waste. It just doesn't make sense me to waste things unnecessarily. Whether it be energy, materials, money, or the perfect moment, I don't like to waste things. So I find LEED to be a good guide on how to design a home that reduces waste.

Secondly, the green movement is in an upwards trend and I don't see that reversing anytime soon. Rather than being a contrarian, I'd rather follow that upward trend. So I see LEED as a way to make our home more marketable when the time comes for us to sell. LEED is not the end-all, be-all deciding factor on whether or not a home is energy efficient, but it is a good start. It can provide a buyer with a certain level of confidence that the home achieves some level of energy efficiency and a healthy living environment. The higher the certification level (silver, gold, platinum) the higher that confidence should be because getting to the higher level certification certainly requires more and more points and at some threshold (silver) the low hanging fruit has been picked.

Thirdly, without much effort we would achieve the silver certification. Our location, our efficiency goals, and cost cutting ideas will handily get us to the silver level of LEED certification. So why not do it, right? Oh yeah, I should mention that Stella, our first architect, is a LEED AP (Accredited Professional). So this thing is practically in the bag. Off we go to figure this LEED thing out.

Earlier this year, Beth and I attended an Atlanta Green Drinks event (I know, I know we sound "green" but we had a purpose for attending) at Southface, a local organization that educates and assists individuals and organizations with sustainable, energy-efficient building design and construction. We went to learn more and figure out where we start with our LEED certification endeavor. We learned that we have to hire a third party to perform the verification of our LEED process and points. So we contacted a local business that does this and the rough estimate for all the inspections came in at $3000. We then discussed LEED with one of our potential builders at the time and we were looking at probably another $2000 in extra in labor costs to cover some of the base requirements for LEED. Okay, we're up to $5000. Not bad, but it's still 5Gs.

We went back and forth for about two months trying to figure out which level of certification level we wanted, determining what sort of energy efficiency techniques we wanted to incorporate (independent of LEED requirements), as well as discussing with Stella what we would have to do along the way. By this time, it was April, I was staring at an additional expense totaling at least $5000 plus who knows how many hours compiling and submitting paperwork.

In May, we made up our mind to forgo the LEED certification. We came to this conclusion for two simple reasons. First, our budget was starting to get tight on this project. I didn't want to shell out $5k that would in reality be coming out of an expense that is intended to make our home energy efficient. For example, we are interested in using mostly LED lights and we are also considering an underground cistern for collecting rainwater for our lawn irrigation. The total for both of those is not far from $5k. So I couldn't justify having a less efficient (read: lower operating cost) home in favor of having a certification that is intended to show our home reach some level of efficiency - sounds a little counter productive.

The second reason we passed on LEED is our estimated time of ownership. Beth and I think we will be in this home for at least 10 years. The LEED program of today may look nothing like the LEED program of tomorrow. Our goal of having a more marketable home may crumble with the passage of time and the evolution of the LEED program. I expect building technology and efficiency to continue to improve for years to come. So I fear our LEED certification will be somewhat outdated by the time we expect to put our home on the market.

Our decision not to pursue LEED, however, is in no way a dismissal of the program. I really do think LEED has merit. It is not a perfect program and it is not without some due criticism. But it does provide a framework that can help every home builder, architect, owner, etc. design and build more efficient and occupant friendly homes. At the end of the day, the efficiency comes down to economics. If you could spend a thousand dollars up front to save two thousand over five or ten years, would you do it? I will. That's a good return I am not making today on that money. As we move through this process, I'll do my best to share all our efficiency ideas along with our expected return on investment for each of them because not only do I not like wasting money, but I also don't like settling for poor returns.

Resources:
www.usgbc.org
www.southface.org
energy.gov