By Kevin Songer, AVID Group
The topic of building commercial land development projects ‘green’ can be found in almost any trade journal, magazine, construction website or internet discussion group forum today. Most commercial developers realize that building green commercial buildings is not just a trend, but rather a very real part of the future. Many of these commercial developers also understand the premise that there are very real benefits associated with making the commitment to complete a certified commercial green land development project. However, the ability to get through a comprehensive cost/value analysis for a commercial green land development project is difficult and may be a significant stumbling block with respect to the continued growth of commercial green building efforts.
Questions about green certification of commercial projects are fielded daily at the Jacksonville, Florida office of AVID Group, a full-service land development consulting firm. Many of these green building questions are technical in nature, while many others focus on the protocol and procedure of one or more LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) green building certification systems. The questions most often presented are: ‘How does commercial green building affect my pro-forma?’ and ‘How do I conduct a cost/value analysis on a commercial green project?’
Unfortunately, a cost/value analysis may be practically impossible to comprehensively conduct for a commercial green building project, for many factors such as historical lack of similar project cost data; reluctance by other private commercial developers to share cost data; a majority of previously similar projects built and certified green but with institutional or municipal and not private funding; or many other market reasons. Like it or not, one cannot simply snap their fingers for instant, detailed commercial green cost value data.
Fortunately though, there are several analytical approaches a creative commercial land developer can employ when attempting to develop a more thorough understanding of how the green certification process will affect their commercial project.
Commercial green building cost/value analysis must begin with the understanding that the green building industry is now a multi-billion dollar per year industry, one that is evolving daily. Market forces, such as price competition, are in full force within the green building industry. Whereas it may have cost more five years ago to purchase a green certified building component, such is not the case anymore. Competitive pricing is now the norm in the green building industry. Expect your commercial green land development project to be cost competitive.
Secondly, there is a lot of data to be analyzed with respect to the various credits within the LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance rating system. Because organizing the possible credits may be complicated, it’s key to create a simple cost/value analysis tool to help sort through the apparent credit cost/value confusion. Consider creating a color coded spreadsheet based around each individual LEED potential credit, which will be invaluable to analyzing that data.
Create a row entry for each credit available under the LEED certification program you have chosen. You can structure the spreadsheet to be as simple as possible, or as information inclusive as you need it to be. You might want to consider including a columnar level for the credits including credit name, available points, general description, a column for anticipated cost ranges and a comment section.
It is important to understand the anticipated cost column should be viewed on a magnitude basis and not specific actual dollars and cents. Consider breaking down the cost analysis column into four areas, and assign each a color. For example, ‘A’ may be a cost designation assigned to those credits requiring little or no cost premium to achieve the particular LEED credit. ‘B’ may be the designation used for a moderate to high cost premium required, ‘C’ for a credit cost absolutely not practical, and ‘D’ if the credit is not applicable to the commercial green project.
Of course, a complete analysis of individual LEED credits takes time. However, after the first couple attempts one can become pretty good at quickly recognizing the credits that can be focused upon for cost-effective green certification. Ultimately, color coding the breakdown of credits based upon the above cost designation analysis can produce a powerful visual spreadsheet tool, one allowing for quick identification of cost-effective credits.
To view an example of a spreadsheet developed for color-oriented identification of the cost-effectiveness of various LEED credits under both the LEED for New Construction and LEED for Existing Buildings: O&M rating system, see the spreadsheet below or click here. The functionality of a simple cost/value tool is rapidly apparent. Rather than sort through hundreds of pages in an attempt to reconcile cost and technical requirements for the LEED credits, the technical and cost information is summarized in an easy to understand format.
Finally, it is important to remember that a cost/value analysis of green building is only as good as value of the input data. The more you study the requirements for LEED certification, the more often you charrette through commercial green projects with other knowledgeable team members, the more value your simple cost/value analysis will develop. With your focused attempt at understanding of the LEED green building rating system and a team-based effort at developing cost/value answers to your green building projects, simple modeling analyses will afford important and unique insight into project considerations.
Kevin Songer, JD, serves as environmental services director for Avid Engineering Inc., a full service Florida civil land development consultant, in Palm Harbor. He is a LEEDAP, ISA-certified arborist, and co-manages AVID’s Green Department. He may be reached at kevin.songer@avidgroup.com.
Example of a spreadsheet developed for color-oriented identification of the cost-effectiveness of various LEED credits
(Click here to download this spreadsheet as an Excel document)
