June 4, 2008—Leonardo Academy has announced the release of the White Paper “The Economics of LEED for Existing Buildings for Individual Buildings,”[NEEL: LINK TO http://www.leonardoacademy.org/Resources/reports/index.htm ] which summarizes a survey of buildings that have earned LEED-EB (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Existing Buildings) certification from the US Green Building Council (USGBC). The results show that there are many low-cost and no-cost sustainability actions for existing buildings, with the average cost of implementing LEED-EB at about $2.43 per square foot.
Michael Arny, president of Leonardo Academy, commented, “Implementation of LEED-EB is not only feasible from a cost standpoint, but the majority of cases resulted in ongoing building operation savings. For 64% of the LEED-EB buildings surveyed, total operating expenses per square foot are less than the BOMA average. The owners of these buildings are saving money on their annual operating costs and increasing the valuations of their buildings.”
The survey was sent to all 53 buildings that had earned LEED-EB certification at the time of the survey distribution. Forty three percent of the certified buildings responded with supporting data gathered in 2006-2007. Building owners and LEED project managers were asked to indicate whether they found the measures needed to qualify for each LEED-EB prerequisite or credit to be “low or no cost” or “significant cost” measures.
Leonardo Academy intends to update this report annually. The addition of data from more buildings that have implemented LEED-EB will continue to increase the robustness of this economic analysis.
Leonardo Academy is a self-described nonprofit “Think and Do Tank” dedicated to advancing sustainability. The organization provides contracting services to the US Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED-EB certification program, including certification application review and technical support and services.
