Other Commercial Green Building Programs
The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is the industry-standard for commercial green building in the United States. Additional programs do exist, however, that support green building in the Southeast or which support green buidling within a specific buildng type. All of the programs listed are holistic green building programs – ranging from site and construction issues to buidlng materials, water and energy use, and the indoor environment. These programs are unique in that they offer additional topics that are specific to their region and/or building type. The following outlines the general program parameters:
Florida Green Building Coalition’s Green Commercial Building Design Standard
Similar to the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED program, the FGBC’s Green Commercial Buidling Design Standard uses a points-based system across a number of categories to earn sustainability ratings for the buidling. The FGBC program is suitable for any type of commercial building and relies upon documentation from design professionals and a review from a third party. Certification is awarded upon meeting all prerequisites and a minimum number of points. Credit categories include:
- Energy (energy code, energy conservation, refrigerant selection, renewable energy, green power choices)
- Water (irrigation, regulated water fixtures – toilets / faucets / showerheads, process water)
- Site (land use, transportation, apppropriate site selection, heat island, light pollution)
- Health (ASHRAE codes, indoor air quality, daylighting, occupant comfort, thermal comfort)
- Materials (recycling, construction waste management, transportation of products, adaptability, durability, product life-cycle, embodied energy)
- Disaster Mitigation (hurricane, flood, wild-fire, termite prevention)
- General (exceeding FGBC credits, project charrette, environmental value analysis, innovative features)
Green Guide for Health Care — Construction Guideline
GGHC is a toolkit for planning, designing, constructing, and operating health care facilities in the United States. It creates baselines and benchmarks for achievement. It is structured like the LEED program, “borrowing” credit formats and descriptions from the US Green Buidling Council by agreement. The program modifies standard LEED credits to apply to the specific needs of health care facilities. It is a voluntary, self-certifying program; the program offers suggested guidelines to follow. No ratings are earned by utilizing the GGHC program. But health care projects that are also seeking LEED Certification are encouraged to use the GGHC-specific criteria and additional credits.
Credit categories include:
- Sustainable Sites (land use, transportation, apppropriate site selection, heat island, light pollution, connection to the natural world, community contaminant prevention)
- Water Efficiency (water used for medical equipment cooling, irrigation, regulated water fixtures - toilets, faucets, showerheads, process water)
- Energy Efficiency (energy code, energy conservation, refrigerant selection, renewable energy, green power, equipment efficiency)
- Materials & Resources (recycling, construction waste / construction practices management, transportation of products, mercury & PBT elimination, design for flexibility and durability)
- Indoor Environment (ASHRAE codes, indoor air quality, daylighting, occupant comfort, thermal comfort, acoustic environment, connection to the natural world)
- Innovation in Design (exceeding LEED standards, innovative building features, education of occupants, documenting health / quality care / productivity performance)
RATIONALE
LEED for New Construction is the industry-standard program for commercial green buildings. LEED is not a one-size-fits-all program. Other organizations have developed green building programs which have a focus on building-specific and regional issues.
EFFORT REQUIRED
The Florida Green Building Coalition’s Green Commercial Building Design Standard process is similar to that of the US Green Building Council’s LEED process. The “designated professional” from the project team registers the project directly with the FGBC. Documentation is collected throughout the design and construction period, then submitted at the end of the process to the FGBC for review.
Green Guide for Health Care is a self-certifying program. A project team member downloads the GGHC survey and submits the credits that the team anticipates pursuing. Throughout the design and construction process, the teams are encouraged to document credits on a scorecard provided by GGHC to document achievement. No submission is required.
BENEFITS
These regional and building type-specific buidling programs can offer a more complete structure to designing and constructing specific commercial green buildings:
- The FGBC program offers design guidance for resisting hurricanes, floods, and termites.
- ECLC offers guidance on termites, radon-prevention, and on-site testing and inspections.
- The GGHC program offers guidelines for toxin elimination and patient connection to nature
RISKS
- The Florida Green Building Coalitionprogram may require additional services by designated building professionals such as commissioning agents and energy modelers. This can increase the budget for the project.
- The Florida Green Building Coaltion reviews the project data at the close of construction – at which point remediation of design and/or construction strategies for credit compliance may be not be possible.
- The Green Guide for Health Care program is a self-certifying program which does not offer the objective strength of a third-party certification.
ACTION AGENTS
- Building Owners
- Developers
- Project Managers
- Facility Managers
- Architects
- Civil Engineers
- Landscape Architects
- MEP (Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing)
- Engineers
- Interior Designers
- General Contractors
COSTS
Florida Green Building Coalition’s Commercial Building Design Standard
- < 25,000 square feet: $3000 per building
- 25,000 – 50,000 square feet: $4500 per building
- > 50,000 square feet: $6000 per building
Additional commissioning agent and energy modeling fees to be determined by external service providers.
Green Guide for Healthcare
Program toolkit / guideline available for free download. Since no third party review or certification submittals are required, there is no fee to participate. If the project team utilizes a commissioning agent and energy modeler, these fees will be determined by external service providers.
The process of cleaning up a contaminants by physical, chemical, or biological means.The controlled admission of natural light into a space, used to reduce or eliminate electric lighting.Reduction in, or elimination of, the use of natural and other energy resources. Also includes installations or modifications of equipment or systems intended to reduce energy use and costs.Energy efficiency is the process of using less energy to produce the same or increased functions. Often used mistakenly as a synonym for ENERGY CONSERVATION. The collection, reprocessing, marketing, and use of materials that were diverted or recovered from the solid waste stream.The quality of air inside a building space that affects the health and wellbeing of building occupants. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a building rating system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) to measure energy efficiency. It provides a standard for environmentally sustainable construction.The process of verifying and documenting that a building and all of its systems and assemblies are planned, designed, installed, tested, operated, and maintained to meet predetermined energy requirements.The ability or potential of a physical body to do work. The most common forms of energy are heat, light, mechanical (moving parts), and electrical.
