Buildings cast a huge environmental footprint. In the U.S. alone, buildings consume 70 percent of all electricity, generate 70 percent of all solid waste, utilize 40 percent of water, and emit 35 percent of all carbon emissions. If our country is to turn the tide on global warming and start down the road to a more sustainable future, making new and existing buildings more efficient must be a central priority. Further, given that there are many more existing buildings in the marketplace than newly constructed ones, more attention must be given to greening how these existing buildings utilize energy and water, in the amount of waste they generate, and in they types of products they buy and use. Enter, LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance, a green building rating system specifically designed for greening operations of any existing building type, wheter it was built only a few years ago, a few decades, or longer.
LEED for Existing Buildings provides a roadmap for greening a building's operations and maintenance around 5 main areas: Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, and Indoor Environmental Quality. In January, the U.S. Green Building Council release a new version of LEED for Existing Buildings, making it easier for a building to certify its ongoing operations and maintenance practices. The revision includes a more streamlined approach to certification, increased focus on ongoing operations and maintenance, and ease of scaling the system to certify mulitple buildings simultaneously.
A recent case study of Adobe System's recent LEED for Existing Buildings project (building managed by Cushman and Wakefield) finds that green building operations and maitenance practices netted not just huge environmental benefits, but also significant financial benefits, including a less than 2-year payback for all green features implmented and a 121 percent return on investment.
The Chicago Chapter of USGBC is offering several LEED for Existing Buildings trainings and events in the coming months. For more information on upcoming programs, visit the Chapter web site at: www.usgbc-chicago.org. For more specific information on the LEED for Existing Buildings Rating Sytem, visit the U.S. Green Building Council at: www.usgbc.org.
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