US Green Building Council Research Articles

Sustainable development practices and its effect on green buildings

Sustainable development is an important aspect of society which fulfils the present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It gives us a new way of thinking through and managing human impact on the world that can generate long lasting positive results for the greater benefit of human societies. The concepts of sustainability and sustainable development are discussed and analyzed from different theoretical perspectives. The alternative paradigms and main objectives which provide supporting sustainable development are explored. They show the complexity of choosing the right actions towards sustainable development. And, the three pillars of sustainable development which are social, economic and environmental should be considered together to achieve the effective planning for sustainable future through a collaboration of experts from different disciplines. International goals of sustainability have led to the development of the green building movement that has had unprecedented success. Sustainable development and green buildings are often used interchangeably. Although, they are related, they are not the same. There are many green building rating systems over the world. United States Green Building Council administered Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED) is the global market leader in the rating systems. LEED is a laudable and has a great effort in moving towards sustainable development by converting the built environment into green. Furthermore, some other rating systems that have been developed to measure the sustainability level of green buildings and provide best practice experience in their highest certification level are illustrated. This paper aims to provide an overview of how green building relates to sustainable development practices which is divided into two sections. The first section defines green building and discusses what makes buildings green. And, the second section discusses the environmental impacts of traditional buildings and explains common green building practices.

Sustainable Spaces, Sustained Mass Incarceration: Environmental Protection as Racial Violence in the Design of Juvenile Incarceration

Though scholars of racial capitalism have separately analyzed mass incarceration and environmental racism as state-sanctioned racial violence, few have put these two seemingly disparate topics of study in direct conversation. Yet tracking “sustainability” in the designs of an environmentally friendly juvenile detention facility reveals that state-subsidized corporate mechanisms of environmental protection are fundamental to racialized mass incarceration in the United States. In the Alameda County Juvenile Justice Center in San Leandro, California, building designers constructed a juvenile court, social services center, and jail that all met the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold Standard for sustainable construction practices put forth by the US Green Building Council. In this carceral space, however, the ideals of sustainable building design obfuscate the role of racial capitalism in sustaining the punitive regulation of Black and other nonwhite youth through incarceration.

Rule-Based LEED Evaluation Method considering BIM Linkage and Variability

Building information modeling (BIM) has become mandatory of late in the public sector construction orders, with its utilization in building analysis and modeling increasing. Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) is an eco-friendly building certification system managed by U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). LEED-certified projects vary in their use and evaluation of BIM data according to the building evaluation purpose and use case. This study proposes and implements rule-based LEED evaluation method with BIM (RLEM-BIM), which supports the LEED evaluation automation and variance in connection with BIM from the viewpoint of use cases for the confirmation of its effects. Using RLEM-BIM, this study seeks to reuse the evaluation procedure for LEED project, and to lower the rework rate. To check the effects of using RLEM-BIM, the effects were analyzed through interviews of experts. The proposed evaluation method improves the variance and reuse of the evaluation procedure compared to the existing manual evaluation method.

Are LEED-ND developments catalysts of neighborhood gentrification?

ABSTRACTLEED v4 for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) is a neighborhood sustainability assessment tool developed through a collaborative effort between the United States Green Building Council, the Congress for the New Urbanism, and the Natural Resources Defense Council. LEED-ND utilizes a credit-based ratings system that serves as a template for the development of green, sustainable neighborhoods. This research study analyzes the locational and demographic attributes of 246 proposed, completed, and/or in progress LEED-ND sites to better understand whether LEED-ND and its ratings system are achieving its goal of promoting greater social equity. This study analyzes the temporal changes of eight demographic variables that are indicative of neighborhood gentrification. These variables include educational attainment, median income, median rent, median land values, household size, median age, percent non-white, and racial diversity. Statistically significant changes to educational attainment, median rent, and diversity were observed at various geographic levels. It was also determined that the effects of LEED-ND developments are likely felt beyond the physical boundaries of the sites. The findings suggest that LEED-ND developments may function as catalysts of neighborhood gentrification rather than promoting greater social equity.

Green stores: an analysis of LEED-Certified fashion stores

The purpose of this study is to provide insight into green retail spaces for fashion brands. Particularly, in this study, we analyzed Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)–certified retail stores of fashion brands. The LEED program, which is one of the most widely used green building certification programs in the world, is administered by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC). Using publicly available data from the USGBC, we analyzed patterns and characteristics of fashion stores that achieved LEED certification under the LEED 2009 for Retail: Commercial Interiors rating system (CI). A total of 199 fashion stores that completed their LEED certification were used for the data analysis. A credit achievement pattern of each fashion store project was analyzed in six LEED CI assessment categories. A pattern emerged from the data analysis suggesting that for fashion stores, aesthetic considerations more often than not trump sustainability concerns. This has been highlighted in the low achievement in credit categories where surface materials are most visible or in categories where achievement would greatly alter space design.

Energy disclosure law in New York City

PurposeThis paper aims to primarily analyzing the state and pattern of current energy benchmarking progress on commercial buildings since the New York City’s energy disclosure law, Local Law 84: Benchmarking has been implemented. It then compares the yearly benchmarking progress of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified and non-LEED-certified buildings as well as ENERGY STAR-certified and non-ENERGY STAR-certified.Design/methodology/approachFor thorough analytics, the authors combined and examined four sources of data: New York City Local Law 84: Benchmarking, Primary Land Use Tax Lot Output, US Green Building Council and US Environmental Protection Agency. The data sets were combined using two primary keys: the Borough, Block, Lot (BBL) number and the building address. Four years of energy use intensity values were obtained and normalized by shrinking the range of deviance in weather.FindingsThe findings indicate a significant improvement in the benchmarking progress when controlling building size, building type, year of construction or the most recent renovation and the presence of renovation. Interestingly, there is no significant difference in the energy benchmarking progress between LEED- and non-LEED-certified buildings. Possible reasons are explored and discussed.Originality/valueFrom a methodological perspective, the study benefited from data disclosure as well as open data sources and used secondary data with a relatively large sample size. Many studies in the construction industry are based on the case-study approach, which may affect generalizability and causality of research findings. This unique approach illustrates the potential of secondary data analysis in the industry.

Indoor Environmental Quality Assessment of Historic Buildings in the State Park: A Case Study in Michigan

Michigan State University and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources established a partnership for sustainable park planning in October 2011. The purpose of the partnership was to enable students in the design fields to work on real-world projects and provide practical solutions. One of the notable projects was to assess old historic buildings in one state park and propose renovation plan to improve its indoor environmental quality and energy efficiency. The buildings in the park functioned as the traveler’s destination in the 1920s and still preserve original interior and exterior features. 
 
 The team of undergraduates and faculty in interior design visited the park and assessed the interior and exterior conditions of two of its buildings. They used an assessment tool which was designed on a basis of the elements in the indoor environmental quality category (IEQ) of the US Green Building Council’s LEED. Results revealed that the indoor environmental conditions of the buildings should be improved. The energy efficiency of the buildings was low. Based on this assessment, this study offered practical suggestions for improving the building’s indoor environmental quality. This study also proposed an assessment tool for the historic buildings in the state parks in Michigan to assess current indoor environmental quality of those buildings.

The Effect of Regional Priority Points on the Performance of LEED 2009 Certified Buildings in Turkey, Spain, and Italy

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) has five basic categories: Sustainable sites (SS), Water Efficiency (WE), Energy and Atmosphere (EA), Materials and Resources (MR), and Indoor Environmental Quality (EQ). Additionally, in LEED 2009, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) introduced regional priority (RP) points to adapt LEED to the local conditions of foreign countries. However, the appropriateness of the RP points stated for the Mediterranean basin has not yet been evaluated. Thus, we studied the similarities and differences in performances of LEED 2009 Commercial Interiors (CI) and LEED 2009 Core and Shell Development (C&S) Gold certified projects in Turkey, Spain, and Italy. We revealed that the categories without RP points, SS, MR, and EQ, performed similarly in all three countries, thereby signaling the correctness of CI and C&S applications in the Mediterranean basin. However, the categories with RP points, WE and EA, performed differently. It can be suggested that the following RP points would be beneficial for all three countries: (i) in the MR category, RP points that initiate decreases in virgin construction material; (ii) in the WE category, RP points that encourage water saving; and (iii) in the EA category, RP points that encourage using renewable energies.

DIFFUSION OF INNOVATION IN SUSTAINABLE BUILDING PRACTICES AND THE ROLE OF STAKEHOLDERS

The stakeholder network in a building project can influence the process of adopting sustainable building practice. Complexity of construction projects calls for integrated modes of collaboration, while the excess inertia among stakeholders resulted in sluggish adoption of sustainable design and technologies. This study examined buildings that both had and had not adopted Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and/or ENERGY STAR in the New York metropolitan area, built, or went through major renovation between 1998 and 2013. Secondary datasets from multiple sources, including a private building database company, US Green Building Council, and the US Environmental Protection Agency, were combined based on building address and used for analysis. Stakeholders involved in those projects were retrospectively identified to understand the diffusion of innovation. The analysis included a total of 205 projects and 273 organizations. Findings suggest that having an architect who had worked on ENERGY STAR project(s) increased the likelihood of adopting ENERGY STAR. However, stakeholders' previous work collaboration was not associated with the adoption of sustainable programs. The method of utilizing multiple secondary datasets was tested to contribute to the methodology of building research by enabling the accumulation of knowledge.

A decade analysis of residential LEED buildings market share in the United States: Trends for transitioning sustainable societies

Third-party verification and certification processes for low energy built environments have played a critical role in influencing transitioning sustainable societies to reduce their emissions footprint in both residential and commercial buildings. One prominent example is the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification program, which was conceived by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC). Its residential platform, LEED for Homes, started as a pilot in 2004 and was fully implemented in 2008. This paper attempts to answer the question: what are the characteristics of growing sustainable LEED residential societies in the United States? The paper examines residential LEED market adoption trends in the United States by analyzing a decade-worth of data from 2005 to 2014 (71,438 certified units). The study implemented data visualization techniques and statistical analyses to explore predictors of residential LEED community adoption trends. The findings suggest that market share of LEED licensed residences in a state and the number of policies and incentives in that state are generally related. Overall market share for LEED Residential had a smaller effect (β = −0.03 with outliers, 0.11 without outliers) than for LEED for Homes overall (β = 0.06 with outliers, 0.12 without outliers). A significant positive relationship between LEED residential market share and number of LEED AP per capita was also found. The strongest relationship in this subset of variables was with LEED for Homes single-family homes, where one standard deviation increase in LEED AP per capita in year t was associated with a 0.15 standard deviation increase in market share in year t + 1. LEED Residential market share was not generally related to educational attainment, median household income, or political orientation (democrat vs. republican). The investigation proposes further research, specifically as related to local practice support as mechanisms of growing the transition to low-carbon societies.

Current Status, Requirements and Opportunities for Green Building in Sri Lanka

The construction sector is responsible for a large percentage of the world’s total energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, the concept of green building has become one of the effective forefronts for the sustainable development. With the global trend, Sri Lanka also has put the interest on adopting the green concept. This paper examines the current status, opportunities, benefits and challenges in associated with green buildings and a comparison between GREENSL rating system for built environment which is developed by Green Building Council of Sri Lanka (GBCSL) and LEED Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design which is developed by United States Green Building Council(USGBC). Through the concept of green building it provides significant benefits over traditional construction practices. Reducing consumption by incorporating energy and water efficient mechanisms, combining renewable energy, improving indoor air quality and upgrading the health and comfortability of occupants, reduction of waste, reduced life cycle cost (LCC) and increased life span of the building are some of the major drives. However there are some challenges for the implementation of green construction projects. 5-10% of higher initial costs, fear of unknown, technical difficulties during the construction process, lengthy approval process are some of the main barriers for the widespread of this concept. The quality of green buildings can be assessed by green certifications used in Sri Lanka. When aiming for green building certification, property developers have two crucial options namely LEED and GREENSL. There are 7 criteria under LEED and GREENSL, respectively. Sustainable site, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, indoor air quality and innovation design are the criteria common to both rating systems. Management and social and cultural awareness are the two criteria additionally used by GREENSL and regional priority is the criterion specific to LEED. By observing these criteria it is evident that both rating systems have common objectives. Comparatively GREENSL has been developed by considering our own requirements. Therefore, it is much more appropriate to Sri Lankan context. Similarly it was observed that the same rating system is used for each and every building type within the construction sector. Considering the facts it can be suggested that different rating systems with different criteria can be developed and use as the structure of the building is different to each other. Meantime it is essential for the government to implement policies to obtain green certification for every structure build in the construction sector. Keywords: GREENSL, Green Building, Indoor air quality, LEED, Water efficiency

Relation between Green Buildings and Sustainable Development Practices

Sustainable development is an important aspect of society which fulfills the present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It gives us a new way of thinking through and managing human impact on the world that can generate long lasting positive results for the greater benefit of human societies. The concepts of sustainability and sustainable development are discussed and analyzed from different theoretical perspectives. The alternative paradigms and main objectives which provide supporting sustainable development are explored. They show the complexity of choosing the right actions towards sustainable development. And, the three pillars of sustainable development which are social, economic and environmental should be considered together to achieve the effective planning for sustainable future through a collaboration of experts from different disciplines. International goals of sustainability have led to the development of the green building movement that has had unprecedented success. Sustainable development and green buildings are often used interchangeably. Although, they are related, they are not the same. There are many green building rating systems over the world. United States Green Building Council administered Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED) is the global market leader in the rating systems. LEED is a laudable and has a great effort in moving towards sustainable development by converting the built environment into green. Furthermore, some other rating systems that have been developed to measure the sustainability level of green buildings and provide best practice experience in their highest certification level are illustrated. This paper aims to provide an overview of how green building relates to sustainable development practices which is divided into two sections. The first section defines green building and discusses what makes buildings green. And, the second section discusses the environmental impacts of traditional buildings and explains common green building practices.

Armstrong sponsors Green Tech Program internships

Armstrong Fluid Technology is sponsoring two internships as part of the US Green Building Council's (USGBC) Massachusetts Chapter Green Building Tech Program.

Field-test of the ASHRAE/CIBSE/USGBC performance measurement protocols: Part I intermediate level energy protocols

The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE)/Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE)/U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) performance measurement protocols provide a standardized set of protocols for measuring and comparing the operational performance of occupied commercial buildings. The ASHRAE performance measurement protocols has been developed at three levels of cost/accuracy, Basic (Indicative), Intermediate (Diagnostic), and Advanced (Investigative), for the following six performance categories: energy use, water use, thermal comfort, indoor air quality, lighting, and acoustics. This article presents the results of an effort to develop and apply a field test to evaluate the Intermediate level of the performance measurement protocols energy protocols in a case-study office building in Central Texas. The data collected include multi-year monthly whole-building electricity use, electric demand, and natural gas data for the total and major end uses of the case-study building, as well as coincident on-site weather data. The data collected were then analyzed to calculate the corresponding performance metrics based on the Intermediate level of the performance measurement protocols energy protocols and compared with the appropriate benchmarks. The problems and issues with implementing the performance measurement protocols Intermediate level energy protocols in a case-study building were noted throughout the entire research process. The evaluation revealed five issues, for each of which recommendations were developed to improve the current version of the performance measurement protocols. The results for the performance measurement protocols Basic level applications, including all six areas, were reported in Kim and Haberl (2012a). A companion article (Kim and Haberl 2017) presents the results of applying the performance measurement protocols Advanced level energy protocols.

Field-test of the ASHRAE/CIBSE/USGBC performance measurement protocols: Part II advanced level energy protocols

The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE)/Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE)/U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) performance measurement protocols provide a standardized set of protocols for measuring and comparing the operational performance of occupied commercial buildings. The ASHRAE performance measurement protocols have been developed at three levels of cost/accuracy, Basic (Indicative), Intermediate (Diagnostic), and Advanced (Investigative), for the following six performance categories: energy use, water use, thermal comfort, indoor air quality, lighting, and acoustics. This article presents the results of an effort to develop and apply a field test to evaluate the Advanced level of the performance measurement energy protocols in a case-study office building in Central Texas. The data collected include multi-year sub-hourly whole-building electricity data for the total and major end uses, thermal data for chillers and condensers, and coincident on-site weather data, as well as monthly utility bills of the case-study building. The data collected were then analyzed to calculate the corresponding performance metrics based on the Advanced level of the performance measurement protocols energy protocols and compared with the appropriate benchmarks. The problems and issues with implementing the performance measurement protocols Advanced level energy protocols in a case-study building were noted throughout the entire research process. The evaluation revealed four issues, for each of which recommendations were developed to improve the current version of the performance measurement protocols. The results for the performance measurement protocols Basic level applications, including all six areas, were reported in Kim and Haberl (2012a). A companion paper (Kim and Haberl 2017) presents the results of applying the performance measurement protocols Intermediate level energy protocols.

The effectiveness of US energy efficiency building labels

Information programs are promising strategies to encourage investments in energy efficiency in commercial buildings. However, the realized effectiveness of these programs has not yet been estimated on a large scale. Here we take advantage of a large sample of monthly electricity consumption data for 178,777 commercial buildings in Los Angeles to analyse energy savings and emissions reductions from three major programs designed to encourage efficiency: the US Department of Energy’s Better Buildings Challenge, the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star program and the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. Using matching techniques, we find energy savings that range from 18% to 30%, depending on the program. These savings represent a reduction of 210 million kilowatt-hours or 145 kilotons of CO2 equivalent emissions per year. However, we also find that these programs do not substantially reduce emissions in small and medium sized buildings, which represent about two-thirds of commercial sector building emissions. To tackle the high energy consumption of buildings, information programs to promote investment in energy efficiency measures have been introduced. This study compares the effectiveness of three US programs and finds that despite large energy savings, progress is lacking for small and medium sized buildings.

Selection of target LEED credits based on project information and climatic factors using data mining techniques

Developed by the United States Green Building Council, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a credit-based rating system that provides third-party verification for green buildings. Selection of target credits is important yet challenging for LEED managers because various factors such as target certification grade level and building features need to be considered on a case-by-case basis. Local climatic factors could affect the selection of green building technologies and hence the target credits, but currently there is no research suggesting target LEED credits based on climatic factors. This paper presents a methodology for the selection of target LEED credits based on project information and climatic factors. This study focuses on projects certified with LEED for Existing Buildings (LEED-EB). Information of 912 projects and their surrounding climatic circumstances was collected and studied. 55 classification models for 47 LEED-EB credits were then constructed and optimized using three classification algorithms - Random Forests, AdaBoost Decision Tree, and Support Vector Machine (SVM). The results showed that Random Forests performed the best in most of the 55 classification models. With a combination of the three algorithms, the trained classification models were used to develop a web-based decision support system for LEED credit selection. The system was tested using 20 recently certified LEED projects, and the results showed that our system had an accuracy of 82.56%.

STATE INDEPENDENT ENERGY RATINGS THAT HAVE INFLUENCED THE CREATION AND ENFORCEMENT OF NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL LAW

For more Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is one of the most popular green building certification programs used worldwide.[7] Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) it includes a set of rating systems for the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of green buildings, homes, and neighborhoods[8] that aims to help building owners and operators be environmentally responsible and use resources efficiently. From 1994 to 2015, LEED grew from one standard for new construction to a comprehensive system of interrelated standards covering aspects from the design and construction to the maintenance and operation of buildings. LEED also has grown from six volunteers on one committee to 119,924 staff, volunteers and professionals.[9] LEED standards have been applied to approximately 83,452 registered and certified LEED projects worldwide, covering around 13.8 billion square feet (1.28 billion square meters).[10] Many U.S. federal agencies and states and local governments require or reward LEED certification. However, four states (Alabama, Georgia, Maine, and Mississippi) have effectively banned the use of LEED in new public buildings, preferring other industry standards that the USGBC considers too lax.[11]

Environmental Reviews and Case Studies: Heritage Dispatches from the American Approaches of Hell: Public Housing, Historic Preservation, and Environmental Impact Analysis

In the late 20th century history of American historic preservation, public or social/council housing occupies a unique space. For over 20 years, American policy in this area, representing an investment of billions of taxpayer dollars, has been dominated by high-profile efforts to “transform” the downtowns of major American cities such as Chicago, Atlanta, and Houston by demolishing public housing projects that were located in the city outskirts when originally built. These efforts have engendered significant debates about historic preservation at every level of government and have produced federal policy decisions on the part of the United States (US) Departments of Housing and Urban Development and the Interior, which have facilitated the demolition of hundreds of thousands of units of public housing in America, which in most cases has not been replaced on a one-for-one basis and which is no longer affordable for the poor or near-poor. In the majority of cases, the National Park Service has supported extensive demolition of historic public housing projects, or at best, only token preservation of them. The role of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which has never listed a public housing project in its annual list of “endangered” historic sites, has, at best, been to remain organizationally silent and, at worst, to partner with organizations such as the US Green Building Council and the Congress for the New Urbanism, organizations that would not exist in their present form without the use of public housing as a petri dish for their condescending neoliberal conceptions about how other people, particularly poor people, ought to live.

Data-Driven Approach to Investigate the Energy Consumption of LEED-Certified Research Buildings in Climate Zone 2B

AbstractDuring the last decade, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system has embodied the efforts of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) to recognize buildings designed to achieve superior performance in several areas including energy consumption. Given the emergent interest in improving buildings’ energy efficiency, researchers have generated predictive physical and data-driven models for energy consumption. Although the physical approaches aiming to calculate the energy consumption behavior at the building level are accurate, the necessity of continuously inspecting and gathering data for all the input parameters often makes these approaches impractical in some applications. The objective of this study is to introduce a novel assessment method that investigates the correlation between LEED certification and the actual energy consumption by investigating a case study of LEED-certified research buildings in climate zone 2B. The research approach first consists of developi...