Randall-Paulson Architects has become increasingly aware of the green building trend that is starting to take over our industry. It’s tough to pick up a newspaper, turn on the news, or click on the internet and not see something about green buildings and global climate change and impact. It has been shown that each year, American buildings alone use up to 42% of our energy, produce 40% of our emissions, and consume 39% of our raw materials. Not only do we feel that building environmentally friendly buildings is indeed the right thing to do for future generations, but it also makes good business sense, considering that the estimated value of new LEED Construction registered projects in the U.S. was approximately $10 Billion last year. It is obvious to us that design firms need to catch the “Green Fever” and we have definitely caught it.
RPA has decided to implement several new initiatives to address these critical building industry issues. One such step was the formation of an in-house LEED committee, led and composed of employees from our various studios who all want to make a positive impact with the buildings we design. This committee’s key focuses include:
• To become well versed in the LEED certification process and have 25% of our technical staff
become LEED Accredited Professionals in 2 years time
• To digest the myriad of “Green Building” articles/publications and debrief the rest of the office on
pertinent issues, along with joining and attending local Green Building Chapter meetings to gain
knowledge and take advantage of networking possibilities
• To research the cost/profitability of designing and building sustainable structures, and then learn
how to better market/educate clients, owners, developers, consultants, and building maintenance
staff on the idea of building “Green”
• To become not only just accredited, but also experienced in sustainable design. In order to
achieve this, RPA aligned with a LEED consultant who is currently training our staff and working
alongside us on several projects. The ultimate goal is for designers to become independent
and complete green projects without the help of an outside consultant.
At RPA, we have come to understand that cultivating strategies for marketing green building practices to owners/developers and LEED certification on their buildings are the keys to changing mindsets in our industry. Currently RPA is pursuing our first two LEED certified projects, which would not have been possible without an educated owner and consultants who understand the importance of sustainability.
The majority of our clients all seem to ask the same question when it comes to getting their building a LEED certification: “What is the average cost premium to design and build a high performance building?” They are pleasantly surprised to learn that their added cost is normally only 2-4% of total project costs for a non-high performance building, using off the shelf technologies presently in our everyday marketplace. Knowing that only 20% of their building’s life cycle cost is spent on design, development, and construction; and that the remaining 80% goes towards operations and maintenance, further emphasizes the need for high performance systems. Moreover, the financial benefits for LEED Certified buildings are extremely attractive, such as a 50-90% in water cost savings, 30% reduction in Energy costs, and a 16% reduction in Operations and Maintenance costs, while boosting their building occupants’ health and productivity by almost 70%. High performance buildings are a “no brainer”.
So, we encourage you to also catch the “Green Fever” and investigate the role you could play in positively impacting our environment, not to mention the bottom line. The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) supports an active education of the building community nationwide through their LEED certification program and has local chapters that are tailored to specific areas. If we, as design professionals, take a more active lead in designing high performance buildings, and educating our consultants, owners, contractors, and building maintenance crews, we can make a huge difference in the world around us, both for ourselves and the generations to come.
By Matthew Elliott, LEED AP, a Project Coordinator and the head of the LEED committee at Randall-Paulson Architects.
Levin, H. (1997) Systematic Evaluation and Assessment of Building Environmental Performance (SEABEP), paper for presentation to "Buildings and Environment", Paris, 9-12 June, 1997.
U.S. Green Building Council Data; www.usgbc.org
Building Owners and Managers Association Data
U.S. Green Building Council Data, Capital E Analysis; Principal Author: Greg Kats; www.cap-e.com
Thanks to Scott Kelly from Re:Vision Architecture for presenting an educational seminar on LEED to Randall-Paulson Architects. Many of these sources came from his notes and research.