WEB EXCLUSIVE: LEED for Core & Shell - A smart and fast approach to certification

David Gottfried, founder of the World Green Building Council and creator of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system, made a powerful statement recently in Dubai when he was interviewed by the newspaper Gulf News. He noted that buildings which do not apply themselves to the LEED rating system will be devalued in the future, adding that those not certified will be classified as "B" buildings, not "A" buildings and they could be a liability. Gottfried believes that all buildings can aim to be ecologically friendly, and can use any rating system but they should do it now.

European assessment tools include the United Kingdom's BREEAM System which has certified hundreds of thousands of buildings, and GB Tool, developed and owned by Natural Resources Canada. Canada has licensed the USGBC's LEED rating system for adaptation to their building environments, and the very first LEED-NC certified building in Canada was the Vancouver Island Technology Park building on February 4, 2002 with a notable Gold certification.

LEED ratings are certified by the Canadian Green Building Council (CaGBC) based on the total point score, following an independent review and audits of selected Credits of documentation submitted by a design and construction team. With four possible levels of certification (certified, silver, gold and platinum), LEED is flexible enough to accommodate a wide range of green building strategies that best fit the constraints and goals of particular projects. The rating system is organized into the following six environmental categories:

1. Sustainable Sites;
2. Water Efficiency;
3. Energy & Atmosphere;
4. Materials & Resources;
5. Indoor Environmental Quality; and
6. Innovation & Design Process.

LEED is a market-based rating system that facilitates and certifies higher energy and environmental performance of buildings and communities. The rating system is adapted to the Canadian market through an inclusive process that engages stakeholders and experts representing the various sectors of the Canadian industry. The economic benefits include:

1. Reduce operating costs;
2. Future Proofing;
3. Reduce or neutralize first costs;
4. Enhance asset value & increase profits;
5. Optimize life cycle economic performance; and
6. Reduced liability risk.

So far, there are four major LEED rating systems. They are:

1. LEED for New Construction - LEED-NC;
2. LEED for Core & Shell - LEED-CS;
3. LEED for Commercial Interiors - LEED-CI;
4. LEED for Existing Buildings - LEED-EB.

The core of LEED-CS

LEED-CS is defined as a green building rating system that was designed to provide a set of performance criteria for certifying the sustainable design and construction of speculative developments and core and shell buildings. LEED-CS construction covers base building elements such as the structure, envelope and building-level systems, central HVAC, and so on. LEED-CS recognizes that the division between developer and tenant responsibility for certain aspects of the building differs from market to market.

In order to achieve LEED Canada-CS certification, the following two requirements must be met:

1. The base building and all owner fit-up tenant spaces must be fit-up to comply with the LEED-NC requirements. However, if the owner intends to fit-up their space to LEED-CI at the same level, this would be deemed as an acceptable method of compliance for fit-up of this space for LEED-CS. The CI project would need to be submitted for certification review at the time of CS certification, but it is not necessary for the CI review to be completed before the CS certification is finalized; and
2. Any materials installed as part of the base building contract in leased tenant spaces must comply with the LEED-NC requirements. Otherwise leased tenant spaces are exempt from most LEED credit requirements.

The feature which makes LEED-CS unique is pre-certification. Pre-certification represents the formal recognition that is given to a project for which the developer has established a goal to develop a LEED-CS building. Pre-certification is granted based on the early design stage documentation. This documentation that reflects a studied and realistic set of project goals and intentions is the basis for an award of pre-certification at the requested project certification level. Pre-certification is not required for a documented and completed building nor is it confirmation of, or a commitment to, achieve LEED-CS certification. It is important not to confuse pre-certification for LEED Certification.

The following steps need to be performed for pre-certification:

• Acknowledge all pre-requisites and intended credits, with the total score for the project;
• Supply detail summary of credits sought, including possible conflicts and issues;
• Develop brief credit narratives, explaining actions the project team will take to ensure that specific credit intent and requirements will be met upon submission of the formal LEED for Core and Shell Certification Application; and
• Gather and submit from responsible team members: diagrams; site plans; conceptual drawings; schematic drawings; and plans and elevations
• Provide confirmation that the project intends to meet the requirements of the credit.

If approved by the CaGBC, a LEED-CS Precertification level (certified, silver, gold or platinum) is granted.

The LEED-CS rating system is designed for speculative developers who control less than 50 per cent of a building's final improvements. They may complete 40 per cent of the space for a lead tenant, for example, and then rent the rest of the building to general tenants who will take much smaller spaces.

Here a couple of examples of the LEED-CS building in Canada:

Eighth Avenue Place - The first Canadian pre-certified high-rise building:

Designed by Pickard Chilton Architects, Kendall Heaton Associates Inc. and Gibbs Gage Architects, with Houston-based Hines as development manager, construction on Phase One of Eighth Avenue Place began last December. The two-phase mixed-use project will include a 49-storey office tower and cover 1.75 million gross square feet. Richard Gilbert, staff writer for Daily Commercial News and Construction Record, reported on May 20 that more than 50 per cent of the demolished buildings on the site were recycled, which secured the project a one point credit given in LEED-CS for recycling demolished materials such as bricks. In addition, upon completion in early 2011, and pending final documentation, Eighth Avenue Place is poised to become Calgary's, and potentially Canada's, first LEED-CS Gold high-rise office building.

"We had to provide design drawings and all the consultants had to complete a report with a checklist for all the systems in the building, including mechanical, electrical, materials, equipment and a green roof," says John Smith, vice president of 20 VIC Management Inc., who will manage the portfolio of retail and office space. "The consultant submitted the report and based on the points received we qualify for Gold. This is a marketing tool because there are a lot of firms out there that are into the green building concept. The basic building has reached a certain standard and beyond that the tenants do what they want."

Collaborative Structures Limited's headquarters - The first Canadian pre-certified office building:

Dan O'Reilly, a correspondent for Daily Commercial News and Construction Record, reported on October 27, 2008 that the new 24,000-sq.-ft. building became the first LEED-CS certified building in Canada. Collaborative Structures Limited (CSL) created a landlord-tenant agreement with guidelines that cover topics such as light pollution, low-toxicity building materials and cleaning products, recycling and construction waste management.

The certification was obtained through a variety of energy and water safety features and, in particular, using insulated concrete forms for the perimeter walls. The effective building envelope on the CSL building, combined with its state-of-the art mechanical system, reduces energy consumption by 41 per cent annually. This is in addition to the 56 per cent potable water savings from water conserving fixtures such as low flush fixtures. Comprised of high efficiency gas heating/cooling rooftop units, an energy recovery system captures heat and humidity from exhaust air for pre-heating ventilation air during the winter, and in the summer the same system removes heat and humidity from incoming air before it is conditioned for indoor ventilation.

According to author Jerry Yudelson in his primer Green Building Revolution, a good example of a LEED-CS Gold certified project in the United States is 1180 Peachtree at Symphony Center, a 41-story high-rise tower in Atlanta, completed in 2006 by Hines. Certified in October 2005, it was the first such speculative development project in the country to achieve that level of performance. The office tower contains several green features, including a unique water-management system that uses captured and stored storm water and condensate from the building's mechanical system and provides 100 per cent of the project's irrigation water, circumventing the need for city water for irrigation.

The 670,000 square-foot building was sold by Hines in September 2006, although the firm continues to manage and lease the property. Both Hines's LEED Silver certified One South Dearborn in Chicago and the Atlanta project were sold after completion of construction and leasing activity. "Both buildings got the highest sales price (dollar per square foot) for buildings ever sold in those two markets," says Jerry Lea, senior vice-president of Hines. "Is it because they were green? I can't say that's why. Is it because they are almost fully leased with good quality tenants? That's probably a good part of it, and those tenants are in the buildings partly because they are green. I think there is some correlation that green buildings help you lease the space, and that helps sell them." Lea says that LEED-CS gives Hines "third party verification that we're building very good buildings, and better buildings than our competition."

The bottom line is that typically developers cannot wait until a building is finished to begin marketing a LEED rating to prospective tenants. Or some developers may need to finance the building and the main benefit of pre-certification is that it gives the developer with the ability to market to potential tenants and financiers the unique and valuable green features of a proposed building. LEED-CS allows building developers to advertise pre-construction the building as LEED pre-certified, then once the building is finished the developer can submit documentation to secure a final LEED rating. The process of acquiring the pre-certification status is relatively speedy simply because the value of pre-certification occurs early in a project's development, and the project team's documentation and the CaGBC's review is less comprehensive than the final LEED-CS certification application.

Dr. Mir Ali is a sustainability analyst with Turner Lane Development Corporation in British Columbia.