One potential positive outcome of the lawsuit should be a "wake up call" to licensed design professionals. Clients are expecting a level of building performance that's above code minimum. As a tool, the LEED rating system can help a project team achieve above code minimum. (i.e. minimum legal practice = code, good building practice = LEED Certified, better building practices = LEED Silver, best building practices = LEED Gold and Platinum) Plus LEED Certification helps communicate desired results back to the client and the marketplace. However; like any tool, just having it doesn’t make the user a skilled craftsman.
As an active building performance consultant, I have participated in over 500 LEED certified projects and over 300 building failure investigations just since 2005. Believe me; I know where the skeletons are buried. It's not the tool, it's the user! Common reasons for poor building performance include:
- One or more project team member based their design fee on minimum code performance and resists spending any time or creative effort to achieve a better building. More times than I ever dreamed possible, an engineer on the project team will say, "My fee does not include any actual engineering, I'm just going to copy and paste yesterday's solution onto today's challenge."
- Failure to use the integrated design process! A common example occurs when the energy model indicates outstanding above code energy performance but the actual building being designed and constructed does not even meet ASHRAE 90.1. No one connected the dots or bothered to check. Once group decisions are made during the integrated design process, individual accountability is required.
- The devil is in the details! Two examples: Design professionals and Contractors "assuming" the trades know what they are doing and omit key details. Second, coping and pasting stock manufacture's CAD details into assembly drawings that do not work together or the Contractor can not execute in the field.
- Perceived added cost! Any added costs (design or construction) related to achieving LEED Certified or Silver is directly related to education and skill sets of the project team. Teams with a good knowledge base and experience can achieve LEED Certified or Silver without adding costs. I've seen it and McGraw-Hill research confirms it. Consider this carefully before your next client asks; what do you mean I have to pay more for an energy efficient healthy building?
- Physics! Regardless of budget constraints, you can not value engineer out physics. If the water, air and heat barriers are not continuous and contiguous, the building will fail. As a profession, we are still struggling with understanding basic building science.
- Limited perspective! All too often I hear a comment like: We have to make a practical decision or we had to make a financial decision. Every decision we make regarding the built environment has a financial component plus a social component and an environment component. It's not easy and never perfect, but striving for balance and missing is preferable to ignoring tough decisions altogether.
With all tools you need a desire to learn how to use it correctly and practice, practice, practice. In the hands of a creative and motivated project team, the LEED rating system can provide an effective common language to deliver above-code building performance to a client and the community.
Chip Henderson AIA, CEM, LEED-Faculty
Contects-Consultants & Architects
San Antonio, Texas