The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) encourages building owners to explore and place sustainability as a high goal for any project. To ease the certification process, the USGBC has provided a list of guidelines to follow. Following these steps will go a long way in helping make the certification process go smoothly.
Step 1. Initiate discovery phase
LEED v4 has one credit available for Integrative Design, which begins with the basic or initial research and analysis of the project. Once the team feels there is sufficient information, a goal-setting workshop should be conducted to discuss project particulars.
Step 2. Select LEED rating system
Many think LEED certification is a one-size-fits-all type of certification, but the LEED system is actually comprised of 21 adaptations. These sub-systems or specialties are designed to accommodate the needs of a variety of projects. Project teams should consult the LEED Reference Guide for assistance in finding the LEED rating system that is most applicable to their project type.
Step 3. Check minimum program requirements
Before certification takes place, team members must make sure the entire project team and project owner understand and commit to the program’s Minimum Program Requirements (MPRs). All projects seeking certification are required to comply with MPRs for the applicable rating system used, and a list can be found in the LEED Reference Guide and on the USGBC website.
Step 4. Establish project goals
It’s best to prioritize strategies that might be used for certification to ensure they align with the project’s context, as well as the values of the project owner, organization and project team. From there, project teams can select appropriate strategies and associated LEED credits to meet the established goals. One good way to establish project goals is to convene a goal-setting workshop for the project team members and the owner. This meeting should occur before any design work has started to help capture the most opportunities. The workshop should be well represented by team members from the design and construction disciplines.
Step 5. Define LEED project scope
At this stage, the project’s program and the initial findings from the goal-setting workshop should be reviewed to identify the project scope. This review also leads to the next part of the process-defining the LEED project boundary. Since this site definition affects numerous prerequisites and credits, it is critical to share the final project boundary with the entire team.
Step 6. Develop a LEED scorecard
Team members can use the project goals to analyze the program prerequisites to ensure each one can be achieved and then identify the credits that will be attempted. The USGBC has provided a section in the Reference Guide called “Behind the Intent,” which offers insight into what each credit is intended to achieve. This short section may help teams align their goals with credits, bringing higher value to the owner, environment and the community.
Developing a scorecard allows the team to focus on those credits that have the highest value. Once high-priority credits have been selected, identifying related credits will reinforce the priority strategies and provide synergistic benefits to the project.
Establishing a target LEED certification level
(Certified, Silver, Gold or Platinum) will assist in identifying additional credits needed to achieve the desired level of certification. The team should incorporate a cushion of several points above the minimum in case there are changes during the project’s design and construction phases.
Step 7. Continue discovery phase
Project teams should perform additional research and analysis as the project progresses to allow for analysis refinement, testing alternatives, cost evaluation, comparing of notes and generating ideas in small meetings. Reassembling the project team occasionally to discuss overlapping benefits and opportunities encourages the discovery of new opportunities and facilitates testing across disciplines.
Step 8. Continue iterative process
The project team should follow steps one through seven through research and analysis, followed by team workshops, until the solutions satisfy the project owner and the team.
Step 9. Assign roles and responsibilities
One team member should take primary responsibility for leading the team through the LEED application and documentation process. This leadership role may change as the project advances, but both the design and the construction leaders should be involved throughout the process to ensure consistency.
Cross-disciplinary team ownership of LEED credits can help foster integrative design while ensuring consistent documentation across all of the prerequisites and credits. The team leader should assign primary and supporting roles to appropriate team members. These key team members will then be responsible for credit achievement and documentation. These responsibilities should be clarified as needed to ensure the decisions during the design phase are accurately reflected in drawings and specifications and that construction details match the design documentation.
Step 10. Develop consistent documentation
Some teams use the rating system as validation of the completed work and may find documenting certain construction-related credits hard due to information that is either old or lost due to changes in the team over the various phases of the project.
Consistent documentation is critical in achieving LEED certification. Data accumulated throughout the construction process, such as construction materials quantities, materials installed on-site and low-emitting materials, should be regularly gathered and assessed during the construction phase of the project. This allows the team to track ongoing progress toward credit achievement and ensures that information is not misplaced.
Step 11. Perform quality assurance review and submit for certification
Anyone who has gone through a certification understands what it feels like to see a preliminary review come back with credits pending or, even worse, denied. A quality assurance review is an essential part of a LEED work plan. The submission should be thoroughly proofread and checked for completeness before sending for review. In particular, numeric values appearing throughout the submission must be consistent across prerequisites and credits. A thorough quality control check can improve clarity and consistency of the project’s LEED documentation, thereby avoiding errors that require time and expense to correct later in the certification process.
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Thomas Taylor, a 30-year veteran of the construction industry and noted expert on sustainability, is a principal and co-founder of St. Louis-based Vertegy. To learn more about Vertegy or Taylor, visit www.vertegyconsultants.com.