Page 116 - Green Building Through Integrated Design

GETTING CONSISTENT RESULTS 93

The lesson learned by the university is that if you want LEED results consistently,
you have to advertise that fact from the beginning. In addition, you need a dedicated
person to oversee and drive the process. Finally you have to train not only your staff
but also the contractors. For example, Simon and the university’s team make an exten-
sive effort to capture lessons learned and apply them to each new project. Also, archi-
tects are required to submit LEED documentation on a timely basis. According to
Simon:

Prior to construction, the architect is required to submit to the owner a list of specified
products indicating the LEED performance reasoning, and the list needs to add up to
the certification goals. Throughout construction, this document is used as a touchstone
during the submittal and request for information (RFI) processes. Monthly LEED con-
struction meetings are required to evaluate credit achievement status levels.
At the university’s capital projects office, according to Simon, there are nearly
50 LEED Accredited Professionals. In other words, LEED certification becomes part
of the culture of the place. Training contractors is also somewhat unique to the uni-
versity. Simon explains how this is done.

The state recognized that there were a lot of contractors that do not understand the
LEED process. The training is done through the Washington Department of General
Administration’s sustainability office managed by Stuart Simpson. He put together a
program called “Build it LEED” and worked with the Cascadia Green Building
Council to set all of this up—the group that put together the Build It LEED training.
I require that contractors on all of our projects follow that process.

Requiring contractor training as a condition for bidding or working on state projects
is a process that every university, school district, local government, and state agency
could follow. I’m sure that this training alone would lead to a significant increase in
the success rate of LEED projects.
What’s also interesting is that the process continues after occupancy. As Simon
notes,

After occupancy, the State requires ongoing metering and reporting of water, elec-
tricity and gas usage through 2016, along with building commissioning, and a post-
occupancy evaluation at the end of 12 months. The State’s goal is to benchmark each
project with operating data, complete a case study and achieve an ENERGY STAR-
rated building for each State-funded project.