Page 52 - Green Building Through Integrated Design

THE LEED RATING SYSTEMS 29

The benefit of the LEED-CS system for a commercial developer is that marketing
cannot wait until a building is finished. By allowing a pre-certification using a system
very similar to LEED-NC, the LEED-CS rating assists the developer in securing tenants
and sometimes financing, and thereby encourages more green buildings. Not only that,
LEED-CS awards a point for creating tenant guidelines that encourage each tenant to
use the LEED-CI system to build out their interior spaces. If that happens, the result
is similar to a LEED for New Construction building, and everyone is happy!

PLATINUM PROJECT PROFILE
Signature Centre, Denver, Colorado
Designed, developed, managed and built by Aardex, LLC, the Signature Centre is a
186,000-square-feet, five-story, class AA speculative office property. The total proj-
ect cost, including land, finance, and soft costs, was less than $220 per square foot.
The Signature Centre was designed to reduce total energy use by a minimum of
36 percent. Indoor water use is estimated to be 40 percent less than a similar con-
ventional building. The building’s underfloor air system not only improves indoor
air quality and reduces absenteeism, but it also reduces utility costs by 30 percent.
The project materials include 20 percent recycled-content materials, 50 percent
FSC-certified wood and 20 percent locally sourced materials.*

Courtesy of Aardex, LLC.

*John Trojan, “We Want to Raise the Bar,” Business Leader Magazine, October 2007, pp 21-27.