Page 162 - The Green Building Bottom Line The Real Cost of Sustainable Building

LEARNING FROM A LEED PILOT PROJECT 141

really knew. As it turned out, over thirty professionals on this project become LEED
accredited, on their own time and at their own expense. As it turned out, this factor
was a critical piece in the project’s overall success.
To sum up, the initial obstacles facing us in delivering a LEED retail project were
long and, in retrospect, daunting. They included:

■ Pro-active determination of scope (the “what”). Making the decision to make
this a LEED project after initial design work had already been done.
■ Selecting the correct LEED program. Initially trying to fit this project to what was
then the sole LEED product category (LEED for New Construction), which called
for control over interior design elements that are typically determined by retail ten-
ants. Eventually, we shifted to becoming a participant in the U.S. Green Building
Council’s pilot Core and Shell program, which made all the difference in the world.
■ Being clear about the “who.” Ensuring that we built an entire extended team of
professionals who were all passionate about delivering a different type of develop-
ment. Finding brokerage representation that could genuinely support the marketing
of a very different product.
■ Working with stakeholders. Introducing city officials to the LEED program and
how some of the program’s criteria were improvements upon municipal codes and
ordinances.
■ Being clear about the “how.” Learning how to integrate design and development,
where all professionals are at the table working collaboratively from the get-go and
not in isolated, linear fashion.
■ Clarifying expectations with tenants. Being a bit inflexible early on about what
issues to stand firm on with tenants.
■ Being clear about the message. Trying to figure out the marketing message of
Abercorn Common in ways that would appeal to the various tenant-rep brokers
(this issue is discussed at length in Chapter 10). Our initial thought that green
should be the primary message was wrong. Ironically, some of our later projects
have suffered by not making the green message as strong as it should be.
■ Determining the green details. Determining which of the many new-to-the-world
green products and technologies being proffered to us would actually work as
promised.
■ Streamlining administration. Developing lease proposals, lease forms, and work
letters that captured landlord expectations (toward the tenant) of various green
compliance issues.
■ Streamlining execution. Overseeing operations of and material purchased by the
general contractor to ensure actual compliance with the LEED program (e.g., mak-
ing sure that sub-contractors were not smoking inside the premises and confirming
that low-VOC paint was being used).
■ Streamlining documentation. Developing a process for capturing the detailed
information for documenting a LEED project.
■ Capturing lessons learned. Analyzing the actual performance of the project, from
both a financial perspective and in terms of resource use.