Page 266 - The Green Building Bottom Line The Real Cost of Sustainable Building

244 CHAPTER 8

green and not operating efficiently, 10 people listen. When we tell them that everyone
from Adobe Systems to Wal-Mart is building to LEED standards, they listen. They
also listen when we talk about Genzyme’s twelve-story, 350,000-square-foot LEED
Platinum corporate headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts that uses 42 percent
less energy and 34 percent less water than a comparable conventional building, or that
after Toyota’s customer services unit moved into a LEED Gold building, absentee-
ism fell by 14 percent. And when we cite the 2006 McGraw-Hill Green Building
SmartMarket Report, which found that green buildings deliver 3.5 percent higher
occupancy rates, 3 percent higher rental rates, a 7.5 percent average increase in build-
ing values, and a 6.6 percent higher ROI, they hear us loud and clear. These numbers
from our toolbox often surprise the people we talk to. It is difficult for them to argue
against the threat of becoming obsolete, or to argue against more efficient resource use
(which means lower operating costs), healthier buildings (which mean higher produc-
tivity), and better investments.
Assumptions regarding the cost premium associated with building out spaces or
developing land or buildings sustainably are typical. Our toolbox also includes infor-
mation from the many studies that dispel these myths. Examples of basic talking
points include:

■ In 2003, Gregory Kats, of Capital E energy consultants, released a study showing
that the average construction premium for a sample of thirty-three LEED buildings
across the country was 1.84 percent; 11
■ In 2004, the U.S. General Services Administration (the agency that builds or leases
millions of square feet for federal offices, courthouses, and special facilities)
reported that the anticipated construction premium for new federal courthouses
would range from a negative 0.4 percent for a “low-cost” LEED certified facility to
a high of 8.1 percent for a “high cost” LEED Gold facility; 12
■ In 2005, Turner Construction’s Market Barometer study found that the average esti-
mated cost premium for sustainable building is only 0.8 percent for a basic LEED
certification; 13
■ In 2006, real estate consultant Davis Langdon compared the cost of eighty-three
buildings seeking LEED certification against one hundred and thirty-eight conven-
tional buildings. The analysis concluded, “the cost per square foot for buildings
seeking LEED certification falls into the existing range of costs for buildings of
14
similar program type;” and
■ In 2007, PNC Financial Group began a major green bank branch construction pro-
gram. Their LEED certified branches cost PNC $100,000 less to build and take
forty-five days less to construct than comparable conventional bank branches. 15

Still, we do not convince everyone. But for those who want to learn more, we use
the toolbox like a library, a library that acquires new materials on a daily basis.
Information is sorted by product type: office, industrial, land, retail (with restaurant,
hotel, and bank subsets), mixed-use, existing buildings, schools, healthcare, and resi-