Purchasing native or adapted species is typically less expensive than buying non-native, imported, or tropical species that must be transported in. In some states, plants are available through state nurseries or university extensions at low prices.
Restoring or protecting portions of a site is a relatively low-cost option to pursue, and compliance with these requirements contributes to the achievement of other LEED credits such as:
The general contractor may charge an additional fee for meeting the credit requirements, as it requires the general contractor to monitor all site activities more closely than they would on a conventional project.
Your plan can be created by in-house staff familiar with and responsible for maintaining the project site. Consequently, there should be minimal costs associated with creating the credit documentation.
The costs of revising vendor contracts and implementing environmental best management practices should be minimal. Some green practices or products may carry small premiums. For example, additional site visits by your contractors for proactive pest monitoring may carry additional hourly charges. At the same time there is the potential for green practices to offset these cost premiums. For example fewer fertilizers, fewer pesticides and fewer tipping fees can help to offset some of the higher costs of a green program.
Development of the guidelines involves virtually no capital cost, but they may take a while to write, and you may have to compensate the author’s time. For help getting started, see the Documentation toolkit for samples and a template for the tenant guidelines.
The tenant guidelines can help build a sense of partnership on sustainability goals between the LEED-CS and LEED-CI teams. As one benefit to this, the tenant may be willing to split the cost of certain items that will help attain LEED-CI. Some items to consider splitting costs on may include:
If your plan is created by an in-house staff person familiar with and responsible for maintaining the project site, there will be minimal costs associated with creating the credit documentation.
Minimal costs are involved with revising vendor contracts and implementing environmental best management practices. Some green practices or products may carry small premiums. For example, additional site visits by your contractors for proactive pest monitoring may carry additional hourly charges. On the other hand, reduced use of pesticides and better preventive practices may reduce costs.
