LBC Materials cost premiums?

We haven’t done much material cost comparison, but I can give some vetting time insight: We had a materials consultant for the Kern Center (2-story, 17,000sf). They spent about 1000 hours on the vetting portion of their work. [Note: I HIGHLY recommend using a consultant for this.] We probably spent another 200 hours on vetting/chasing suppliers ourselves, and the contractor spent another ~200 hours. This is for the whole project, SD through post-construction and audit phases. It doesn’t include our up-front product research, as that was embedded in the design phases. It's worth noting that this is a very rough estimate, and we were learning as we went. I’m happy to chat further if it’s any help. I’ve asked our materials consultant (Integrated Eco Strategies) if they have any insight on the material cost premium. I’ll let you know if they do! Sara Sara Draper Sustainability & Engagement Strategist Bruner/Cott ARCHITECTS 617.492.8400 x155 sdraper@brunercott.com 

See below for further thoughts from IES. I’d note that their time estimates are probably on the low side given their experience; a lot will depend on the project team’s prior vetting experience. -Sara   On Fri, Jan 5, 2018 at 12:30 PM, Charley Stevenson <charley@integratedecostrategy.com> wrote: Hi, Sara   I inserted thoughts below. I’m out of the office today, but happy to speak with anyone on Monday to delve into greater detail if needed.     Sincerely,   Charley 413-776-9343 http://integratedecostrategy.com    

1. Material cost premium, as percentage increase over typical market, for core and shell elements (which would primarily be envelope, as the structure seems a little more straightforward)

  We plan on a material cost premium on the order of 5-8%.  Limiting the scope to core and shell might change this a bit, in that the biggest single-line cost increase is in electrical wiring, which would presumably be in scope.  Many commodity items like drywall and steel studs have no cost premium.

1. Material cost premium for interior fitout, as a percentage increase over typical market

  Much depends upon the design.  LBC-compliant carpet tends toward the more expensive end of the spectrum, but many other floor finishes are simply compliant.  The 5-10% range is safe.   We are in the midst of a large interior fit out project where we have been able to keep the hard cost premium to about 3% to date.  Whether this holds through the end of the project is impossible to predict.

1. If you have it, too, an estimate for time spend on material vetting process would be helpful too. 

  New products take us about 2-2.5 hours apiece to research and document, once a clear list has been generated by the design team.  Reused products can be re-documented in 0.5 to 1 hour, on average.  There is significant distribution in the time and effort required… light fixtures take longer, so simple strategies like limiting the palette can be very effective at limiting the cost.  These times stem from the use of our in-house database, which contains research on 5000+ products for LBC compliance. 

Lona, I know we have talked already but wanted to post to this group as well. We are involved in three projects currently specifically for the materials petal efforts. We typically see the vetting take between 3-4 hours per products. We use the Red2Green software mentioned and work closely with IES around expanding their data set to include products from the PNW. A typically project of that size could have between 400 - 600 products... or more depending on finishes... As was mentioned, minimal palettes are key to reducing costs. It also must be kept in mind that due diligence (researching two alternatives) can add to this sum pretty quickly. We are trying to work with LBC on ways to reduce this time. Red2Green is one way... another is taking on the vetting for subs so that they don't have the same gross increase in costs for work they have little relationship to (taking away this unknown for them). Process is key... and we feel there are smart ways to focus the effort towards effective results and still maintain market transformation. Process also includes a close working relationship with the project team and subs, including several meetings to pre-vet their products and inform them of choices prior to their formal submittal.  Anyway... just thought i would share... Happy New Year everyone!

Lona and Chris This is a very interesting way to engage with the question of cost for an LBC project. I think Sara's assessment is pretty good, in terms of time and cost on the soft part of product management. The real thing to understand is that materials management will be a very different process, so prepare for that. Build a different internal process for materials selection. Get a design team who can plug into that system. Get a contractor who is ready for a very different procurement process. It will be a battle to force traditional procurement into the LBC process at any reasonable scale. In terms of a cost differential for red-list compliant materials, this is a tough comparison. These buildings tend to be very high design with commensurately high materials and construction cost. These ain't no standard office buildings. As Sara says, look to the complicated items... HVAC machinery, ventilation equipment, communications infrastructure, things that have a lot of parts. You will be constrained in these choices by finding compliant products. The ones you find will likely be more expensive. But they may also be more efficient. In our experience, the items that we used were not particularly expensive. But it took quite a bit of effort to find the intersection of what we needed and what was compliant. Also, location matters. materials available easily in the Northwest are not so easy to find here in the North East. On the other hand, access to some of the equipment manufacturers may be easier here. In the end, be prepared for a transformational process for everyone, including the client. Pretty awesome, actually!    - Jim Newman, Linnean Solutions  

Thx everyone, a lot of great insights from everyone, and I’m also pleased that there seems to be a some convergence on what is a very squishy number. Hopefully this goes far enough that I can see how close these estimates compare to reality. -C F

Gosh – great timing as we are trying to figure this out ourselves with our builder on one project. Right now the biggest cost was in people time (likely in the in 6 figures) When do you need this? As we are struggling through our own TI, (that is only 12,000sf) I think I can tell you that so far we are $100K over budget on electrical/lighting F

Hey Pauline, For your own space, are you going with low-voltage power and lighting, rather than conventional power? I wonder if that would help reign in the cost for the PVC-free options?

You mean Power over Ethernet ? Good point! We have only done that once. Great idea !!!! PAULINE SOUZA PARTNER, WRNS Studio Sustainability Director LEED Fellow Green Schools Advocate USGBC 415-203-3260 cell