Ohio Investment in Green Schools Not Spurious

I really doubt that all costs associated with LEED can be recovered by energy savings in just 5 years. Just costs associated with the EA credits having a 5 year payback would be impressive. The blog said $131 million since 2007. Just looking at LEED-Schools projects there are 33 million square feet certified in Ohio. Assuming a typical new minimal Code compliant school building uses energy at a cost of $1/sf annually. These Ohio schools would need to be performing with 80% energy savings below Code minimum to get a payback of 5 years. Or spending just $0.20/sf annually.

The $131 million attributed to LEED cannot be correct. LEED cost claims are often loaded with costs that have nothing to do with LEED at all. If LEED was never considered by the schools, and the $131 million was magically "saved," you would end up with an unfinished building. Not a good end result.

I have seen CM's and contractors use LEED as a scapegoat to get change orders pushed thru.

The worst case I was involved with was a school project. The GC did not have a construction project engineer on the job site. There was no one available to get the LEED paperwork from the subcontractors. The GC had a staff of three people whose only job was to create change order and shove them at the owner. LEED often listed as a reason for the change, along with other reasons. It is unusual for a GC not to have a PE on a project, but on lowest-bid-wins projects that can happen.

Bill, You're being generous with your cost/ft2. "On average, $0.92 per square foot is spent on energy in education buildings, less than the national average for energy usage in commercial buildings ($1.19 per square foot)." http://www.eia.gov/emeu/consumptionbriefs/cbecs/pbawebsite/education/educ_howuseenergy.htm

Eric, it was an assumed value for ease of calulation. I was just hoping to be within a 10% range. The point was that 5 years payback from energy savings was unrealistic. That value you linked to was 1995 data.