Feedback about LEED Administration/Review

Lindsey Morris

Director of High-Performance Design

Moody Nolan, Inc.

LEEDuser Premium Member

0 thumbs up

May 23, 2023

Hi SDL Group -

Our firm has been presented with a potential opportunity to share with USGBC National Representatives details about a few of our voiced concerns in the context of specific project administration efforts.

For us, these relate to two specific factors:

Logistics / Technology: We are seeing inconsistent review results between projects and also experiencing technology hurdles with uploading documents to LEEDOnline where documents are actually lost between hitting submit and receiving comments back from review.
Credit Criteria: Our non-urban schools, both higher ed/K-12 are increasingly expressing reluctance to use LEED - we are working diligently to balance more advanced sustainable design criteria with what we view as some opportunities to address credit thresholds for these typologies, but in several instances, we reluctantly believe our client's decision to move away from LEED is understandable, given related circumstances.

The goal of our discussion is to help articulate some of the challenges we are facing to provide better mechanisms for supporting LEED. We understand the value of LEED as a market transformation tool and want to support its continued advancement. The belief is if we are provided with the opportunity to work in partnership, perhaps we can help remedy any related issues to ensure continued future momentum with our clients/their choice to use LEED.

We felt this a good opportunity to solicit the SDL network to capture a wider net of feedback from your perspective as professionals within your own firms and even challenge some of our own current assumptions. If you chose to share feedback, we will anonymize names/firms/clients, and also share back widely with this group - we provided a couple of prompting questions if you wish to participate in this discussion. You can also share feedback with me via email - lmorris@moodynolan.com.

Have your efforts to communicate with USGBC at the project level been successful/consistent? If applicable, have your firm's dedicated representatives remained active?
What percentage of your clients are exploring LEED alternatives or "LEED Like" compliance without certification? Does this represent an increase, decrease, or steady annual estimate?
Are there specific project typologies you feel LEEDv4/v4.1 thresholds have not yet adjusted properly for? Can you think of an example where you have a project/specific credit that as an expert, you feel should have a certification/compliance, but was not able to achieve this outcome? (specific examples seem to have more traction)
Are you finding your review processes to be consistent? Experiencing an increase in clarifications or altered timelines different from the anticipated review timetables?
Are you experiencing technical issues with the newer features of LEEDOnline?
Additional feedback is welcomed

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Emily Purcell

Sustainable Design Lead

CannonDesign

LEEDuser Expert

379 thumbs up

Fri, 05/26/2023 - 18:54

Great questions & I hope your discussion with USGBC is productive! Regarding "LEED like" clients, I see them as falling into two groups. One is the clients who are not interested in LEED or green building but want to say they are. They'll suggest a "LEED equivalent" approach but efforts to inject real accountability for their "equivalent' strategies into the design & construction process go nowhere and we end up making a concept-phase scorecard where half the points get VE'd out. That number was steady over the years and still is. The other group is clients who want to pursue "LEED equivalent" in good faith, and have either an internal design specification or local green ordinance that sets the standard. And as more of those internal and legal standards start to show up, the more these clients are moving away from LEED. They might be leaning to WELL/Fitwel as something their occupants are excited about, or just letting their energy performance speak for itself. I certainly still argue for LEED as a source of real accountability for their environmental measures, but I'm with you on understanding their reluctance to put a lot of effort into LEED specifically when it's not going to *really* make the project better. Project typologies: I haven't worked on a ton of difficult typologies, but have noticed an increase in mixed-use beyond the typical ground floor retail+another use. A big one is co-working space being incorporated into residential or traditional office. Especially with some of the Indoor Environment credits it can be frustrating to have to write off credits that work well for the majority of the space but just don't apply well to the secondary use(s). I think WELL generally does a good job of breaking down credit options by space types and allowing projects to earn points for only applying the credit in applicable space types. Review consistency - a recurring issue for sure. Was just talking to some other LEED practitioners this morning about review comments addressing expiration dates on EPDs/low-emitting certificates. Some of us have gotten lengthy comments about this, some of us haven't. To me the biggest issue is the reviewers' general approach: are they looking for documentation issues (and therefore commenting on things like expiration dates) or are they looking for enough evidence to award the credit?

Kjell Anderson

Director of Sustainable Design

LMN Architects

LEEDuser Basic Member

4 thumbs up

Fri, 05/26/2023 - 23:24

Emailing the LEEDcoach has been very useful on most of our LEED projects. So far the answers are clear, fairly quick, and helpful. I agree with Emily that there are two LEED-like clients. My suggestion to them both is something like this: Do you want to design and specify a project that includes healthier materials, commissioning, C+D waste, energy use/modeling, etc. for the credits to achieve your LEED-like certification level? (Yes). Now that we spent the effort getting the design and specs right, do you want us to check that this stuff has been completed to meet the requirements? (Yes). Do you want the contractor to document that it’s actually installed? (Yes). Ok, we’re now through 95% of the cost of LEED. It’s just a few thousand more to actually get certified. (Ok, why not). If the answers are No instead of Yes, then they understand they are not LEED-like. Oversimplified, of course. -Kjell From: