The Pittsburgh Green Building Alliance has just completed a survey of the Pittsburgh Region which catalogs the practical experience builders and building owners in using the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED green building standards.

Over 116 respondents were surveyed by the Council-- architects and engineers and others including contractors, landscape architects, manufacturers, developers, owners/owner representatives, tenants, interior designers, specifiers, researchers, and green consultants.

The majority of those surveyed (54.8 percent) found the LEED standards to be “very useful” as a guideline for projects. Many of the strategies identified through the rating system have been incorporated into standard design, even for projects not attempting certification.

LEED is seen as an excellent metric to identify what ‘green’ is, but as the market evolves and green building and expertise becomes more sophisticated, it is believed that the rating system must evolve accordingly.

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) commissioned a ground breaking study, completed in October 2004, to estimate the costs to develop "green" federal facilities using the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Building Rating System, Version 2.1.

The report provides a detailed and structured review of both the hard cost and soft cost implications of achieving Certified, Silver, and Gold LEED ratings for two GSA building types, using GSA's established design standards as the point of comparison.

Two building types - new construction courthouses and Federal Building modernizations - are modeled against two scenarios for each LEED rating, identifying varying costs of construction, design, and documentation requirements. (Courtesy Pittsburgh’s Green Building Alliance)

11/8/2004