The House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee chaired by Rep. Adolph (R-Delaware) held an informational meeting this week on high performance green buildings, hearing comments from the Department of Environmental Protection, the American Institute of Architects, Green Building Alliance and the American Forest & Paper Association.

In comments before the Committee, DEP said rising energy costs in the wake of Hurricane Katrina are a timely reminder of the need to find ways of reducing energy use using green building and other techniques. Natural gas prices are expected to double by the end of the year and heating oil will increase by over a third, according to the federal Energy Information Administration.

Green building techniques result in energy savings of 50 percent or more over conventional buildings and the Commonwealth’s own green buildings have demonstrate these savings. DEP’s Cambria District Mining Office, which meets the Gold LEED standard, was recently certified as using 52 percent less energy than conventional buildings.

Pennsylvania now has 23 building certified under the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system.

DEP noted there are also health and productivity gains from using green building standards.

A recent study by William Fisk said the potential annual savings and productivity gains from green building technology are $6 to $14 billion from reduced respiratory disease, $1 to $4 billion from reduced allergies and asthma and $10 to $30 billion from reduced sick building syndrome.

Carnegie Mellon University’s “Building Investment Decision Support Tool” projects productivity savings of as much as 11 percent with improved air quality, 23 percent with better lighting and 18 percent with using day lighting techniques.

DEP said it was working with a variety of partners, including the Pennsylvania Environmental Council and the Sustainable Energy Funds to provide new tools and educational opportunities to promote green building.

DEP said it supports the idea of requiring buildings constructed with public funds to meet green building standards.

The American Institute of Architects summarized the benefits of green buildings with this striking fact— a modest investment of time and design upfront using green building techniques in a building project, usually less than 2 percent of construction costs, can yield life cycle savings from over 10 to 20 times the initial investment.

“The economic and financial benefits of high performance green buildings include lower energy, waste and water costs, lower environmental impact and emissions costs, lower operations and maintenance costs, and savings from increased productivity and health. Green buildings not only minimized environmental impacts, but they also can dramatically reduce expenses for businesses and state government, consequently contributing significantly to Pennsylvania’s economic growth and quality of life.”

AIA pointed to a recent California Sustainability Building Task Force report which documents the potential savings from using green building techniques as a good tool for understanding the short and long term cost impacts.

The Green Building Alliance from Pittsburgh reviewed green building progress in the western part of the state, including the fact that Pittsburgh has the only green convention center in the United States and eight green buildings fully certified under LEED and 18 more registered with LEED.

The GBA’s mission as a non-profit is to help integrate high performance, green building design techniques into the design, construction and operating practices in the Greater Pittsburgh market through education, research and technical assistance.

A special GBA project called INSPIRE (Investment in Sustainable Practice and Industry Though Research and Education) with several universities and other partners in the region is doing research and development education programs for students and professionals in the field that helps promote green building technology use.

The American Forest & Paper Association was the only group to express concerns at the meeting, but at the same time said they supported green building techniques.

The concern was that the LEED rating system, they said, discriminates against the use of renewable resources like wood in construction whereas a competing standard Green Globes does not.

NewsClip: Op-Ed – Greener Buildings, Green Rewards

9/16/2005