Green Buildings

A high-performance building is a building with energy, economic, and environmental performance that is substantially better than standard practice. It's super energy efficient, so it saves money and natural resources. It's a healthy place to live and work for its occupants and has relatively low impact on the environment. All this is achieved through a process called whole-building integrated design.

Benefits

Buildings consume 17% of the total energy consumed in the United States. By creating buildings that use less energy and have lower power demands, greater robustness of the buildings as well as the power grid is achieved. This reduces the demand for fossil fuels and consequentially the environmental impact is lessened.

Benefits of integrated whole-building design include:

• Reduce energy use by 50% or more
• Reduced maintenance and capital costs
• Reduced environmental impact
• Increased occupant comfort and health
• Increased employee productivity

Employee productivity and business profitability are linked. Recent studies have shown an increase in employee productivity when buildings are designed with occupants in mind—natural light, comfortable temperatures, and a quiet work environment being the most important issues. Research suggests that a well-designed workplace can increase employee productivity by 10-15%. Further, studies also show that a pleasant indoor building environment helps attract desirable tenants for building owners, increasing the number of potential renters for a building.

Green Design

Design and construction practices that significantly reduce or eliminate the negative impact of buildings on the environment and occupants that address:

• Sustainable site planning
• Safeguarding water and water efficiency
• Energy efficiency
• Conservation of materials and resources
• Indoor environmental quality

• Sustainable Sites
• Water Efficiency
• Energy and Atmosphere
• Materials and Resources
• Environmental Quality
• Design Excellence

The benefits of CHP are entirely consistent with the objectives of the USGBC and the LEED standards. CHP can provide clean power and improved comfort from a single reliable source of both power and heat. Systems can be designed to utilize proven absorption chiller technology to provide summertime cooling and space heating in the winter, meanwhile reducing overall electrical consumption, reducing NOx emissions and using no ozone depleting fluorocarbons. The LEED prerequisite regarding CFC reduction in HVAC and refrigeration equipment is exceeded by CHP. The overall efficiency of CHP can easily be related to the reduction of total energy source use and can clearly be correlated to reduced operating costs for the owner.

In March 2006, the U.S. Green Building Council developed a calculation methodology for documenting Combined Heat and Power (CHP) for LEED-NC v2.2 EAc1 (30 KB). This methodology can be used for projects that are installing new, or connecting to existing, CHP systems, in lieu of the EAc1 calculation methodology in the LEED-NC v2.2 Reference Guide. Realistically, the total number of points that could be acquired from incorporating a CHP system into a green building is between four and five. One point can be earned in the Design Process & Innovation category, and an additional 3 to 4 points could be obtained in the Energy & Atmosphere category.

• Austin, TX - LEED certification is required of all public projects larger than 5,000 gross square feet
• Dallas, TX - The City of Dallas issued a resolution on January 22, 2003 requiring all city buildings larger than 10,000 square feet to have at least a LEED Silver certification. The city is exploring ways to encourage LEED buildings in the private sector.
• Houston, TX - The City of Houston adopted a resolution on June 23, 2004 requiring all new construction, replacement facilities, and major renovations of existing facilities larger than 10,000 square feet to use LEED "to the greatest extent practical and reasonable," with a target of LEED Silver.

According to the U.S. Green Building Council website, as of December 2006, there are thirteen new construction buildings within Austin, Dallas and Houston that are LEED certified. Four of these buildings achieved Gold certification level, and four obtained Silver certification level. In addition, there are almost 50 projects within these cities currently registered with the USGBC - the first step towards certification.
 

• CHP Calculation Methodology for LEED-NC v2.2 EA Credit 1 - U.S. Green Building Council
• Making the Business Case for High Performance Green Buildings - U.S. Green Building Council
• Energy Simulation Software - Department of Energy
• Labs21 Approach - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• U.S. EPA's Green Buildings Program
• The Greening of Texas - Texas Construction, March 2005
• List of Cities Requiring LEED
• Map of the Nation's Platinum and Gold LEED Certified Buildings - current as of 10/1/06
  

Where can I find more information on the USGBC and LEED?
More information can be found at the website for the USGBC.

Has CHP been used in any LEED project as of March 2005?
Yes projects have been certified that have made use of CHP. Two examples are: The Genzyme Center (photo above) and The Solaire (photo above).

How can I learn more about regulatory requirements to locate and interconnect CHP systems to the utility grid?
In Texas you can find this information in the Distributed Generation Interconnection Manual.

Can CHP systems be implemented in EPA non-attainment zones?
Yes and for more information go to the EPA Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards.