Author: Energy Cost

Feature image: Students at Clarkson University were instrumental in achieving LEED Gold for the Conference Center at Lake Placid. Photo courtesy of Erik Backus.

LEED for Cities and Communities helps government leaders benchmark and enact sustainable changes in their municipalities. In the 2022–2023 school year, the rating system’s tenets will be used by university professors at the classroom level to prepare students for jobs in sustainable design, policy and development.

USGBC partners with colleges and universities interested in leading academic learning programs associated with the rating system. Professors design their own programs and collaborate closely with USGBC to implement them. In many cases, professors’ curriculums include a component of experiential learning that puts students in direct contact with the aforementioned government leaders, sometimes within their college neighborhoods. The result? Measurable, lasting impact made by students at the beginning of their sustainability careers.

Professors at the University of South Florida, Clarkson University and Utah State University are making sustainable education accessible to undergraduate and graduate students, in addition to those seeking to bolster their understanding of sustainability.

University of South Florida

Florida hasn’t always had the best track record when it comes to sustainability.

“[Florida] could have actually been the Sunshine State. We could have been the leader in solar technologies, but instead we’re behind,” says Brooke Hansen, Ph.D., director of sustainable tourism for University of South Florida’s Patel College of Global Sustainability.

However, Florida’s status makes it the perfect place to apply a framework such as LEED for Cities and Communities to make the state more sustainable.

The Sunshine State currently faces a multitude of environmental issues: plastics pollution, transportation crises, climate change, the threat of Category 5 hurricanes and sea level rise. But Florida, like every place, is experiencing a critical moment—one in which the state can “build forward better” and heal, Hansen says. Education is an invaluable factor in doing that, which is where Hansen and the University of South Florida come into play.

In August, the USGBC Northern California Women in Green (WIG) committee organized a special summer program to in keeping with our theme of the “Rising Collective.” To celebrate our women leaders in the green building movement, we welcomed 25 inspiring USGBC Women in Green to join us in recognizing the LEED Gold Salesforce Transit Center.

We gathered in the refreshing atmosphere of Salesforce Park, a 5.4-acre public park and green space right in the middle of the SoMa neighborhood in San Francisco. The park has over 230 species of understory plants and 50 species of trees, making the setting for WIG a true biophilic environment. In addition to being an example of sustainability, the park provides a refreshing break from the day in downtown San Francisco and contributes to public health via its abundant green space, seating and an amphitheatre.

Women leaders sharing ideas

The event began with a special address by our host Nila Gonzales, chief of staff for the Transbay Joint Powers Authority and a San Francisco native who has devoted her career to serving the city. Her address was followed by our featured speakers, Pam Brandon, MEng, PE, SE, recently appointed the first female partner at AlfaTech group, and Susan Orlandi, principal and California regional workplace leader at DLR Group.

As women leaders in the industry, our speakers shared their insights on how we can strengthen togetherness, influence collective impact and provide opportunities for other women. Liesl Heil Morell, chair of the USGBC Northern California Women in Green Committee, moderated the event. This was followed with group discussions led by our Women in Green speakers and volunteer leaders, Payal Vora and Emily Alvarez.

Investors have realized that adding ESG criteria to their investment strategy is a must-have; however, it is never fully clear what the right path is. Adopting ESG criteria for your portfolio will potentially attract clients, but having a full, comprehensive sustainability strategy will certainly benefit all stakeholders in more impactful ways. In my experience greening real estate portfolios, these are four proven ways to enhance your ESG strategy by using LEED:

1. Let LEED serve as your road map for decarbonization.

Plenty of companies are pledging to reach net zero, but they can become overwhelmed by the challenge in practice. LEED serves as an amazing guide to achieving decarbonization, because it indicates what steps need to be taken with a systemic approach. One of the major misconceptions about decarbonization is that it only concerns energy, while some crucial aspects such as embodied carbon, transportation and waste are easily forgotten. LEED addresses the ESG question holistically, serving as a road map that will fulfill environmental and social criteria while also engaging in the adaptation and mitigation of climate risks. Embarking on the challenge is hard, but trusting in a well-laid plan like LEED will help us move toward accomplishing our science-based targets and net zero pledges.

2. Leverage the power of portfolio-level LEED.

Real estate portfolios need to overhaul their business models to adapt this new transitional economy. LEED volume programs assist in this transition by creating prototypes that dictate how new developments need to move forward, raise their standards and establish a new normal. Every portfolio is different, but we have found through our work that encouraging all the supply chain contractors and subcontractors to meet specific ESG criteria truly does help in making all strategies more efficient and effective. There is great comfort in seeing significant advancements happen with every project, without having to reinvent the wheel every single time.

3. Use LEED for existing buildings.

Having peace of mind when assessing how our assets are performing is invaluable, and there is no better way to start than with an audit. Surprise! That is the first step to achieving certification under LEED for Operations and Maintenance (LEED O+M). When covering audits in energy, water and waste, we really get to know where we stand in terms of how our assets are performing and where will investment serve better. Audits mark the difference because by identifying the key areas of improvement beforehand, real estate investors and tenants can anticipate where the savings generated by LEED O+M will be.

Given the right resources, the green economy is poised to deliver change on nearly every industry front. There’s a growing market for clean energy technologies, net zero construction, low-carbon materials and software for modeling climate-smart development, to name a few of the areas where sustainability is taking shape.

“Sustainability” can be defined as a holistic approach to integrating environmental, social and economic benefits into human-generated goods and services. It is an adaptable, malleable concept readily applied to any field. It is a term that more and more industries are adopting in their communications; it signals intentionality around environmental and social stewardship. It is also a sign that the green economy is growing—and that economy needs a larger labor force.

It is incumbent upon educational institutions to equip their students with the kind of knowledge and skills needed to push sustainability not only forward, but in all directions, to reach every socioeconomic sector. Developing methods for teaching lessons—across all academic subjects—around sustainability that will impart both theoretical information and practical skills is the challenge.

Some high school educators have found solutions in USGBC’s LEED Green Associate Exam Prep-Take-Teach for Teachers, an online course begun in 2022. Its objective is to prepare educators to sit for the exam and teach them green building principles that they can then incorporate into their classes.

Finding a framework

Karen Carney, an instructor of environmental science and sustainable and renewable technologies at Battlefield High School in Haymarket, Virginia, found the prep course helpful. Her school is in an affluent suburb half an hour west of Washington, D.C. It has 2,500 students and is the only school in the county to offer a sustainability course.

June 14, 2022 (Washington, D.C.) – Today, the U.S. Green Building Council announced nearly 100 net zero certifications earned under the LEED Zero program, representing more than 23 million square feet of space. One-fourth of LEED Zero projects earned multiple certifications, demonstrating achievement of net zero goals in several categories.

A complement to LEED certification, LEED Zero provides a clear, data-driven path to recognizing net-zero goals and signals market leadership in the built environment. In 2018, the first year LEED Zero was released, certifications were earned in every category, with one project earning certification in all four categories.

“Operating our buildings at net zero, combined with a solid green building strategy, is a cost-effective solution to tackling the climate crisis,” said Peter Templeton, USGBC’s interim president & CEO. “Reducing the carbon emissions of buildings is a critical part of the solving the climate puzzle. We will continue to work together with building owners and partners from all sectors to ensure that we meet net zero goals.”

LEED Zero energy certification is awarded to net zero energy buildings and communities that generate as much energy as they use over the course of the year. LEED Zero Carbon recognizes net zero carbon emissions from energy consumption through carbon emissions avoided or offset over one year. LEED Zero Water recognizes a potable water use balance of zero over one year. LEED Zero Waste recognizes buildings that achieve GBCI’s TRUE certification at the Platinum level.

Recent years have spotlighted the need to reduce carbon emissions and accelerate efforts to achieve a low-carbon future. Buildings account for nearly 40% of all carbon emissions, and according to a 2020 UN report, buildings must reduce at least 50% of their carbon emissions by 2030 to achieve net zero by 2050. Organizations, cities and countries around the globe are now monitoring their outputs and committing to carbon emissions reductions as well as net zero emissions.