what’s
the price of “gold” today? Or how much extra does LEED-certification
cost?
You’re not
going to find the answer to that question in the financial pages of the
newspaper. It’s more complicated than
that.
LEED for
Homes has four levels of recognition – certified, silver, gold, and
platinum. Each ascending level is
achieved by obtaining an increasingly higher number of points. Points
are awarded across a full spectrum of
“green” building and design features as well as construction practices.
Some
are very straight forward – as using recycled wood for a floor covering.
Others are more detailed involving
independent third-party verification of an actual installed system’s
performance.
Each
building team is free to choose in what areas to place their emphasis
and
allocate their investment. Depending on
your overall priorities for your new home, LEED-certification can add
very
little to your construction budget – or it can represent as much as a
five-percent
premium. Based on the minimum level of
performance in key areas (i.e., prerequisites), you’re going to spend a
higher
portion of your home construction dollars on building insulation, the
HVAC
system, and probably plumbing and
electrical fixtures than the average house.
However, if
you are able to reduce the size of your home (thereby eliminating
minimally
used floor space, and reducing building materials and energy usage)
below what
is normal nationally for the number of bedrooms you are building, the
LEED for
Homes point system recognizes this - plus you save on the construction
cost of
the home – potentially enough to offset some or most of the added costs
of the
special LEED-features. Also if you can
forego a few luxury finishes and super-premium appliances, you can use
the
money saved to incorporate higher efficiency and/or resource saving
equipment
to increase your LEED points.
On the other
hand, if a double-height entry foyer is an integral part of your “green”
home,
your LEED features will be additional line items in the construction
cost total
without any offsetting savings. Each
home builder determines where and to what extent they wish to fund the
“green”
aspects of their project. With minimal
system upgrades, reasonable site planning, and wise materials
utilization, the
“certified” level is obtainable. With
more emphasis on state-of-the-art technology and materials, a few extra
hours
of research, and lots of documentation you too can reach the “platinum”
level.
While the
specific level of LEED certification has its value, the real importance
of
building a LEED-certified home is to help raise the bar on what the
“norm” in
home building technology needs to be if we are going to address the
serious
issues of fossil fuel dependence, resource depletion, loss of habitat,
and
environmental pollution. My suggestion
is to be less concerned with the pay-back on the cost of a
LEED-certified house,
and think more in terms of investing in the future – yours, your
family’s and
the planet’s.
