Making the

Green Building Business Case

Lance A. Williams, Ph. D., LEED® AP

Executive Director, USGBC-LA

Historic Considerations

The issues relative to the adoption of green building andsustainability as a viable business strategy are new incomparison to long-held notions of how to build cost-affordable and effective buildings overall.

Over the last decade and a half, particularly since theformation of the US Green Building Council and theintroduction of the LEED® Rating System, owners andoperators have spoken in terms of energy efficiency and highperformance buildings as never before.

It was USGBC’s intent to focus on bothchallenges and solutions in convening anindustry-wide, long-term dialogue designedto be ongoing and updated as evidence wasrevealed that showed industry response wasactively engaged in the debate.

There have been many significant objections raised to making the business case for green building. They have included:

• Perceived first costs of building green and sustainably• Return on Investment, especially for persons with a short-

term financial stake in a building project• Operations and Management planning for the greening of

existing buildings• Performance measurement, particularly with respect to

energy efficiency, effective materials and resources use,and regional considerations such as water availability indrought-tinged areas such as southern California

• Market acceptance of green building, sustainability, and theLEED® system

• Regulatory barriers and resistance to legislative mandates• Industry professionals’ reluctance to becoming early

adopters of green building, sustainability and LEED®.

Market Forces Encourage Interest in Change

But what has occurred is a burgeoning interest manifest by persons who themselves have become, or who have sponsored staff and colleagues, as advocates of environmental change. USGBC describes it as a community of industry-based advocates who promote the triple bottom line of economic, environmental, and community-based elements. As a result, USGBC and LEED® have become Topic A in building industry circles.

The mission statement expressed in the acronym LEED®-i.e., Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-has come to fruition. Try Googling USGBC and LEED® and you will get the picture.Within a decade of roll-out, LEED® has become the cornerstone, go-to benchmark standard by which building performance is now measured. LEED® has evolved from a one-size fits all standard encompassing all elements of buildings to one that has many part of the whole. First there was LEED®-NC 1.0 which measured efficiency in new and existing buildings, commercial interiors, core and shell, retail, neighborhood development, mixed-use, schools, and hospitals.

Now LEED®-NC is nearing the 3.0 release stageand there are separate rating categories eitherreleased or in development for all of theabove building types cited in the previousslide.

USGBC is very democratic in its feedbackprocess and relies heavily on case studies,economic data, and a wide variety of metricsto make the business case for green building.

Change Elements

What have been the forces that have changedattitudes of many industry leaders towardsustainability? They can be characterizedthusly:

Change Elements

• The Al Gore factor: publicizing the views of scientists in ways that the general public can weigh in on the debate regarding the harmful impacts of carbon emissions and green houses gases

• Broad-based industry education regarding green building, LEED® and sustainability

• Peer pressure and increasing numbers of professionals becoming LEED- Accredited to consult in the creation and operation of sustainable buildings

• The actual creation and renovation of buildings according to LEED® and sustainable standards

• Case study reports which demonstrate the effectiveness of LEED® standards

Change Elements (continued)• Demonstrated increased ROI and reduced first costs• Benefits of adopting green O&M strategies through effective

planning outlined through the LEED® system • RFPs and RFQs that require sustainable components in building

projects• Industry professionals considering the fate of the world which they

are leaving behind to future generations• Creation of entrepreneurial opportunities and increased growth of

the green industry sector• Media interest and support for green building and sustainability as

a general concept and LEED® specifically• Increased valuation of properties-admittedly, a work in progress.

The Future of Green Building and Sustainability

The future of green building and sustainability is fraught with challenges. But the advantages of promoting such an approach is definitely viable as a business strategy.

Prognosis for success is based on:• Continually educating professional and consumer alike about

sustainability• Training industry professionals from all sectors of the building

community as green-oriented• Instituting professional sustainability certification training

programs as early as high school• Engaging both the public and private sector interests in

encouraging green building activity through successful examples

The Future of Green Building and Sustainability (continued)

• Fostering incentives for builders and developers to build green

• Turning what is perceived by uninterested persons as a trend into a viable, large-scale market force

• Growing new sustainable inventions and green technologies

• Emphasizing the value-added advantages of green buildings, including increased worker productivity and decreased absenteeism

• Emphasizing the cost-neutral aspects of building green when a developer or owner decides to do so as early as the concept stages

• Emphasizing measurable cost savings through utilizing such measures as alternative energy, water conservation and materials recycling

It is clear that green building and sustainabilitywill grow as an area of interest and continueto garner attention as people become moreand more aware of both the inherentchallenges and opportunities.

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