The US Green Building Council (USGBC) has developed a rating system to assess the environmental sustainability of building designs called Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). Fundamental Building Systems Commissioning is a requirement for LEED certification at any level.
It is beneficial to include a LEED Accredited Professional early in the concept phase because the cost of adding green measures increases as the design is developed. When all team members participate in planning, greater potential exists for the design to be the most efficient. It is important to include the owner, architect, mechanical and electrical engineer, and energy consultant from the very beginning. Energy efficiency credits constitute the largest component of possible LEED points. Our engineers and LEED Accredited Professionals can help your project attain higher performance levels.
The LEED rating system consists of requirements and credits in the following areas:
Sustainable Sites
Water Efficiency
Energy and Atmosphere
Materials and Resources
Indoor Environmental Quality
Innovation and Design Process
Energy Analysis, EPA Energy Star Energy Validation, Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling, and Building Information Modeling are some of the analyses to help building owners achieve points for LEED Certification.
LEED has four performance levels – Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. In most cases the energy efficiency incentive is sufficient to cover the costs of LEED certification.
ACR has commissioned several buildings for the City of Austin that comply with LEED such as the New City Hall; Combined Transportation, Emergency, and Communications Center (CTECC); Austin Resource Center for the Homeless; and the Sand Hill Energy Center. Several of these buildings have achieved Silver Certification. We have also commissioned facilities for federal government agencies such as the Indian Health Service. CenterPoint Energy hired ACR to perform an indefinite number of retrocommissioning projects over the next three years.
Engineering for LEED Certification encompasses any procedure that makes a building safer and more cost effective, allowing it to conform to LEED standards. No matter what type of building, the price of having a professional analyze it is far less costly than allowing it to grow old and inefficient over time.