USGBC Launches LEED Volume Program
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Green Building Council recently announced its LEED Volume Program for Operations and Maintenance, a program for existing green building projects geared towards high-volume property owners and managers, which debuted at the 2011 BOMA International Conference in Washington, D.C.
Designed to streamline the certification process for high-volume property owners and managers, the program uses a prototype-based approach to enable large-scale builders, owners, and managers to achieve consistency in green building improvements, allowing them to earn LEED certification faster and at a lower cost than would be possible with individual building reviews, according to the council.
The program was designed with the input of 11 commercial real estate firms, national retailers, hospitality providers, colleges and universities, local and state governments and federal agencies, including Cushman & Wakefield, Bentall Kennedy, City of San Jose, Kohl’s Department Stores, Stop & Shop, Bank of America, University of Florida, American University, University of California Santa Barbara, Wells Fargo and InterContinental Hotels Group.
“With the launch of the Operations & Maintenance track, LEED’s largest users are now able to make a sizable impact in greening their existing building portfolio as well as achieving green design and construction of their new builds,” said Scot Horst, senior vice president of USGBC. “Because existing buildings make up the vast majority of the U.S. building stock and the existing building market is nearly 100 times larger than the new construction market, tools like this are essential to reducing energy consumption from this sector.”
John Santora, client solutions official at Cushman and Wakefield, said the program benefited both the corporate tenant and investor clients by providing a streamlined and cost-effective approach to certification.
“It also allowed us to educate and empower our management professionals so that they are now able to implement sustainable operations and practices at our properties,” he said.
The firm currently has 18 certified properties, representing 8 million square feet of commercial real estate.
More than 625 building projects have certified through the LEED Volume Program, including Starwood Hotels & Resorts, The PNC Financial Services Group, Best Buy, Marriott, Citigroup and Starbucks Coffee Company.
The council launched the program for the design and construction of new building projects at its Greenbuild International Conference & Expo in November 2010.