Value of LEED Volume made clear in pilots

A PNC branch certified using LEED Volume. Courtesy PNC Bank

The U.S. Green building Council (USGBC) in November plans to officially open its new LEED Volume certification program to the public.

Aimed at organizations planning to certify at least 25 new or existing buildings over a three-year period, LEED Volume establishes guidelines for construction processes to assure adherence to a variety of LEED certification systems. It is meant to streamline both the construction and certification processes for volume builders such as retailers, banks and hotels.

Using the LEED Volume process to achieve certification for New Construction, Commercial Interiors, Retail and Existing Buildings projects could net savings beyond program efficiencies.

“If you look at the cost of interacting with USGBC for registering and certifying a building, there’s a savings there,” says Brad Pease, building science team lead at Seattle-based green building consultant Paladino and Company. Paladino worked closely with USGBC on the development of the system and launched an analysis for retailers interested in learning whether LEED Volume represents a cost effective solution for them.

LEED Volume requires organizations to develop a set of procedures that can be implemented across a variety of regions and in any needed configuration. The standardized process is audited by USGBC, as are a subset of buildings certified under it.

One of the main benefits of instituting the program is the ability to assign each requirement to a specific role in an organization without the person in that role having to be educated in the overall LEED process, Pease says.

“Education is completely different,” he says. “It is not a LEED 101 program for your company. It is how do they need to change to deliver a high-performance building.”

LEED Volume may help organizations improve their overall building processes, according to Pease. It creates a program unique to each organization’s needs that tells each member of a project team what he or she needs to do for a project to achieve a prescribed level of certification. “You end up retraining people during the actual construction of a building instead of during a day-long seminar,” Pease says. 

More information on LEED Volume is available in a white paper hosted on this site.