“Attend the BOMA Energy Efficiency Program webinar series.
Begin implementing no- and low-cost energy conservation
measures, increasing your ENERGY STAR score as you go.”
4) Envision the End Result
With your team assembled, start looking at the targets you can
reach. Start by identifying your goals, Molinski recommends.
This includes not just the level of certification you hope to
attain, but specifics about how you’d like the building to perform
afterward – for example, lowering energy and water use by a
certain percentage, reducing operational expenses, or simply
making your building more comfortable and less wasteful. Then
choose credits that will help you achieve those goals.
“There is an overemphasis on the plaque and what it takes
to get to LEED Platinum or a certain ENERGY STAR score,”
says Brad Pease, Executive Technical Director of Paladino and
Company, a design/development firm focusing on green building
and sustainable development. “Sometimes the certification pro-
gram gets in the way of making sound business decisions. Focus
more on finding value in the certification process – target those
credits that will help you operate the building more efficiently,
manage your utility costs, and obtain real dollar savings or opera-
tional improvements. If you focus just on certification, you’ll find
yourself annoyed and spending time documenting things that
don’t impact your building or occupants.”
5) Manage Points Carefully
A self-audit will help you figure out which credits are best to
pursue, Denise recommends. “LEED’s Energy & Atmosphere
category offers more points than almost any other area, and while
they’re expensive, they also offer the greatest opportunity for payback,” he says. “Establishing policies on green cleaning, integrated
pest control, and smoking are some of the easiest to implement,
though they usually require modifying existing contracts. Green
cleaning is rapidly becoming the standard and can result in a
reduction in fees.”
ROBB WILLIAMSON / AECOM ROBB WILLIAMSON / AECOM
continued
Governor George Deukmejian
Courthouse
Long Beach, CA
GREEN
BUILDING
ROBB WILLIAMSON / AECOM
SIZE: 531,000 square feet
BUILT: 2013
CERTIFICATION: LEED-NC Gold
KEY SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGIES:
■ Replaced an old courthouse that was “functionally and physically
deficient, ranking among the worst in the state in terms of security
and overcrowding,” according to Freddy S. Rayes, Chief Executive
Officer of Long Beach Judicial Partners LLC, which provides operations and maintenance services for the courthouse
■ Access to a secured exterior courtyard via a five-level open atrium
that brings in light
■ Cable-supported glass curtainwall system around the atrium that
also minimizes summer heat gain
■ Displacement ventilation air distribution in the courtrooms
■ Automated light harvesting system to optimize the use of natural light
■ ENERGY STAR equipment and low-flow water fixtures
■ Accompanying renovation and expansion of a 399,000-square-foot
parking structure with roughly 1,000 parking spaces originally built in 1994
ROBB WILLIAMSON / AECOM
KEN NAVERSEN
