The Green Building Initiative (GBI) today announced that, according to a recent study completed by Drexel University professor Jeffrey Beard, GBI’s Green Globes certification process is significantly less expensive to conduct and faster to complete than LEED certification, according to GBI president Jerry Yudelson.
“Green Globe certification currently gives the market a choice among certification systems and provides competition that helps improve results for users, resulting in more innovation and lower costs over time,” Yudelson said. “In this particular project, the cost savings to the University were on the order of $1.00 per square foot, a significant number for a large building.”
The final report, prepared by Beard, an associate professor in the ?Department of Construction Management at Drexel’s College of Engineering, is titled “A Study of Comparative Sustainability Certification Costs/Green Rating System Cost Comparison Study: LEED and Green Globes.” Beard’s research examined:
- Intrinsic hard costs – allocable on a line-by-line basis – for meeting criteria in each of the rating systems;
- Soft costs, whether accounted for as part of the indirect project costs or secondary soft costs that arose as a result of the project, but were otherwise allocated or absorbed; and
- Optional costs arising from implementation of the two green building rating systems.
The research was confined to the Papadakis Integrated Sciences Building at Drexel’s West Philadelphia campus, a five-story, 130,000-square-foot laboratory and classroom building that opened in 2011.
A key variance in the two rating systems that was revealed by the study was the cost of using each for the Papadakis building. The breakdown summarized in the university’s records indicates internal (staff time) costs at Drexel for administering both systems were more than $125,000 for LEED versus $9,000 for Green Globes. The report’s summary shows aggregate green building costs (i.e., hard cost premium, soft costs and optional costs for sustainability rating) nearly 15 percent higher for LEED than for Green Globes. The table below illustrates cost differences between LEED and Green Globes in several key areas of design, management and assessment.
Funding for the study came from the Green Building Initiative. However, Professor Beard conducted the research without any oversight from GBI, using timesheets and other records of administrative costs maintained by the project team and Drexel University.
The Papadakis Building received three Green Globes from GBI and a LEED Gold rating from the US Green Building Council. The architects were Toronto, Canada-based Diamond Schmitt Architects and H2L2 of Philadelphia. Turner Construction Company provided construction services.
About the Green Building Initiative™ - The GBI is a nonprofit organization and American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Standards Developer dedicated to accelerating the adoption of green building practices. Founded in 2004, the organization is the sole U.S. provider of the Green Globes® and federal Guiding Principles Compliance building certification programs. To learn more about opportunities to become involved in the GBI, contact Jerry Yudelson, President,(jerry@thegbi.org), visit the GBI website,www.thegbi.org, or send an email to GBI's Marketing Director Shaina Sullivan (shaina@thegbi.org)
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
Burwell Architects, Ziegler Cooper Architects announce merger
Ziegler Cooper Architects is pleased to announce that Burwell Architects has merged into the Corporate Interior Studio of Ziegler Cooper Architects. We believe the new relationship will enhance and expand the services we can provide to our clients.
| Aug 11, 2010
BE&K Building Group, Turner, BRPH awarded Boeing 787 Dreamliner assembly plant project
A joint venture of the BE&K Building Group and Turner Construction (BE&K | Turner), with design partner BRPH, has been awarded the design-build contract for design and construction of The Boeing Company’s new 787 Dreamliner final assembly plant in North Charleston, South Carolina.
| Aug 11, 2010
Sustainable Buildings as Teaching Tools: 4 Strategies for Integrating Buildings into Experiential Learning
4 Strategies for Integrating Buildings into Experiential Learning
| Aug 11, 2010
Using physical mockups to identify curtain wall design flaws
Part two of a five-part series on diagnosing and avoiding cladding, glazing, and roofing failures from building forensics expert IBA Consultants.
| Aug 11, 2010
Morphosis builds 'floating' house for Brad Pitt's Make It Right New Orleans foundation
Morphosis Architects, under the direction of renowned architect and UCLA professor Thom Mayne, has completed the first floating house permitted in the U.S. for Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation in New Orleans.The FLOAT House is a new model for flood-safe, affordable, and sustainable housing that is designed to float securely with rising water levels.
| Aug 11, 2010
Turner edges out Perkins+Will for the top spot on BD+C's Top 200 Building Team LEED APs ranking
With 1,006 LEED Accredited Professionals on staff, Turner Construction took the top spot on Building Design+Construction’s 2009 ranking of AEC firms with the most LEED APs, published as part of the Giants 300 report. Turner added more than 580 LEED APs during the past year to surpass Perkins+Will, which held the top spot four years running.
| Aug 11, 2010
BIG's 'folded façade' design takes first-prize in competition for China energy company headquarters
Copenhagen-based architect BIG, in collaboration with ARUP and Transsolar, was awarded first-prize in an international competition to design Shenzhen International Energy Mansion, the regional headquarters for the Shenzhen Energy Company.
| Aug 11, 2010
Guggenheim and Google team up on shelter design competition
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Google yesterday announced the launch of Design It: Shelter Competition, a global, online initiative that invites the public to use Google Earth and Google SketchUp to create and submit designs for virtual 3-D shelters for a location of their choice anywhere on Earth. The competition opened on June 8, 2009, in honor of Frank Lloyd Wright’s birthday, and closes to submissions on August 23.