LEED certification costs (LEED Premium) can involve consultants, USGBC (GBCI) fees, building improvements, etc. As I have mentioned in previous columns, an integrated approach among all project stakeholders is essential to ensure a successful LEED certification. Potentially adding urgency for an immediate buy-in from all stakeholders, a significant drop in this potential LEED Premium is typically experienced the sooner the decision is made to pursue LEED certification on new building certification projects.

Heapy Engineering is involved in more than 130 LEED projects of all types (and LEED Rating Systems) and we have seen Gold-certified projects come in under budget — these being the “early decision” projects. As an example of “the other side,” we are involved as the LEED Consultant for a large, more than $100 million project where the decision to pursue LEED certification was made very late in the process (when we were first contacted, this multi-story project already had a roof). This project is slated to attain the Certified level with less than a 1 percent project premium (mostly due to the owner’s and construction manager’s credit to include green aspects from the start).

We have seen a 2 to 3 percent LEED Premium for Silver and about 3 to 5 percent for Gold as typical parameters to use in budgeting for new building projects. Smaller projects (less than $10 million) have less overall budget to absorb the increased consultant fees for commissioning, LEED services and energy modeling, etc., so their “premiums” are higher percentages. As in the example above, even if a large project experiences a substantial additional cost, the overall percentage of project cost is typically lower.

With participation in the LEED for Existing Buildings Operations and Maintenance (LEED-EBOM) Rating System just gaining momentum (and since the LEED-EBOM Rating System was only recently upgraded), not much data exists yet on implementation costs. However, I can provide a progress update on our pursuit of LEED-EBOM certification of the 45,000-square-foot Heapy headquarters. 

As winter settles in across the country, building owners and operators are constantly reminded of their escalating energy costs. For cost-effective and environmentally responsible building practices, they are increasingly turning to the LEED-EBOM Rating System.

We estimated that it would take approximately 70 hours for our Commissioning Services personnel and 100 hours for our LEED Services staff (for documentation and certification efforts) to complete our certification process. With our headquarters’ high ENERGY STAR rating and our purchase of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) to offset 100 percent of our building’s energy consumption, we achieved a significant number of Energy & Atmosphere category credit points at minimal expense. (We actually paid for the RECs with the cost savings from using an electronic holiday card. We eliminated the mailing and paper cost of a traditional paper card and further supported our corporate commitment to minimize our paper usage.) We foresee our overall cost to pursue LEED-EBOM to be less than $25,000. More importantly, we anticipate a good return on our investment (ROI) resulting from the operational savings of the various sustainable strategies we have implemented (retro-commissioning for energy savings, paper cost reduction, etc.).

If you get a chance to read Jerry Yudelson’s latest book, Greening Existing Buildings, he has summarized costs incurred and effort invested by owners and their building teams as they pursued LEED-EB certification on 25 different projects. As with any of Yudelson’s books, it is another easy and informative read. The case studies and accompanying research are provided with ample detail to give you a great snapshot of what other building owners and managers have done to pursue their LEED for Existing Buildings certification. There is a chapter titled “Lessons Learned - Ten Best Practices for Greening Existing Buildings,” this would be a good place to start your own efforts.


In future issues of Sustainable Facility magazine, this author will address specific topics regarding the LEED-EB: O&M documentation and certification process. Among the topics in this series will be recycling and green cleaning as well as how to implement the sustainable strategies of LEED-EB: O&M addressing HVAC, water and lighting systems.