Why Low-Impact Development is Critical: A Texas-Sized Example

By Rumanda Young

After a webinar on low-impact development (LID) with RedVector, I thought it appropriate to post a blog on how important the LID approach has become within the Edwards Aquifer recharge zones in Texas Hill Country. The Edwards Aquifer fulfills the water needs (recreation, industry, and residential) of south central Texas, specifically in the highly populated areas of San Antonio and Austin.

The aquifer has special meaning to Texans. In truth, San Antonio would not exist without the aquifer. There are many beautiful and meaningful Edwards Aquifer water features. The website, edwardsaquifer.net, offers a collection of images and short essays about some of the most significant features.

The Blue Hole, Barton Springs, Leona Springs, and many others hold a special place in both history books and hearts. Barton Springs has special memories for me as a summer fun spot in Austin, Texas. In 2003, the natural pool was closed for environmental testing and the results depicted contamination from urbanization.

Many hydrologists fear that uncontrolled urbanization will eventually lead to closing Barton Springs. In 2008, Robert Redford co-produced a documentary titled the Unforseen as part as the fight to preserve this precious natural resource.

The Blue Hole in San Antonio was once a fountain spring. In 1857, Frederick Law Olmsted described the beauty in the following way:

...The San Antonio Spring may be classed as the first water among the gems of the natural world. The whole river gushes up in one sparkling burst from the earth. It has all the beautiful accompaniments of a smaller spring, moss, pebbles, seclusion, sparkling sunbeams, and dense overhanging luxuriant foliage. The effect is overpowering. It is beyond your possible conceptions of a spring. You cannot believe your eyes, and almost shrink from sudden metamorphosis by invaded nymphdom.

The Blue Hole no longer fits Olmsted’s description, but is still a beautiful natural retreat from urbanization.

Due to the historic reliance on the Edwards Aquifer, very little surface water facilities have been developed. Water demand in this high populace, semi-arid climate area is beyond the Aquifer's capacity. Each precious inch of rainwater that falls is essential to capture and recharge. Therefore, low-impact development techniques/approaches within the recharge and contributing zones are crucial. The benefits for Texas Hill Country would be groundwater recharge, cleaner streams and rivers, urban heat island effect reduction, improvement in local air quality, and enhancement in the aesthetic quality of Hill Country. Currently, there is an initiative for public agency representatives to develop a technical guidance manual for using low-impact development techniques in arid and karst regions. This would be a wonderful tool to help conserve our much needed stormwater in Texas.

Are you Green Experienced?

By Ryan Sparks

Obtaining certifications and/or credentials can be addictive. For some, it’s the thrill of passing the exam. For others, it’s the ego boost they get from seeing the acronyms after their name that take up two lines on their business card. Others just like to wallpaper their office with certificates. Regardless of the reason, if you are a Green Associate, the next credential to shoot for is becoming a LEED AP. The only problem is that GBCI requires you demonstrate experience on a LEED project in order to qualify for the exam.

But what about all the sales professionals that want to become LEED APs to establish credibility with their green clients? Or all the attorneys that want to establish a niche in green building law? How are they supposed to qualify for the exam?

So maybe sales professionals and attorneys do not garner a lot of sympathy from the general public, or maybe architects and engineers like this obstacle because they feel it keeps their credential more prestigious. The fact of the matter is that unless you are working in a firm with LEED projects, your chances of getting LEED experience is limited to the following:

• Volunteering – Non-profits like Habitat for Humanity and Enterprise Green Communities (http://www.greencommunitiesonline.org/) provide volunteer options to work on LEED affordable housing projects.
  
  
• Interning – This is not an option for a working professional, but students or recent grads can try to obtain unpaid positions with firms that work on LEED projects.
  
  
• Buying the Experience – Many LEED exam prep sites are now selling project experience that is limited to participation in weekly web conferences at a cost starting around $400.
  

The problem is exacerbated by the fact that many professionals that are already LEED APs are also clamoring to work on LEED projects to build up their experience and resume. So until there is real boom in LEED construction, Green Associates are going to have to look for creative ways to get their name listed on a LEED project.

Can Green Jobs Save the Future of Construction?

By: Jeff Nippes

It has been a rough couple of years for the economy, and the design and construction industry has been hit about as hard as anyone. All you hear about in the news is recession this, great depression that, how long it will take to recover from the real estate bubble bursting, how many jobs the industry has lost etc. etc.

How about some good news for a change? For a good read check out the U.S. Green Building Council’s Green Jobs Study.

It is a fairly large document (52 pages) but if you only the read the executive summary you will probably feel a little better about our industry. The growth in green jobs is staggering.

$396 billion dollars in labor earnings from green construction is forecast from 2009-2013 compared to a very respectable $123 billion in labor earnings from 2000-2008. If you are doing the math that’s triple the labor earnings in a 5 year period compared to a 9 year period. Like I said, staggering. The economic impact directly tied to LEED related construction is equally impressive. Using the same two time periods LEED labor earnings is forecast to go from $703 million to $12.5 billion. This study was released at Green Build ’09 in November of last year so it takes into account the current economic climate.

So as the dog days of summer grind on and it seems the economy and construction industry grind with it, take a peak at the green jobs report for some feel good reading.

Do you think green jobs can help the construction industry recover?

How Many Green “Firsts” Can You Boast? Heery International’s list is impressive.

By Vicki Zambito


There’s a lot of talk about “being green”, but few companies have taken it to the level that HEERY International has. More than 25% of Heery’s staff are LEED Accredited Professionals.

The firm is proud of its sustainable “firsts”, which it lists as including:

The first LEED Gold hospital in Colorado: Heery served as the architect, programmer and planner for the Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland, Colorado, which is the largest hospital to have achieved LEED Gold certification. Heery and Poudre Valley Health Systems agreed on a fast-track design and construction process to bring the project in on time and without budget overruns. The 595,000 SF, 136-bed medical center is designed as a hospital within a hospital and houses the Heart Center of the Rockies and the Trauma Center of the Rockies.

The first LEED Gold winery in the nation: Heery provided commissioning services for the Stoller Winery in Dayton, Oregon. Work included installation checks and startup and performance verifications of building systems as required for LEED certification (Energy and Atmosphere). The project received a LEED Gold certification from USGBC, the first LEED certified new construction winery in the country.

The first LEED Gold daycare in Georgia: Heery designed Georgia Power’s first day care facilities; one at the Atlanta corporate campus and one adjacent to the Henry County Customer Care Center. Given Georgia Power’s initiatives to reduce the impact on the environment and their projects to make the air and water cleaner, one of the major requirements for the projects was that they be sustainable and obtain at least a LEED Silver certification rating. Incorporating high efficiency HVAC and lighting systems, as well as low VOC finishes into the building, helped achieve
the LEED points necessary for a sustainable project.

Other LEED firsts that Heery recognizes is the first LEED targeted power plant in the nation and the first LEED K-12 school in South Carolina.

Learn more about Heery’s LEED projects at http://www.heery.com/about_us/about_us_sustainability_leedprojects.aspx

Why so few LEED AP Homes Professionals?

By Ryan Sparks

In reviewing the latest statistics on LEED credentialed professionals, I am surprised how few “LEED AP Homes” there are in relation to the other specialty options (247 total compared to 21,000 BD&C professionals). With this tight housing market, you would think more builders would be seeking out this credential as way to distinguish themselves from the competition.

Why so few? In talking with some builders, it turns out there are a number of factors:

• Rating System Requirements: Unlike the other rating systems, LEED AP Homes is the only rating system that requires the involvement of ‘pre-approved’ entities, specifically LEED for Homes Provider and Green Rater.
  
• Competition with the NAHB: The National Association of Home Builders – offers a competing credential called the Certified Green Professional (CGP) for professionals participating in design and construction of high-performance green homes. This rival credential that has managed to attract several more individuals (4,352 more actually) than the LEED AP Homes credential .
  
• Pushing Green can Turn Off Potential Buyers: Many builders feel that getting too technical with the green details can actually overwhelm buyers and discourage sales. As a result, most builders feel they just need to be knowledge of a few features regarding lower operating and maintenance costs, instead of being a LEED expert.
  
• Appraisers Not Seeing the Green Value: Many builders are not seeing appraisers recognize the value that green features add therefore the builders are not investing the time to pursue the credential.
  

Is Your Office Green? PBSJ’s Tampa office is and they have a USGBC award to prove it!

By Vicki Zambito

PBSJ’s new corporate headquarters in Tampa was recently recognized with the Florida Gulf Coast Chapter of the USGBC’s 2010 LEEDership Commercial Interior “Project of the Year” award.
PBSJ’s Sustainable Building Design Group used a sustainable design to convert 3.5 floors within the building, roughly 90,000 gsf of commercial office space, to meet the requirements for LEED Gold for Core and Shell Building certification. The space houses 350 employees, 146 private offices, open office areas, and 10 conference rooms.

The award recognizes demonstration of a holistic approach toward integrating green building practices and principles into project design, execution, and operation, as well as the development of innovative solutions to regional design challenges.

PBSJ is the largest tenant in MetWest One, a new office building in Tampa’s Westshore business district and Westshore’s first gold certified building under the USGBC’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program.

Green Building: Why Wouldn’t You Do It?

By Jeff Nippes

I remember talking to clients several years ago, long before building Green and LEED really picked up the momentum it has now and a question that I used to get asked was “Why do I want to build green?” What they really meant was why do I want to build green if all it does is take away from my profit margin? It was generally thought that building green and to LEED Standards was just an additional expense and wouldn’t provide any additional revenue for the designer, developer, builder and owner. “It’s fine for tree huggers, let them live in a earth shelter house but I work on a bottom line so unless building green is practical and contributes to my bottom line then I’m really not that interested.”

Now, fast forward to 2010 and with more education on the subject and better standards and better overall understanding of what green building is, it is more of the standard than the anomaly. That has a lot to do with aforementioned profit margin. Building to LEED standards today only adds on average 1.8% to the total building cost which can easily be recovered in the first year or two of operation. (See Also Davis Langdon’s The Cost of Green Revisited http://www.davislangdon.com/USA/Research/ResearchFinder/2007-The-Cost-of-Green-Revisited/) LEED Certified buildings have higher occupancy rates and draw higher rents and a higher ROI. As soon as green building became more profitable it became more interesting to a lot of people. When you really look at it, most LEED and green building strategies involve more common sense than money. For example: Landscape with native plants rather than vegetation that is not native to the region and will thus require less water, use a pervious type of pavement so the water goes right back into the water table rather collecting pollutants and running off and polluting another water source, reuse building materials, buy products that have little or no volatile organic compounds, buy wood with the Forrest Stewardship Council (FSC) seal, buy local building materials when possible since they will have consumed far less resources to travel to the building site all seem like no brainers, require little or no extra money to implement and all provide LEED credit points so today the question isn’t really “Why do I want to build green?” it is, “Why wouldn’t you build green?"