Heapy Engineering has been involved in more than 100 LEED projects to date, with a good portion of them on college and university campuses. Our higher education projects are located on some of the finest campuses in the country including: The Ohio State University, Denison University, University of Dayton, Wright State University, Centre College, University of Cincinnati, Kenyon College, University of Toledo, and Miami (Ohio) University, just to name a few.

Our involvement has been either as the LEED program management consultant, the commissioning authority, the mechanical-electrical design engineer or any combination of these three services. Thus, on a number of these projects we were also able to observe how others are managing the LEED documentation and certification process. Combining those observations with the lessons learned from our own LEED program management work, we developed fundamental criteria we feel are essential to produce a successful LEED project.

This article highlights some of these key lessons learned. Specific university and/or project names will not be identified, as the “lessons learned” are the focus. By presenting some of our findings here, our hope is to help level the learning curve so that others can successfully move their LEED projects forward.

Eco-Charrettes – Successful Beginning

Heapy provided the engineering design, LEED program management and commissioning services for this $25 million classroom expansion project on the University of Toledo campus. This former basketball fieldhouse was completely renovated to house three levels of classrooms and faculty offices, taking full advantage of the large expanses of existing window and skylight areas to flood the building with natural light. Rendering courtesy of BHDP Architecture.

First, we assessed the impact of holding an eco-charrette and its effect on the project’s LEED certification process. The eco-charrette is held in the early stages of design instead of the less detailed process of simply reviewing a LEED credit checklist.

We found to facilitate a successful, integrated and team-focused approach to achieving the project’s sustainable goal, this teambuilding event (eco-charrette) should be held. The eco-charrette is most successful when the entire project team (owner, designers, etc.) along with project stakeholders (building users, community members, etc.) all attend. This charrette is the first opportunity for the team to share sustainable design ideas and develop green goals for the project in pursuit of LEED certification. The collaborative approach of an eco-charrette produces a consensus on the most practical and applicable sustainability strategies to implement.

We have found that starting first with a LEED credit checklist simply creates a disjointed and non-coordinated list of potential green strategies to include in the project. We have also heard the horror stories of how particular LEED projects have become expensive by chasing specific LEED points. This is especially true when otherwise great sustainable strategies have been included in projects simply to achieve points, even though those strategies don’t make practical, or even environmentally sound sense for a particular project.

The main theme we observed on projects which held an eco-charrette was that those project teams stayed smoothly on course throughout the entire project versus the constant (i.e., costly) re-evaluation of LEED priorities the other projects suffered. We believe this is because the eco-charrette projects had a well-discussed, thought-out and established game plan. More importantly, all participants bought in to achieving the LEED (sustainability) goal.

Dedicated LEED Consultant

The mechanical and electrical systems for this new Energy Institute for Hocking College (Ohio) have been designed by Heapy to help beat energy code by nearly 50 percent. This training facility for green collar jobs in the renewable energy systems industry has also been designed to achieve a significant (58 percent) reduction in water usage. Rendering courtesy of DesignGroup.

Second, we evaluated whether it was more beneficial to have a dedicated LEED consultant to manage the LEED documentation and certification process versus assigning a member of the core design/construction team to manage this additional task. We felt this information would be valuable for us to determine the best method for staffing our own design projects where we are also contracted to provide LEED program management services.

Where teams chose to assign a member of the design/construction team to also manage the LEED process, it placed that individual in a dual role regarding project responsibility. In this situation, especially on complex projects, management of the LEED process was often left as that individual’s secondary focus. This typically resulted in a fairly negative impact on the overall LEED outcome of the project.

For example, on a number of projects where this dual role occurred, the result was often a delayed certification process. This delay was not just by months, but some were certified as many as three years after construction completion.

Additionally, the documentation effort for several credits (and prerequisites) fell through the cracks during the design and construction periods. Thus, after construction was complete, it was too late to document, and in most cases implement, many LEED credits — effectively eliminating them from being attainable. Often, these projects’ results were a lower level of LEED certification, or even lost the chance to become LEED certified at all.

Further, we noted that assigning an experienced LEED consultant to a project greatly improved the communication and lessened the confusion among the design and construction team regarding implementation and documentation of specific LEED credits. The LEED consultant’s primary role is to manage the LEED documentation and certification process for the project from start to finish. A LEED consultant keeps up to date with the latest USGBC-issued CIRs (Credit Interpretation Requests) and brings actual credit application experience from several other projects. This experience and knowledge significantly reduces the effort that other team members would otherwise have to provide.

LEED Experienced Team

Along with providing the mechanical-electrical systems design, Heapy facilitated the LEED eco-charrette for the new Diggs Research Laboratory on the campus of Wright State University (Ohio). Specific goals set at the eco-charrette have been met, with the building being completed under project budget while beating energy code by 40 percent. Photo courtesy of BHDP Architecture.

Third, in developing teams for upcoming projects, we wanted to know any specific qualities team members (designers, construction managers, contractors, et al) should possess that would be critical to the LEED success of a project.

It was certainly obvious from the start that the most successful projects were ones where team members had previous LEED project experience. Even experience from a single project provides a vast difference in how well that next project navigates through the LEED process. Next were projects where team members had buy-in to the overall sustainability goal (LEED certification), but not necessarily where they had LEED project experience. This second level of LEED proficiency was augmented with those projects having an experienced and knowledgeable LEED consultant to educate and guide the design and construction team.

We have several other observations from our projects that will be shared in later articles, but we believe these were three of the most important observations that came out of our “lessons learned” process.

Sidebar: Lessons Learned

Eco-Charrettes – Successful Beginning
Dedicated LEED Consultant
LEED Experienced Team