With Greenbuild coming up, I think it is appropriate to say something bold. And, while the potential for ALL buildings to pursue Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification may be a little farfetched, what better goal for the design, construction and operations community is there than this?

I know some of you are saying, “This guy is crazy because not all building types apply to the LEED rating system.” Or one of my favorite myths, “LEED adds too much cost to my project and/or operations budget.” Or, “In many countries LEED is not the preferred methodology.” If you’re a real die-hard, “LEED doesn’t do enough regarding sustainability or reducing energy consumption.”

Maybe “pursue” isn’t exactly the right word to use at this point in the evolution of asset management and the green building movement. How about consider? No, that’s just not bold enough. The simple fact is if your new building project team or operations staff are not using some method of “best practices,” LEED or otherwise, there is no way to know the impacts of your facility on the environment and its occupants and, maybe more importantly to you, the bottom line of your company. We’ve all heard the phrase “you can’t manage what you don’t measure.” And in most cases — despite the intent of the best design, construction or operations teams on the planet — you probably have no idea what your project’s impacts are.

If we want our buildings to be safe; provide healthy air to breathe and water to drink; be conducive to the work performed there or contribute to increased sales; last a long time; be located in the best possible place; and optimally oriented to minimize energy use, then we must follow some prescriptive paths which verify that performance and initial intents and goals are met. We must begin each and every one of our projects with the end in mind:

1.) What is the necessary ROI and payback for my firm in the pursuit of this project?

2.) How long will we own the building? Are we designing the building’s systems for the long life we expect? How will these systems be to maintain or how much will they cost to operate over 20, 30 or even 50 years?

3.) How connected to the surrounding community does our project/building seek to be? Does this impact sales/occupancy/occupant or owner satisfaction? Is transportation a consideration?

4.) What are the project’s energy use and cost reduction goals? Greenhouse gas reduction goals? What methods will be used to ensure a quality installation of equipment that operates correctly? How will we address maintenance and performance decay over the life of the building?

5.) What are the project’s water use reduction goals?

6.) Do we envision the use of local, rapid renewable or otherwise low-impact materials and methods?

7.) What are our goals for indoor environmental quality, clean air, natural lighting and access to the outdoors?

The LEED rating system is one of many ways to help manage and track the above. Without a third-party verification system, the long and sometimes chaotic design and construction process can make “knowing” what you have or have not accomplished impossible to track, and ultimately promote, with any certainty. If the building industry seeks to also minimize a building’s impacts, then we must measure what we are doing now in all buildings.

Without LEED, BREEAM, CALGreen, energy standards or the simplest of codes, we cannot measure, manage or even understand any of the impacts that are important to us. Since we are trying to minimize or reduce these impacts, which are all that any of these do, at a minimum these standards should be applied to every project or existing building possible. Further, we should be looking far beyond these to net zero and to restorative and regenerative strategies asking, “How can this facility contribute to the natural capital of our city or region?”

In the future, I hope best approaches will be mainstream and the answers to these questions will become clearer.

Yes, all buildings should pursue LEED certification (or your local flavor). But, we can’t stop there. In order to create great places for people to live and work — the landmarks of tomorrow — we must also consider onsite renewable energy production and net-zero energy, water and waste strategies today.