Two
recently released studies, one by the New Buildings Institute (
NBI)
and one by
CoStar Group, have validated what the green building
community has known all along: third-party-certified buildings outperform their
conventional counterparts across a wide variety of metrics, including energy
savings, occupancy rates, sale price and rental rates.
In the NBI
study, the results indicate that new buildings certified under the U.S. Green
Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design (LEED) certification system are, on average,
performing 25-30 percent better than non-LEED certified buildings in terms of
energy use. The study also demonstrates that there is a correlation between
increasing levels of LEED certification and increased energy savings. Gold and
Platinum LEED certified buildings have average energy savings approaching 50
percent.
“The NBI Study confirms that newly constructed LEED certified
buildings use significantly less energy than their conventional counterparts,
and that they perform better overall,” said Brendan Owens,
vice president, LEED Technical Development, U.S. Green Building Council.
“The report also underscores that monitoring a building’s ongoing
operations and maintenance, as required in LEED for Existing Buildings:
Operations & Maintenance and ENERGY STAR, is equally
important,” continued Owens. “Buildings are complicated systems and achieving
and maintaining high performance is a process that requires the ongoing
discipline and commitment to green practices. LEED and ENERGY STAR provide
building owners and operators with valuable structure to maintain high
performance and deliver savings over time.”
Energy savings under EPA's
ENERGY STAR program are equally impressive: buildings that have earned the
ENERGY STAR label use an average of almost 40 percent less energy than average
buildings, and emit 35 percent less carbon.
But beyond the obvious
implications of reduced energy use and reduced carbon emissions, the results
from both studies strengthen the "business case" for green buildings
as financially sound investments.
According to the CoStar study, LEED
buildings command rent premiums of $11.24 per square foot over their non-LEED
peers and have 3.8 percent higher occupancy. Rental rates in ENERGY STAR
buildings represent a $2.38 per square foot premium over comparable non- ENERGY
STAR buildings and have 3.6 percent higher occupancy.
And, in a trend
that could signal greater attention from institutional investors, ENERGY STAR
buildings are selling for an average of $61 per square foot more than their
peers, while LEED buildings command a remarkable $171 more per square foot.
The group analyzed more than 1,300 LEED Certified and ENERGY STAR
buildings representing about 351 million square feet in CoStar’s commercial
property database of roughly 44 billion square feet, and assessed those buildings
against non-green properties with similar size, location, class, tenancy and
year-built characteristics to generate the results.
“ENERGY STAR is a
prerequisite in LEED for Existing Buildings, signaling our strong commitment to
the energy savings component of green buildings,” said Owens. “Add to that the
additional performance enhancements in LEED around intelligent site selection,
water conversation, improved indoor air quality, waste reduction and smarter
materials selections, and it’s easy to understand why owners and tenants are
placing a premium on green buildings.”
The NBI study was funded by USGBC with support from the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency and can be accessed at: www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=77#usgbc_publications.
For more information on the CoStar study, visit: www.costar.com/News/Article.aspx?id=D968F1E0DCF73712B03A099E0E99C679.
