Tenants recently moved into a new LEED-certified student housing building on Packard Street, welcoming the new school year in space that has been rehabilitated according to guidelines provided by the United States Green Building Council.

A LEED certificate is not magic gold dust that you sprinkle over a project when it's done. Getting a LEED certification for a building involves an extended process of certification by the individuals involved in the building trades, as well as an audit and inspection process for the construction, operations or renovation itself. Here are some relevant links, including enough links to help you get LEED Green Associate status yourself.

What is LEED?

The term LEED is a trademark of the U.S. Green Building Council; it stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. The Detroit Regional Chapter of the USGBC is the local organizing authority.

How does a person become LEED certified?

LEED certification is a multistep process, involving a combination of practical experience, classroom education and testing to show that you understand the principles. From the green building council:

"The LEED Professional Credentials indicate professional excellence and a strong depth of knowledge and practical understanding of the LEED Rating Systems. Preparing to take the LEED Accredited Professional and LEED Green Associate exams is a process; it involves more than taking just one course."

The first step in the process is to pass the LEED Green Associate exam. Test preparation is available from mulitple sources; typical prep is a multiple week exam with study materials, followed by a certification test. A typical online prep course, such as the one from Green Building Education Services, offers 700 practice test questions, $50 unlimited use for 60 days, plus an exam simulator.

To be eligible to take the test, you must provide documentation that you have been involved in a LEED project, employed in a sustainable field of work, or that you have completed or are engaged in an education program that addresses green building principles. An application fee ($50) plus an exam fee ($200, or $150 for full time students and members) is required. To keep your credentials, you have to earn 15 continuing education hours in each two-year reporting period.

Green Associate level membership is designed for individuals who are involved in the LEED process, e.g. as real estate agents, urban planners or homeowners embarking on a major construction project. The LEED Accredited Professional program is aimed at architects and builders who have other professional and trade credentials.

USGBC now has more than 19,000 members, and in March, the USGBC announced that its 5,000th project had been certified. In Ann Arbor, 225 people have been accredited.

How does a building become certified?

To oversimplify to the point where I can understand it, there's a checklist. There's a different checklist for every kind of project and someone who has gone through the certification process administers the process of auditing the construction, renovation, or operations to ensure that the checklist has been followed.

LEED Schools are Green Schools

Green School Buildings is the USGBC program for schools. The Green Schools' program details describe the effort in detail. There's a 20 point certification process; buildings scoring 10 of 20 points are Green, 15 of 20 score Emerald, and a perfect score 20 of 20 is Evergreen.

Ann Arbor Public Schools' "Green Schools" program has received Green Schools qualification for 14 buildings, listed below:

Allen Elementary - 3rd consecutive year being certified, awarded Emerald status
Bach Elementary - 3rd consecutive year being certified, awarded Emerald status
Bryant Elementary
Eberwhite Elementary - 2nd consecutive year being certified, awarded Evergreen status
Forsythe Middle
King Elementary - 2nd consecutive year being certified, awarded Emerald status
Lawton Elementary - 2nd consecutive year being certified, awarded Emerald status
Logan Elementary - awarded Emerald status
Mitchell Elementary - 3rd consecutive year being certified
Northside Elementary
Pattengill Elementary - 2nd consecutive year being certified
Slauson Middle - awarded Emerald status
Thurston Elementary
Wines Elementary

LEED deconstruction

You can get LEED certification for unbuilding a building as well as for building a building. This report from the Green Architecture and Building Report, written by Mignon O'Young, a California licensed architect and LEED Accredited Professional, describes the deconstruction and reconstruction of the properties at 300 W. Forest in Ypsilanti for SchoolPictures.com:

"Domino's Pizza, Ave Maria College, and SchoolPictures.com. How are these 3 connected? The new headquarters of SchoolPictures.com is housed in buildings that used to belong to Ave Maria College which was founded by Thomas S. Monaghan, the founder of Domino's Pizza. But more important than that fact is that SchoolPictures.com's new home will become the first LEED certified commercial building in Ypsilanti, a 4.2 square mile city near Ann Arbor, Michigan."

How much does LEED construction cost?

There are incremental costs to LEED construction, but if you pick a LEED level that's appropriate to the facility, it can cost less than you might plan. In a story we ran earlier this year, Ann Arbor Township IMRA America facility earns LEED Gold certification, we reported:

"Constructing a LEED-certified facility added an additional 3-5 percent of expenses to a project that cost slightly less than $5 million, (Dennis Hawley, manager of facilities, environment and quality assurance for IMRA) said. That fell below original expectations, though, that LEED certification would cost between 7-12 percent more. Seeking the platinum certification, Hawley added, would have brought unreasonable costs. "To go (further) would have been real expensive," he said. "We would have had to build this in an urban area and tear down another building, bring in light rail - we're not going to do that."

LEED for neighborhoods

There is a new program dubbed LEED for Neighborhood Development, which addresses the needs of sustainable neighborhoods:

"The LEED for Neighborhood Development Rating System integrates the principles of smart growth, urbanism and green building into the first national system for neighborhood design."

This is a new program; the LEED for Homes Michigan Facebook page, coordinated by the US Green Building Council, West Michigan chapter, is full of information and contact details.

Edward Vielmetti was busy adding on-site stormwater detention to his home this weekend. Reach him at 734-330-2465.