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The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced the availability of the LEED Volume Program for Operations & Maintenance, for existing green-building projects.
The track, which focuses on operations and maintenance needs, made its formal debut at the recent BOMA (Building Owners and Managers Association) International Conference in Washington, D.C.
The LEED Volume Program streamlines the certification process for high-volume property owners and managers of existing buildings and new construction projects, USGBC says. Utilizing a prototype-based approach, the program enables large-scale builders, owners and managers to earn LEED certification faster and at a lower cost than would be possible with individual building reviews, the organization says.
“With the launch of the Operations & Maintenance track, LEED’s largest users are now able to make a sizable impact in greening their existing building portfolio as well as achieving green design and construction of their new builds,” said Scot Horst, senior vice president, USGBC.
“Because existing buildings make up the vast majority of the U.S. building stock and the existing building market is nearly 100 times larger than the new construction market, tools like this are essential to reducing energy consumption from this sector,” Horst said.
USGBC says the Operations & Maintenance track was crafted by 11 commercial real estate firms, national retailers, hospitality providers, colleges and universities, local and state governments, and federal agencies. Participants in the process included Cushman & Wakefield, Bentall Kennedy, the city of San Jose, Kohl’s Department Stores, Stop & Shop, Bank of America, University of Florida, American University, University of California Santa Barbara, Wells Fargo,and InterContinental Hotels Group.
“The LEED Volume Program benefitted both our corporate tenant and investor clients by providing a streamlined and cost-effective approach to certification,” said John Santora, Client Solutions, Cushman & Wakefield, a Volume Pilot participant. “It also allowed us to educate and empower our management professionals so that they are now able to implement sustainable operations and practices at our properties.”
Currently, 18 Cushman & Wakefield properties are certified, representing 8 million square feet of commercial real estate.
Bentall Kennedy, another participant in the development of the volume program, has 45 LEED-certified buildings, representing more than 8 million square feet of commercial space.
In all, more than 625 building projects have certified through the LEED Volume Program, including properties owned by Starwood Hotels & Resorts, The PNC Financial Services Group, Best Buy, Marriott, Citigroup, and Starbucks Coffee Company. USGBC launched the program for the design and construction of new building projects at its Greenbuild International Conference & Expo in November 2010.
More information on the program: LEED Volume Program, O&M.
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