LEED consultants

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Author Message Anonymous   Posted on Monday, September 18, 2006 - 06:04 pm:    If you have worked on a project involving a LEED consultant, what has been your experience? Was the LEED consultant's involvement essential, or at least valuable? Was it worth the fee charged? Were there any problems? Were you pleasantly (or unpleasantly) suprised? What advice would you offer someone contemplating engaging a LEED consultant regarding what to look for, including possible pitfalls? If you prefer, post anonymously, as I have. (Partial disclosure: I am forum member, architect and specifier, but not a LEED consultant.) (Unregistered Guest) Unregistered guest Posted on Monday, September 18, 2006 - 06:13 pm:    We have and do; our experience has been 95% favorable. Our consultant is worth the fee and then some. We appreciate the design input more than construction phase services. I'd encourage you to be very highly selective in your choice, and to find an actual USGBC reviewer to act as a consultant to your team. We think the LEED consultant should have a complete scope of services, and to prepare the certification binder. Also, we are not interested in architectural firms who act as LEED consultants; we find those firms are heavily invested in product selections and so forth and generally not sufficiently informed nor effective with respect to a) commissioning, b) instrumentation - measurement and verification, c) industrial operations and systems which are a part of our projects, d) energy budget modeling. Anonymous   Posted on Monday, September 18, 2006 - 06:40 pm:    Unquestionably beneficial, IF they are more of the technical/clerical type, and prepare and track all the paperwork throughout the project. The more "pie in the sky" abstract theorists are considerably less effective for the design professional of record. (Unregistered Guest) Unregistered guest Posted on Monday, September 18, 2006 - 06:48 pm:    I wholeheartedly agree with Anonymous about the 'abstract theorists' being less than beneficial. We get better mileage when we move beyond the 'goals' stage and simply indicate "what we want" in the construction. Our contractors are not appreciating a lot of research during construction! William C. Pegues, FCSI, CCS Senior Member Username: wpegues Post Number: 620 Registered: 10-2002 Posted on Monday, September 18, 2006 - 11:33 pm:    We have worked with some very good ones that have provided valuable assistance with projects leading to developing reasonably well developed master sections. Then we have worked with a few (a very few, the majority being just fine) that rather than provide specific input make marginal notes like, "this needs to be beefed up". Right, like that is a real help. But like I imply, these are very few. We do considerable work in 2 counties/cities that have Sustainable requirements...Arlington, Virginia and Austin, Texas - the later has their own sustainable program, not LEED. The later does not get our call on the next project - nor a recommendaton to an Owner. William Anonymous   Posted on Friday, June 22, 2007 - 04:10 am:    I would rather have a LEED consultant than not have one on the team. Some are better than others. Many do not understand specifications and insist on adding language to sections that break all the rules of specifying. Fees are all over the map - I have seen fees up to $100,000 for a highrise building - and as low as $15,000 for same building. Russell W. Wood, CSI, CCS Senior Member Username: woodr5678 Post Number: 90 Registered: 11-2003 Posted on Friday, June 22, 2007 - 08:42 am:    Does anyone have a ballpark of how much (extra) a LEED building would cost...say silver. I've heard anywhere from 2-25 percent more. We're a government agency on the verge of going green...but every time I raise the cost issue I get dirty looks. Lars Hubbard New member Username: larshubb Post Number: 1 Registered: 06-2007 Posted on Monday, June 25, 2007 - 10:39 am:    Take a look at http://www.usgbc.org/Docs/Resources/Cost_of_Green_Full.pdf. LEED silver buildings can be less expensive than a 'conventional' building, or more, or equivalent.... We tend to believe, and communicate this fact to our clients, that a building capable of LEED Silver is just a well-designed building. As such, it should not cost any more, and usually doesn't. Anne Whitacre, FCSI CCS Senior Member Username: awhitacre Post Number: 572 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Monday, June 25, 2007 - 02:46 pm:    my experience in my previous job was that LEED silver is about a 2% upcharge (not counting additional fees); gold is about 10-15% more and platinum can be all over the map -- often 25% to 35% more. the administrative costs for the contractor and the architect can often be a higher cost than the actual increase in the building cost. I was typically hearing .75% FTE on the contractor side for administration (3/4 of 1 full time person for the project)