Executive Housekeeping Today - April 2008 - (Page 11)

LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance The majority of buildings in the United States are existing buildings; and the existing buildings market is nearly 80 times larger than the new construction market. Unfortunately, most of the existing buildings that dot our land and cityscapes are operating with little efficiency in terms of energy and water, and are negatively impacting CO2 emissions. Making your existing building smarter and more efficient will have a major impact on reducing the amount of negative substances put into the surrounding environment. The LEED (Leadership in Engineering and Environmental Design) for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance (O&M) Rating System is a tool for maximizing efficient operations in existing buildings. It identifies and rewards best practices and measures environmental achievement. LEED for Existing Buildings: O&M also provides an outline for how buildings can use less energy, water, and fewer natural resources; improve the indoor environment; and uncover operating inefficiencies. LEED for Existing Buildings: O&M provides a set of performance standards for third-party verification of the operations and maintenance of existing commercial, institutional, and highrise residential buildings. The performance standards address issues such as site maintenance, water conservation, indoor air quality, energy saving programs, purchasing, recycling programs, and Green cleaning. LEED for Existing Buildings: O&M is the result of major revisions to the LEED for t by Lauren Riggs Existing Buildings Rating System and is designed to clearly supply owners and operators of existing buildings with a toolkit to implement sustainable operations and maintenance practices, as well as reduce the environmental impact of a building over its functional lifecycle. The primary goal for revising LEED for Existing Buildings was to address customer feedback regarding project documentation burden, the prescriptive nature of the credits and the overlap with the LEED for New Construction Rating System. LEED for Existing Buildings: O&M is a user-friendly tool, where the users are building owners and operators. Improvements to the rating system include expanded sections on water efficiency, energy efficiency, and Green cleaning. There are now 50% more points available within the rating system for energy efficiency and a whole collection of new credits for energy best practices, including auditing, existing building commissioning, and ongoing commissioning. Double the number of points are now available within the water efficiency category and new credits for water metering and cooling tower water efficiency have also been added. In addition, Green cleaning has been consolidated and is now included in the indoor environmental quality category; greater emphasis has been added to achieving a comprehensive Green cleaning program and the use of performance metrics for cleaning effectiveness. Improvements by performance category include: • The Stormwater Manage- ment credit: The value was reduced to one point. By specifying the mitigation of rainfall instead of stormwater for the whole site, the requirement is clearer and encourages broader thinking. • The Light Pollution Reduction credit: This now clearly splits requirements for inside versus outside lighting. • The Water Efficiency Prerequisite and Minimum Indoor Plumbing Fixture and Fitting Efficiency: Updates include enabling older buildings to participate in the rating system without completely gutting all bathroom fixtures, including porcelain parts. • The Water Efficient Landscaping credit: The language has been rewritten to include projects without landscaping. If a project does not have landscaping, utilizing planters will only earn points if they cover at least 5% of the site area. • The Energy and Atmosphere section: This now lists the updated minimum energy performance standard for existing buildings (ENERGY STAR rating), as well as offers a reward for buildings that meter and track operational equipment performance. By providing incentives for sub-metering, the rating system aims to smooth the path to a high ENERGY STAR score and make future energy data collection easier. • Sustainable Purchasing: This new prerequisite was added to the Materials and Resources section, encouraging projects to evaluate the items that are purchased (continued on next page) April 2008/Executive Housekeeping Today

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Executive Housekeeping Today - April 2008

Executive Housekeeping Today - April 2008 Contents Executive Corner Green Certification Issues The Green Benefit from the Roof Down Frugal Housekeeper LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance Greening with Mats A Greener Approach to Laundry Feature Article 2008 Candidate Information The Green Scene 2008 Convention Information Get Into the "O-Zone" Product Highlights CEH/REH Members New Members Joint IEHA/ISSA Members Advertisers' Index Calendar of Events Inside I.E.H.A. What I.E.H.A. Has Done For Me

Executive Housekeeping Today - April 2008

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