Buildings Can Voluntarily Submit Performance Data to Inform Future Version of LEED

Washington, DC – (July 22, 2010) – Last summer, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced its Building Performance Partnership (BPP), a program to engage owners and managers of commercial and residential LEED-certified green buildings, optimizing the performance of buildings through data collection, analysis and action. Starting this summer, USGBC has opened the program to all current whole-building LEED-certified commercial and residential projects.  BPP will further the efforts to understand how buildings perform from the moment of LEED certification and years beyond.

This partnership among USGBC and the thousands of LEED project owners will result in the population of a comprehensive green building performance database and enable standardization of reporting metrics and analytics to establish new building performance benchmarks.

“The significance of USGBC conducting this research is to inform future iterations of the LEED green building program. By providing a large and accurate data set critical to supporting the ongoing improvement of LEED and continuous optimization of LEED-certified projects, BPP will ensure LEED projects deliver on their extraordinary environmental and economic potential,” said Scot Horst, Senior Vice President, LEED. “BPP is the foundation of USGBC’s commitment to a meaningful demonstration of the value of building and operating green.”

Participation of current LEED-certified buildings is voluntary.  The partnership is made up of owners, managers and occupants of buildings of all sizes and types that are committed to improving their own performance as well as helping drive the ongoing development of LEED. The LEED buildings that participate in the partnership will receive annual information on performance, specifically comparing predicted or actual performance at the time of certification with the project’s current performance. Additionally, the report will show aggregated data of like buildings and certification levels, and will act as a case study of a project’s strong performance and/or significant improvement. Currently more than 120 projects are participating in Phase One, and these projects will receive a basic performance report in time for Greenbuild 2010 in Chicago this November.

“There is all too often a disconnect or predicted performance gap between energy modeling done during design and what actually happens during daily operation after the building has been constructed, due to occupant behavior and other factors,” added Horst.  “In order to improve upon LEED and for projects that perform lower than anticipated, BPP will help projects meet operational sustainability goals sought originally during the design and construction process.  The data will shed light on external issues such as occupant behavior or unanticipated building usage patterns.”
No building will be decertified for performance or a performance gap, rather this information will be used to inform and help projects achieve higher levels of performance.     

Phase One of the BPP rollout is focused on energy and water. This data-collection effort will be based in ENERGY STAR’s Portfolio Manager for LEED-certified commercial projects and in Earth Aid for LEED-certified residential projects. Owners of projects certified under LEED for New Construction, LEED for Core & Shell, LEED for Schools, or LEED for Existing Buildings who are interested in participating should follow USGBC’s Sharing Access to ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager Data instructions <http://www.usgbc.org/ShowFile.aspx?DocumentID=7056> and create an account in Portfolio Manager. Owners of LEED-certified homes can contact their LEED for Homes Provider to set up a user account with Earth Aid <http://www.earthaid.net/bpi> .

To learn more about the Building Performance Partnership, visit <http://www.usgbc.org/bpp>  

Building Performance Partnership
USGBC’s Building Performance Partnership, which is a data collection of LEED-certified buildings to measure energy, water, human health and natural resources performance metrics, kicked off with a series of regional building summits in September and October 2009 in five cities across the country, starting a community dialogue at the local level. The summits, held in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Washington, D.C., convened 75 to 100 representatives from local, state and federal governments, USGBC chapters, LEED project teams, developers, the A/E/C community and others.

U.S. Green Building Council
The USGBC community is transforming the way we build, design and operate our buildings for healthier places that save precious resources for people to live, work, learn and play in.  UGSBC is helping create buildings and communities that regenerate and sustain the health and vitality of all life within a generation.  Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the Council is the driving force of the green building industry, which is projected to contribute $554 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product by 2013. USGBC leads a diverse constituency of builders and environmentalists, corporations and nonprofit organizations, elected officials, concerned citizens, teachers and students.  The USGBC community comprises 80 local chapters, 17,000 member companies and organizations, and more than 150,000 individuals who have earned LEED Professional Credentials.  Visit www.usgbc.org <http://www.usgbc.org/> for more information. 

LEED
The U.S. Green Building Council's LEED green building certification system has transformed commercial and residential building practices by providing the nation’s leading tool to create buildings that are environmentally and socially responsible, healthy and prosperous.  The influential program for the design, construction and operation of green buildings, over 33,000 commercial projects are currently participating in LEED rating systems, comprising over 7 billion square feet of construction space in all 50 states and 114 countries. In addition, over 6,000 homes have been certified under the LEED for Homes rating system, with more than 26,000 more homes registered.  By using less energy, LEED-certified buildings save money for families, businesses and taxpayers; reduce greenhouse gas emissions; and contribute to a healthier environment for residents, workers and the larger community.

USGBC was co-founded by current President and CEO Rick Fedrizzi, who spent 25 years as a Fortune 500 executive.  Under his 16-year leadership, the organization has become the preeminent green building, membership, policy, standards, education and research organization in the nation.