LEEDuser.com's "The Cost of LEED" Report
Nov. 4, 2010 — LEED, follow or get out of the way. So goes the expression, more or less. And though more and more co-ops and condominiums pursuing "Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design: certification from the by the U.S. Green Building Council — for bragging rights, building marketability, possible tax breaks and, oh, yeah, conserving energy and protecting the environment — there's a dearth of clear information out there regarding just how much it costs to go green in a LEEDing way.
Or that was so until recently. Now a website devoted to LEED, LEED and nothing but the LEED has a $49 report that answers all the common questions about certification procedures, fees, documentation and construction and commissioning costs. Since you're probably going green anyway, this can help you do it right and get credit for being good. Because, really, do any of us ever really outgrow those gold stars our teachers use to give us? Well, gave to the other kids, but that's a long story....
LEEDuser.com, a website of the 25-year-old green-practices publishing and consulting company BuildingGreen, LLC, is designed specifically to help with LEED projects. A preview of its report "The Cost of LEED" itself gives a lot of pointers for savvy LEED prep work, while the report itself itemizes all the common approaches to achieving the performance that the credit requires, and offers the view of an experienced estimator on the cost of adopting those technologies or design solutions. The report It can can suggest a figure to put into your budget for any one of hundreds of specific technologies, the company says, and it identifies other credits you might also get from adopting a specific measure.
LEEDuser.com on its own has a lot of useful information, plus a premium section for a $10 monthly membership.There's a free forum, samples of online LEED forms and more. And since the “The Cost of LEED” is available for purchase as a PDF, that just shows how serious the company is about the environment — no trees are harmed to bring you this report!
BuildingGreen, LLC • 122 Birge Street, Suite 30, Brattleboro, Vt.05301• (802) 257-7300 • toll-free (800) 861-0954 • E-mail contact page here
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