USBC Establishes Performance Benchmarks for LEED

WASHINGTON, DC-The US Green Building Council is taking steps to establish performance benchmarks that will allow users to rate how well–or not–their buildings conserve energy and otherwise perform, compared to similar buildings. To that end it is querying the 3,000 LEED-certified building owners in its system as well as the 14,000 or so registered to get the certification, Scot Horst, SVP at USGBC, tells GlobeSt.com.

Once this task is complete, USGBC will have the makings of an unprecedented database that will allow it to help building owners monitor and refine sustainable performance. Kingsley and Associates will be assisting in the data collection effort.

Besides the data that will result from this project–which is called the Building Performance Initiative–Horst is also hoping for a greater synergy to develop between building users and designers. “Once a tenant signs a lease the developers don’t always maintain a good connection, at least in this respect,” he says. “One goal I would like to see accomplished is a better understanding by the tenant that how it acts in the building is also important to its performance.”

Besides the database, USGBC is also establishing a methodology to analyze that data and provide feedback to building owners. 

Earlier this year USGBC began requiring ongoing performance data from buildings as part of their certification under the latest version of LEED.

USGBC is holding four Building Performance Initiative ‘summits’ in various cities this September and October to receive industry feedback. Participants will be able to preview USGBC’s data collection agenda and proposed analysis methodology. Input from these meetings will be reported on at the First Annual Building Performance Summit at this year’s Greenbuild, which is being held Nov. 11th-13th, 2009 in Phoenix.