As the condos continue to rise in mini Manhattan, otherwise known as South Beach in San Francisco, it continues to amaze and disgust us why developers and builders aren’t building LEED certified or the equivalent. Oh right, it costs more to build Green.
That retort just won’t cut it anymore according to Oakland based KEMA Green building consultant Elaine Hsieh. She has worked as a consultant for numerous Green building projects and she claims that at this stage of the game it doesn’t cost anything additional to gain LEED – NC status. In fact, with all of the low hanging fruit to garner a LEED – NC tag it’s almost a no brainer. Just building in dense SF will almost certainly qualify for a few LEED points. Even LEED Silver won’t add any cost to building. To reach LEED Gold remains a push, as the costs will be about the same as not going Green. It’s only when reaching for the LEED Platinum level that costs can elevate a few percentage points.
If builders and real estate developers don’t want to save the planet that’s fine but don’t use the greenback as an excuse for not building Green.
building consultant gold greenback leed low hanging fruit manhattan percentage points platinum level real estate developers san francisco south beach
0 Responses to “Green Building Does Not Cost More”