The home owner of this building project will need to spend an additional 10% of his budget to reach LEED Silver Status with no reward in return.

Home owner Robin Bogle says there is absolutely no benefit to him for having a LEED Silver Status Home.

“LEED is expensive,” he quips.

When I called him, Robin was up to his eye balls in LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) criteria and requirements in order to attain his goal of a Silver Status LEED Certification. For the past two weeks he has diligently worked with his LEED consultant, E3 Building Sciences, and architect Weber Studios, to work through the maze of requirements required to reach certification. The architect sent the design criteria to the subcontractors to determine how the project budget will be affected.

I sense his frustration with the process, and he admits he has considered scrapping the idea altogether: “There is absolutely no benefit to me to reach LEED Silver Status,” he says. “I will spend more money and have to sacrifice on the fit and finish of the home.”

The design team estimates Robin will spend an additional 10% on top of his construction budget in order to meet the LEED criteria. We will know very shortly what the real number will be.

I understand his frustration. Typically when you spend more you expect to get more. That is simply not the case when it comes to Residential LEED certification in a custom home.

“This is completely not self-serving, and I think very few people would be willing to make such sacrifices in order to have a green home,” he says.

“We wanted stone floors downstairs and wood upstairs… Not an option.”

“The stone would come from Italy and due to the pollution created by the ships and freight carriers to get it to Miami, it is not allowed. This also means no granite countertops, as the granite would have to be shipped from Brazil.

“Another example is that we would have to go with cheap appliances in our kitchen. The appliances should have an Energy Star rating and this is generally not available in the nicer appliances.”

And that’s just inside the house.

“Grass. I wanted a beautiful green lawn with little or no other vegetation,” he says. “I imagined a green lawn where I could play soccer with my girls.”

But, he says, he would need to sacrifice the manicured turf in place of a landscape that would minimise the demand for water. In fact, he would need to keep his use of turf to 20% or less of the total landscaped area in order to achieve the full three LEED points.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the residential sector accounts for 22% of the total energy consumed in the United States and 74% of the water. The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) says green homes are healthier, more durable and more energy efficient. That is why they established LEED as a system to define and measure “green buildings”.

The challenge, as I see it, is to help the home owner translate their commitment to the environment into a system that rewards them rather than penalises them for taking action.

“The government could establish tax credits for home owners that own a LEED certified home. These home owners are spending more to help their community and the environment. Why not at least help them cover the premium it costs to build the more efficient home?”

Perhaps he is on to something.

Article originally published by CE Pro. Reproduced with permission.