The Case for Green Globes versus LEED

One of the few people in Georgia who knows a heckuva lot about Green Globes argued in a presentation to architects Friday that the upstart program has advantages over the more popular LEED system for rating green buildings -- particularly when it comes to small commercial projects.

While the direct costs of getting a commercial building certified under either program are likely to run around $20,000, Energy Ace senior engineer Michael O'Brien noted that Green Globes doesn't require nearly as much in additional expenses for specially trained contractors. On the other hand, he said, LEED can offer extra value simply because it's better known.

Newell Rubbermaid's Sandy Springs headquarters was the first building in the Southeast to attain Green Globes.

"Green Globes has the disadvantage of no market recognition," O'Brien said. "You're not going to make the same impression on the market that you're making with LEED."

O'Brien is the only certified "Green Globes assessor" based in Georgia. Assessors serve as third-party evaluators on projects that are seeking Green Globes, so they have a big say in whether individual projects are approved and at what level.

"What [Green Globes] is trying to do is to provide a rating system for buildings that don't have a high profile or the kind of budget that most of us would like," O'Brien told an audience at the monthly meeting of the Committee on the Environment of the AiA-Atlanta Chapter.

The Green Building Initiative, the Oregon nonprofit that administers Green Globes in the United States, might describe its goals more ambitiously. A spokeswoman didn't get back with me (I'll let you know if she does after this story is published), but GBI is fairly clear in positioning itself as the main commercial alternative to LEED -- on projects both large and small.

O'Brien's point, though, is that "a two-story medical building or a restaurant" can't afford to spend a lot of money on LEED-AP consultants. So they often avoid seeking green certification rather than going through the paperwork heavy LEED process. Green Globes provides a less costly alternative.

While the U.S. Green Building Council applies a sliding scale for LEED fees based on the square footage, Green Globes charges a flat fee no matter how small or large the project. But that flexibility in the LEED program is offset when you account for the hours spent administering USGBC's famously arduous certification process. O'Brien says one study he's seen found that a typical Green Globes certification added 100 billable hours to a project's costs, while LEED required anywhere from 250 to 400 hours.

The big selling point for Green Globes is that it requires no special paperwork. It's a web-based system that relies on project managers to complete lengthy online questionnaires at various stages in the construction process. In addition, the project managers must provide construction documents and host site visits for Green Globes Assessors.

When it comes to subject matter, "there's not a lot of daylight between the two systems," O'Brien says. But there are some differences.

For example, LEED is carved into at least nine categories of projects, while Green Globes has only two categories: New Construction and Continual Improvement for Existing Buildings.

Green Globes puts a greater emphasis on lifecycle assessment of materials and products, which the USGBC has said it will strengthen in a 2012 update. LEED, meanwhile, includes design innovations and local priorities among its criteria.

On some issues, Green Globes appears to be more permissive. For example, it allows four types of wood certifications, including the industry-backed Sustainable Forest Initiative. LEED only gives credit for wood products certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

In addition, the Green Globes scoring systems allows for more flexibility. There are some specific standards that all LEED projects must get, and all LEED projects also must attain a specific number of points on a scale that reaches up to 110. If a project passes a certain threshold, say 60 for LEED Gold, they get the certification.

The Green Globes system allows for 1,000 points, but owners are allowed to lower what would be considered their potential perfect score by exempting certain criteria as "not applicable." The number of Green Globes is then awarded based on a percentage of that potential perfect score.

O'Brien says the two programs still end up being essentially equivalent in difficulty. LEED Platinum is approximately equivalent to four Green Globes, LEED Gold to three Globes and so on.

Green Globes has a long way to go before it gains widespread market recognition. GBI's website lists only 119 certified projects in the U.S., while a USGBC spokeswoman says LEED certifications recently topped 7,500. Those Green Globes include a renovation of the Energy Ace office in Decatur, where O'Brien works, as well as construction of the 14-story Newell Rubbermaid headquarters in Sandy Springs which became the first Green Globes project in the Southeast when it was completed in 2008.

More importantly thousands of professionals have been trained as LEED-APs and thousands of companies in invested in the USGBC's systems. Even O'Brien, a Green Globes assessor, views the upstart as a niche player that could influence LEED but not replace it.

"I see them coming in as the low-cost provider," he told the architects. "And I think really in the long run, it's going [force LEED] to address the cost imbalance."

Energy Ace provides Green Globes and LEED consulting.  Click here to learn more about Green Globes. Click here to learn more about LEED.

*Courtesy of The Green Building Chronicle | By Ken Edelstein