{"id":1029,"date":"2011-04-05T15:33:40","date_gmt":"2011-04-05T14:33:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.parksandlandscapes.org\/blog\/?p=1029"},"modified":"2025-06-30T22:14:44","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T21:14:44","slug":"the-cost-of-leed-certification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/parksandlandscapes.org\/blog\/the-cost-of-leed-certification\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cost of LEED Certification"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How much does LEED certification <\/strong>cost in commercial construction? Earning LEED certification involves several types of costs, and you have to consider each separately to get an accurate picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s envision the cost of LEED as an inverted pyramid with four levels from bottom to top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The bottom level is both the smallest (in size and cost) and the top level is potentially the biggest but also a place where you have a lot of leeway. We\u2019ll start at the bottom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The fees.<\/strong> Registration and certification fees are roughly 3\u00a2\u20135\u00a2 per square foot, depending on the size of the project and other factors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Cost of documentation time and effort.<\/strong> This cost could be for an outside consultant hired just for that task, someone on the staff of the design firm, the contractor, or the owner. This is a big project for someone doing it for the first time and not such a big deal for someone who has done it enough to have figured out the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Cost of extra research, design, commissioning, and modeling for compliance.<\/strong> If your baseline is the cost to have a design team create a variant on their last few non-LEED projects, then designing to meet LEED standards will take some extra effort. But these added costs shouldn\u2019t be attributed just to LEED\u2014they are the costs of getting a better building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LEED introduces a few requirements that add costs if they are not already part of the scope of the project. At $0.50\u2013$1 per square foot, commissioning, for example, may seem like a big investment, but it\u2019s cheap compared to the cost of call-backs, fixes, and inefficiencies that are likely if you don\u2019t do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If energy models aren\u2019t code-required, then the LEED-specific model represents an added cost that starts at $5,000\u2013$10,000 and goes up, depending on the complexity of the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Costs of construction.<\/strong> Including green measures can mean added construction costs such as the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 demand-controlled ventilation adds about $1\/cfm to the cost of a standard ventilation system;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 bike racks will cost about $5 per full-time equivalent (FTE) occupant;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 occupancy sensors cost about $25 per fixture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good cost estimates enable you to choose among measures with no added cost and those with cost premiums, to maximize return on investment and LEED scores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/em>The construction cost figures given here, and many more, come from \u201cThe Cost of LEED\u201d\u2014a new report from BuildingGreen. The report is available for $49 at http:\/\/www.buildinggreen.com\/Cost<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

May 1, 2010<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Source: http:\/\/www.buildinggreen.com\/auth\/article.cfm\/2010\/5\/1\/The-Cost-of-LEED-Certification\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LEED Certification<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":1031,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[699,698,209],"class_list":["post-1029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eco-design","tag-buildinggreen","tag-ecodesign","tag-pal_countrystudy"],"psp_head":"The Cost of LEED Certification \u2013 Parks and Landscapes<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"LEED Certification\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index,follow\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/parksandlandscapes.org\/blog\/the-cost-of-leed-certification\/\" \/>\r\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/parksandlandscapes.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/parksandlandscapes.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/parksandlandscapes.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parksandlandscapes.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parksandlandscapes.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/parksandlandscapes.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parksandlandscapes.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parksandlandscapes.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parksandlandscapes.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parksandlandscapes.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}