Are LEED-Certified Buildings Energy-Efficient in Practice?

Amiri, Ali; Ottelin, Juudit; Sorvari, Jaana

doi:10.3390/su11061672

Cited by 69 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 60 publications

(102 reference statements)

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“…Although different standards have different emphases, they all revolve around the principle of energy saving and emissions reduction [12,13]. However, some buildings selected as green buildings are far from the expected effect [14]. For example, the Bank of American Building, the first office building achieving the LEED Platinum certification in America, consumes a surprising level of energy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A BIM-LCA Approach for Estimating the Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Large-Scale Public Buildings: A Case Study

Cheng

Tam

et al. 2020

Sustainability

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Exiting green building assessment standards sometimes cannot work well for large-scale public buildings due to insufficient attention to the operation and maintenance stage. This paper combines the theory of life cycle assessment (LCA) and building information modeling (BIM) technology, thereby proposing a green building assessment method by calculating the greenhouse gas emissions (GGE) of buildings from cradle to grave. Life cycle GGE (LCGGE) can be divided into three parts, including the materialization stage, the operation and maintenance stage, and the demolition stage. Two pieces of BIM software (Revit and Designbuilder) are applied in this study. A museum in Guangdong, China, with a hot summer and warm winter is selected for a case study. The results show that BIM can provide a rich source of needed engineering information for LCA. In addition, the operation and maintenance stage plays the most important role in the GGE reduction of a building throughout the whole life cycle. This research contributes to the knowledge body concerning green buildings and sustainable construction. It helps to achieve the reduction of GGE over the whole life cycle of a building. This is pertinent to contractors, homebuyers, and governments who are constantly seeking ways to achieve a low-carbon economy.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A BIM-LCA Approach for Estimating the Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Large-Scale Public Buildings: A Case Study

Cheng

Tam

et al. 2020

Sustainability

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“…A recent literature analysis analyzes and summarizes studies on this subject. Amiri et al [2]'s search located 164 research papers that covered energy efficiency topics in LEED-certified buildings. Of these, Forty-four peer-reviewed papers were selected and analyzed.…”

Section: Analysis Of the Existing Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The number of green building certified buildings in Korea, which started in January 2002, has been increasing rapidly year by year [1]. Although the interest in and importance of green building certification have increased, it has been difficult to determine how much less energy consumption is actually used in buildings after obtaining certification [2].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative Analysis of Energy Consumption between Green Building Certified and Non-Certified Buildings in Korea

Won

2020

Energies

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Although interest in and the importance of green building certification have increased, it is difficult to determine how much less energy the buildings actually consume after obtaining sustainability related certification, such as LEED in the USA, and G-SEED in Korea. Focusing on building energy evaluation, we compared and analyzed the energy evaluation items of LEED and G-SEED. In addition, from the Korean public data portal site, this study investigated the annual site energy consumption (electricity and gas) per floor area of non-residential buildings that obtained G-SEED certification in Korea. The energy consumption of non-certified general buildings was compared with the energy consumption of certified buildings. As a result of examining 84 samples of this study, non-residential buildings with G-SEED certification showed energy use intensity that was at least (35.5 to 48.9)% lower than that of uncertified buildings.

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“…Another important issue is that the majority of the existing LEED-certified buildings are located in the US and Canada [49]. Several studies have been conducted in China, as a developing country, where the number of LEED-certified buildings is increasing.…”

Section: Literature Review On the Costs Of Leedmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this case, the efficiency of the building in energy and water consumption besides environmentally-friendly material usage is doubtful. A literature review paper by Amiri et al [49] on the energy-efficiency of LEED-certified buildings revealed that the energy efficiency of LEED-certified buildings, especially at the lower (Certified) level, is questionable.…”

Section: Factual Environmental Performance Of Leed-certified Buildingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Economic and Technical Considerations in Pursuing Green Building Certification: A Case Study from Iran

et al. 2020

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Buildings use 30–40% of all energy resources and are thus the main consumers in modern society. Moreover, buildings require a vast amount of different raw materials. During the last two decades, several green building certifications have been created in order to consider the social, economic, and environmental aspects of the sustainability of buildings. One of the most famous and widely used of these certifications is Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). So far, the use of LEED has concentrated in the US and other developed countries. One reason that restricts the use of this point-based system certification in developing countries is the limited data about its costs. In this study, the extra cost of the certification process were evaluated, besides the changes needed in the design of the building to reach the points required by LEED. At the first stage, the number of points the case study earns in its current format (Scenario 1) were assessed, then the cost difference of getting either the Certified (Scenario 2) or Silver (Scenario 3) level LEED certification for the building was studied. It was found that besides some technical considerations, filling the criteria of the Certified and Silver level increases the total costs of construction by 3.4% and 5.9%, respectively. Further improvement of the building’s energy efficiency would enable the attainment of a higher-level certification. The results of the study could help to promote the use of green building certifications in Western Asia.

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Are LEED-Certified Buildings Energy-Efficient in Practice?

Cited by 69 publications

References 60 publications

A BIM-LCA Approach for Estimating the Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Large-Scale Public Buildings: A Case Study

A BIM-LCA Approach for Estimating the Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Large-Scale Public Buildings: A Case Study

Comparative Analysis of Energy Consumption between Green Building Certified and Non-Certified Buildings in Korea

Economic and Technical Considerations in Pursuing Green Building Certification: A Case Study from Iran

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