From the Editor
After a bit of a slow start, LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance (LEED EBOM) is finally off and running, and gaining momentum. Many facility executives have taken a second look at the rating system after its LEED 2009 reboot in April, and now realize the certification process is more a journey than a destination.

What does that mean, exactly? Well, recession-induced budget cuts have forced facility executives to look for ways to cut costs, and LEED EBOM (if you’re actually saying it in conversation, you can be cool and use the new lingo: “LEED e-bomb”) is a blueprint of just that — tips and tricks for creating a facility management plan that reduces costs. So facility executives are using LEED as a resource, even if formal certification plans may not be in the immediate works.

Facility executives often are find they’re already doing some of the things LEED EBOM calls for, and if they’re interested in getting LEED points, they just need to make a low- or no-cost tweak to an existing strategy. Unlike its better-known predecessor, LEED for New Construction, many of the credits for LEED EBOM gives points for setting up an ongoing plan and measuring the results. For example, Energy & Atmosphere Credit 2.1 gives two points if facility executives successfully “develop a retrocommissioning, recommissioning or ongoing commissioning plan for the building’s major energy-using systems.”

So facility executives are realizing they can take LEED EBOM at their own pace. If they want to go from zero to certification, they can do that. If they want to implement a few strategies at a time, that option is possible, as well.

I’d like to hear from you — has the recession and your goal of cutting costs made you consider LEED as a resource?  What parts of LEED EBOM have you implemented?

Cheers,

Greg Zimmerman, editor  

Green Strategies
Five Building Strategies to Achieve LEED-EB Certification
This article helps facility executives answer five key questions regarding how to make existing facilities more environmentally responsible.

In the News
ASHRAE Seeks Proposal on Green Buildings User’s Manual
The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), the U.S. Green Building Council, and the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America are working to form Standard 189.1P, Standard for the Design of High-Performance Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings. ASHRAE also is accepting research proposals for the development of a user’s manual for Standard 189.1P. Proposals are due Nov. 9.

Green Toolkit
USGBC’s LEED for Existing Buildings
This site offers tips, guidance and case studies for the 2009 version of LEED EBOM. You can also download the full rating system for free. 

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