From the Editor
To certify or not to certify, that seems to be the question for facility managers with respect to LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance (LEED-EBOM). Skeptics of certification often wonder, “Why spend the extra money for, ostensibly, nothing more than a plaque in the lobby?”

There are many reasons to certify, not the least of which is garnering respect for and justifying the mission of not just the facilities management department, but the entire organization. Rick Perkinson, divisional director of facilities management at The Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, says one of the reasons his organization decided to pursue certification was because the board wanted concrete evidence they could show the public regarding the many energy efficiency and sustainable initiatives the hospital had completed in the past five to 10 years. The fact that the hospital is the first health care facility to earn LEED-EBOM certification has also boosted the organization’s credibility.

For owners of multitenant office facilities, one vertical market segment in which certification has become popular, the certification argument is a bit more cut-and-dried. As Al Skodowski, senior vice president and director for LEED and sustainability at Transwestern, puts it: “LEED-EBOM is a third-party, independent verification that you’re doing things correctly. If you’re looking for a lease and you see a plaque vs. someone who just says he’s doing the right things, you’ll pick the one with the plaque.”

For facility managers who oversee multiple buildings, achieving LEED-EBOM certification on one building can be the show of success that gets the rest of the staff and the organization behind the idea of certification for other buildings. Once an organization achieves one certification, subsequent certifications become easier because the first project provided the framework for standardizing FM practices. “If you don’t have things down in writing, and you’re a large organization, people do things differently,” says Peter Strazdas, associate vice president for facilities management at Western Michigan University. “So codifying brings a level of consistency.”

LEED-EBOM certifications are on quite the uptick – there were 275 projects certified in 2009, compared to only 17 in 2006 – so clearly facility managers are finding the justifications they need to get the plaque on the wall.

Do you think going through the formal certification is worthwhile? What arguments have you used to justify the “cost of the plaque”?

Cheers,

Green Strategies
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Green Toolkit
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This website provides information on the Building Operator Certification, a credential that could be a first step toward educating facility managers on achieving LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance certification.

GreenTech Conference & Exposition

An Introduction to LEED-EB

This presentation by Jim Newman of the Newman Consulting Group at the 2010 GreenTech Conference & Exposition delves into the LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance rating system and provides facility managers tips and tricks on how to achieve many of the individual credits.