Green Buildings
A high-performance building is a building with energy, economic, and environmental performance that is substantially better than standard practice. It's super energy efficient, so it saves money and natural resources. It's a healthy place to live and work for its occupants and has relatively low impact on the environment. All this is achieved through a process called whole-building integrated design.

Buildings consume 17% of the total energy consumed in the United States. By creating buildings that use less energy and have lower power demands, greater robustness of the buildings as well as the power grid is achieved. This reduces the demand for fossil fuels and consequentially the environmental impact is lessened.

Benefits of integrated whole-building design include:

• Reduce energy use by 50% or more
• Reduced maintenance and capital costs
• Reduced environmental impact
• Increased occupant comfort and health
• Increased employee productivity

Employee productivity and business profitability are linked. Recent studies have shown an increase in employee productivity when buildings are designed with occupants in mind—natural light, comfortable temperatures, and a quiet work environment being the most important issues. Research suggests that a well-designed workplace can increase employee productivity by 10-15%. Further, studies also show that a pleasant indoor building environment helps attract desirable tenants for building owners, increasing the number of potential renters for a building.

Design and construction practices that significantly reduce or eliminate the negative impact of buildings on the environment and occupants that address:

• Sustainable site planning
• Safeguarding water and water efficiency
• Energy efficiency
• Conservation of materials and resources
• Indoor environmental quality

In an effort to provide measurable objectives for this lofty goal of promoting "green" design & construction the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) has created the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design or (LEED) tm. LEED is a result of a consensus process of stakeholders representing the owners, designers, operators, manufacturers and many others in the process has created this tool. The tool makes use of six basic green building categories:

• Sustainable Sites
• Water Efficiency
• Energy and Atmosphere
• Materials and Resources
• Environmental Quality
• Design Excellence

Each of the above categories has performance objectives. Achieving or exceeding the objectives results in the award of points toward LEED certification. Certification can be made on one of four levels (certified, silver, gold and platinum) depending on the number of points achieved by the building.

The benefits of CHP are entirely consistent with the objectives of the USGBC and the LEED standards. CHP can provide clean power and improved comfort from a single reliable source of both power and heat. Systems can be designed to utilize proven absorption chiller technology to provide summertime cooling and space heating in the winter, meanwhile reducing overall electrical consumption, reducing NOx emissions and using no ozone depleting fluorocarbons. The LEED prerequisite regarding CFC reduction in HVAC and refrigeration equipment is exceeded by CHP. The overall efficiency of CHP can easily be related to the reduction of total energy source use and can clearly be correlated to reduced operating costs for the owner.

In March 2006, the U.S. Green Building Council developed a calculation methodology for documenting Combined Heat and Power (CHP) for LEED-NC v2.2 EAc1 ( 30 KB). This methodology can be used for projects that are installing new, or connecting to existing, CHP systems, in lieu of the EAc1 calculation methodology in the LEED-NC v2.2 Reference Guide. Realistically, the total number of points that could be acquired from incorporating a CHP system into a green building is between four and five. One point can be earned in the Design Process & Innovation category, and an additional 3 to 4 points could be obtained in the Energy & Atmosphere category.


The following cities in the Gulf Coast Region have passed resolutions requiring all new city-owned buildings to obtain LEED certification:

• Austin, TX - LEED certification is required of all public projects larger than 5,000 gross square feet
• Dallas, TX - The City of Dallas issued a resolution on January 22, 2003 requiring all city buildings larger than 10,000 square feet to have at least a LEED Silver certification. The city is exploring ways to encourage LEED buildings in the private sector.
• Houston, TX - The City of Houston adopted a resolution on June 23, 2004 requiring all new construction, replacement facilities, and major renovations of existing facilities larger than 10,000 square feet to use LEED "to the greatest extent practical and reasonable," with a target of LEED Silver.

According to the U.S. Green Building Council website, as of December 2006, there are thirteen new construction buildings within Austin, Dallas and Houston that are LEED certified. Four of these buildings achieved Gold certification level, and four obtained Silver certification level. In addition, there are almost 50 projects within these cities currently registered with the USGBC - the first step towards certification.

Texas Austin, TX Austin City Hall - Gold level Carver Museum and Cultural Center IBM/Tivoli Systems Headquarters Building 1 Carver Library Far Southeast Austin EMS Station - Gold level Combined Transportation Emergency and Communications Center - Silver level Lowe's of Southwest Austin - Gold level Dallas, TX Jack Evans Police Headquarters - Silver level McCommas ECO Training Center - Silver level Hensley Field Operations Center - Gold level Houston, TX SpawGlass Corporate Offices - Silver level Emerson Unitarian Church Educational Building NASA Building 27 Astronaut Quarantine Facility

Oklahoma Luther, OK Redbud Administration Building Louisiana Shreveport, LA Barksdale Air Force Base Physical Fitness Center - Bronze level

Texas Austin, TX Case Study: Mueller Energy Center - Dell Children's Hospital AMD Austin Campus Aqua Terra Austin City Hall Austin Resource Center for the Homeless Colonial Bank Metric & Parmer Colony Park Recreation Center Dell Pediatric Research Institute Escarpment Fire Station and EMS Lowe's of Southwest Austin North Village Branch Library Ronald McDonald House UT Research Office Complex Dallas, TX Azure Tower City of Dallas Fire Station 40 City of Dallas Northwest Service Center Dallas Public Library - Lockwood Branch Dallas Public Library - West Love Field Branch Dallas South Central Police Station Hampton/Illinois Branch Library McCommas ECO Training Center The da Vinci School Relocation The Senior Source Timberglen Branch Library Walnut Hill Branch Library Houston, TX Add/Alter Fire Station at Homestead American Heart Association - Greater Houston B-20 New Office Building (NASA) B-207A Rehabilitation (NASA JSC) Beltway 8 Regional Park BP (Houston) Commercial & Trading Office Burdette W. Keeland Design Exploration Center Chase Midtown Clayton Library Colt NE Multi-Service Center Discovery Green Equivalent Data GT Mickey Leland R&A Houston Police Department Mount NASA Building 27 Astronaut Quarantine Facility NASA Refurbish Building 2 North New Downtown Fire Station #1 Parc V School of Nursing and Student Community Sheldon Lake Thompson Elementary Replacement School Walnut Bend Elementary School Woods High School

Oklahoma Oklahoma City, OK Boldt Construction Company, Southern Operations Louisiana Bossier City, LA 168-Person Dormitory (U.S. Navy) Baton Rouge, LA 232 Third Street - Multi-Unit Residential/Commercial Office Covington, LA Louisiana Air National Guard Covington Readiness Center Metairie, LA EMO Energy New Orleans Office New Orleans, LA National Rice Mill New Orleans Mission Family Shelter Traçage Pineville, LA New Joint Force Headquarters Reserve, LA Louisiana Air National Guard Reserve Readiness Center Slidell, LA Louisiana Air National Guard Field Maintenance Shop

Map of the Nation's Platinum and Gold LEED Certified Buildings - current as of 10/1/06 ( 1.42 MB)


Where can I find more information on the USGBC and LEED?
More information can be found at the website for the USGBC.

Has CHP been used in any LEED project as of March 2005?
Yes projects have been certified that have made use of CHP. Two examples are: The Genzyme Center (top picture) and The Solaire (second picture).

How can I learn more about regulatory requirements to locate and interconnect CHP systems to the utility grid?
In Texas you can find this information in the Distributed Generation Interconnection Manual.

Can CHP systems be implemented in EPA non-attainment zones?
Yes and for more information go to the EPA Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards.

Where can I find more information on using CHP to air condition a green high performance building?
You can find more information about thermal technologies at the DOE's building CHP site, from Oak Ridge National Laboratory's (ORNL) program, and from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's advanced cooling program.