According to the USGBC Website: “The Licensed Professional Exemption (LPE) is an optional credit documentation path in which professionals can submit license information and a declaration of compliance in lieu of a number of otherwise required submittals." The LPE basically shifts the responsibility to the professional rather than the submitted documentation and is meant to help streamline the documentation process required for LEED Certification. The documentation required for LEED Certification has been the target of much dissent from both opponents and proponents of the program since its inception a decade ago. On the surface, the LPE compliance path does have quite a bit of potential and may end up ultimately reducing the extensive amount of documentation required for a LEED Certification application but the jury is still out on the usability of the Exemptions. The lack of collective experience from professionals working on LEED projects who have opted to use this compliance path, coupled with the lack of documentation from the USGBC explaining how LPE will ultimately work once a project has reached their review and certification process is causing the said licensed professionals to understandably worry about liability concerns.

According the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI) website, all Licensed Professionals may provide their license information when registering for an account with LEED Online or by updating their existing account information. They must provide all of the information applicable to each license that they intend to submit information under including name, professional category, license number, the country, state, territory or province issuing the license and the license expiration date. They must also indicate that they are in good standing and agree that they have the technical competence and expertise necessary to oversee and verify the technical work required for compliance with the criteria for which they are submitting. The provided information is then retained with the user’s LEED Online account and can become applicable for submittal documentation on any LEED project in which they are involved. The liability concern enters the picture with the following warning provided on page 9 in the official GBCI Policy Manual:

The Licensed Professional is not only taking on liability for the achievement of the LEED credit or even the LEED certification, but also risking potential disciplinary action against their licensure.

The extensive documentation necessary to complete LEED application and certification, along with the time and money required to accomplish the documentation alone remains one of the biggest hurdles for the LEED Program. Unfortunately, it still remains to be seen as to whether or not the largest step that the USGBC has taken to mitigate the problem through the LPE Compliance Path actually delivers a viable solution.

The Rocky Mountain Masonry Institute is teaming up with the Building Stone Institute to offer a one-day seminar on natural stone.  The program offers architects with 2.5 AIA Sustainable Design credits, on top of 5 AIA HSW credits.  The class includes Adhered Natural Stone, Green/Sustainable Design and the new International Green Construction Code, care and maintenance of stone, and a tour of the University of Denver’s stone architecture.

The seminar will address the importance of proper natural stone installation in design, how it has innovated to meet stricter building code requirements, to reduce construction costs and increase value, and how to use it to contribute to LEED credit earning potential.

The first session will be lead by Diane Travis with RMMI and will discuss the basics of natural stone and the differences between it and manufactured stone.  Engineering concerns will also be addressed regarding mortar requirements, deflection, drainage, setting, and quality control and climate restrictions.

This will be followed by a presentation by Shahnaz Jaffari covering a new section in the International Green Construction Code, which is the first green building code to be published in 2012.  The IGCC is anticipated to be adopted by most jurisdictions in the country.

The third session will review procedures and techniques of various adhesives used for the repair and replacement of natural stone installations, and will provide an understanding of the limitations of some stone surfaces.

The seminar will conclude with a walking tour of the University of Denver campus, conducted by University Architect Mark Rodgers, and will include examples of how the context of the campus has been maintained by the use of natural stone.

The series will take place on Tuesday, June 29^th at the Rocky Mountain Masonry Institute located at 686 Mariposa in Denver.  Register by June 24^th at www.buildingstoneinstitute.org.

A Solar Array at Fort Carson. Photo courtesy of USAEC.

This past week, I attended a conference titled NDIA E2S2 in Denver.  The acronym NDIA refers to National Defense Industrial Association, and the E2S2is an acronym for Environment, Energy Security & Sustainability.  It was a great conference full of fantastic information in terms of sustainability from a wide array of perspectives within the Department of Defense realm.  I was at the conference as a part of my personal contract with Fort Carson as a Sustainability Coordinator in the SEMS group (or Sustainability, Environmental Management System).  This contract is outside the scope of what I do at EVstudio, however it does provide a good knowledge base of military practices for EVstudio's military work.

It was quite fascinating to learn what the military installations are doing across the United States in terms of sustainability at the conference.  Some installations have a high-tech approach to sustainability with state of the art equipment and others use a historical approach to sustainability in quality materials, durability and increased exterior insulation.  After attending the conference, I left pleased with what the Department of Defense (DoD) is doing and really leading as an example of sustainability across the country.  With the DoD leading the way with goals and mandates from the President on sustainability (including the most recent titled EO 13514), the hope is that others will follow suit.

As you may or may not know, all DoD new construction is now required to meet the standards of LEED Silver.  Some Departments have taken the executive orders further including the Department of Navy, which has the following goals for 2020:

• 50% Alternative Energy Use DON-wide
• 50% Alternative Energy and Net Zero on all Bases
• 50% Petroleum Reduction in non-tactical vehicles
• “Sail the Great Green Fleet (Tactical)”

What is a LEED Certified Home?

The increasingly well-known acronym LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.  This third-party certification program run by US Green Building Council ensures high performance and construction of buildings considered sustainable.

LEED-certified homes, also known as “green” homes, have greater energy efficiency, use less water, perform better environmentally and are healthier for the people that live in them.

Think of your home as a box of cereal and LEED certification as the nutrition label on it.  With the label you can clearly measure the health, efficiency and sustainability features through a third-party verification process.  A green home (versus a standard built home) is much more efficient with regard to energy, water and natural resource consumption, creating less waste and a healthier lifestyle for your family. LEED uses a point-based certification checklist with measurable results.

• The quality of your indoor environment is often 2-5 times worse than the air you breathe outdoors.  A LEED-built house is designed to improve the indoor environment by minimizing the use of materials with toxins and pollutants.
• Energy Efficiency:  The average household spends $1600-$2000 each year in energy bills.  With a LEED- certified home you can expect to save more than 30% in your energy bills.
• A green home uses innovative strategies to reduce water use and creative ways to reuse water.
• Location, Location, location is the key to a successful green home.  Selecting a site that is close to schools, shopping, work and transit are as crucial as the use of natural resources such as sun exposure.
• LEED homes avoid destructive practices during site development by considering natural habitats, assessing land erosion and using thoughtful landscaping practices.
• LEED homes carefully track material selection ensuring that materials are sustainably harvested, recycled, reclaimed and responsibly obtained when possible.

The four levels of LEED certification - certified, silver, gold and platinum – have resulted in unintended but powerful change in the green building industry.  A green home often requires some additional upfront cost, but with tax incentives and energy cost savings, these costs can be balanced long term.  With proper design and lot selection you can significantly limit the additional costs.

Incentives from the federal government can offset up to 30% of specific expenses related to installing renewable energy systems.  Caps on incentives have been lifted for geothermal heat pumps, solar hot water, small residential wind turbines and solar panels; and the allowable amount for energy-efficiency improvements such as air sealing and insulation has been increased to $1,500.

Vince Kenney, of Tomskin has used the LEED for Homes rating system to develop and design his Mountain Modern Home, working with EV Studio’s green design experts. Currently, Kenney is marketing his versatile plan for two different site-specific homes in Jefferson County – 3009 Royale Elk Way and 3039 Royale Elk Way in Evergreen. The design of a Mountain Modern Home is easily adaptable to nearly any site because of the ability to rearrange or manipulate the elements of the home. Each room or element of the home has been designed so that one room could easily be used for either a bedroom or living room depending on the needs and desires of a client.

Mountain Modern Rendering

While many homes today incorporate “green design,” few actually approach holistic sustainability. Local builder, Vince Kenney, has a vision on the verge of reality that is the culmination of the holistic understanding of sustainability, the future of the building industry.

In Golden, Colorado, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is the nation's primary laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development.  Located in historic Camp George West, the facility opened in the late 1960's with an emphasis on active solar energy research.  While many of its researchers, which hail from more than sixty different countries, continue to focus on photovoltaic and active solar technology, NREL made a significant leap in 2009 by engaging two new researchers with expertise in daylighting and passive solar technology.

Daylighting is gaining more recognition as a critical part of meeting new energy consumption benchmarks such as those quantified in model energy codes and LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). Introducing daylight into a building requires attention to size and orientation of glazing, glare control, integration of electric lighting through the use of photosensing controls that dim or turn off banks of lights when sufficient daylight is present, and internal and external shade devices.

All of these daylighting technologies are part of the design of NREL's Research Support Facilities (RSF), slated to open this summer.  These buildings will house much of the NREL team that has been located off campus in leased office buildings.  The new RSF design, as well as more specifics on the daylighting work being done by NREL's researchers, will be covered in upcoming articles.

The NREL Visitor's Center, featuring an interactive exhibit hall, is open during the week from 9 am to 5 pm. NREL offers monthly tours of its campus which must be reserved in advance.  For more information, call 303-384-6565.

Evergreen350 is the local chapter of the international organization 350.org. “350” stands for the number of parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere that is the safe limit for human life and the organization is dedicated to finding solutions for global climate change. The local Evergreen chapter provides ongoing environmental education and focuses on bringing experts to the public in order to facilitate the sharing of information and encourage sustainable choices.

EAS+Y is Evergreen’s Alliance for Sustainability … You make it EAS+Y! This group is dedicated to fostering sustainability in our local communities and does this by inspiring and empowering local individuals, businesses and organizations to make the personal decisions that lead to a sustainable future for us all. EAS+Y provides information about a number of initiatives, businesses and organizations in the local area that are working toward sustainability in our community and also provides information on recycling, composting and other resources available for personal sustainability in our area. Look for them at various events in the Evergreen area this summer with their T-shirts stating proudly … “I’m EAS+Y, ask me how!”

Greenscouts is a brand new organization dedicated to educating the community to be action-oriented environmental leaders, providing green solutions for today and for a safer tomorrow. Greenscouts wants to get everyone, but especially the kids of our communities, involved in the Green Revolution. Greenscouts will see the official launch of its upcoming programs for area youth in the next school year but invites all to take part in the education, activities and benefits of a greener life, together.

The Mountain Area Earth Day Fair took place over the weekend and was a wonderful event and went off without a hitch. There was, however, another close call following Mother Nature’s helping heap of snow that threatened the event once again. Last year’s Fair had to be cancelled because of snow, and it nearly came down to a cancellation this year as well! Luckily for us all, the sun came out and it turned out to be a beautiful day at Evergreen Lake! There was a good turn-out for the Fair and everyone enjoyed the day. That’s just springtime in the Rockies! Keep an eye out over the coming year for exciting events and initiatives by the new groups described above and all of the other groups in the Mountain Area that make our communities thrive and join us for next year’s Mountain Area Earth Day Fair as well!

This article features information written by Elicia Ratajczyk for the Canyon Courier newspaper that was published in the April 21st on page 9 of the weekly edition of the paper.

That notion has been questioned.

In 2009 House Bill 1129 was signed into law. This bill is important because it created a legal framework for a pilot study where:

“The [Colorado water conservation] board shall, in consultation with the state engineer, select the sponsors of up to ten new residential or mixed-use developments that will conduct individual pilot projects to collect precipitation from rooftops and impermeable surfaces for nonpotable uses.”

This legislation came about because many contend that up to 95% of the rainwater that falls on Colorado never actually makes it into the water ways for use by senior rights holders. Instead of water making it into our rivers and streams it is contended that the water actually evaporates or is absorbed by plants and undeveloped land.

This pilot program will sponsor developments in geographically diverse areas in Colorado to study if diverting rainwater actually affects the amount of water that flows into streams that supply downstream water rights.

What this means is that if the downstream water rights are still fulfilled, then the water that falls on roofs and other impervious surfaces is actually excess water that property owners can actually make a water rights claim upon.

Part of what makes this work is what is called an augmentation plan. An augmentation plan is designed to allow for water usages that are out of priority. In other words, it allows a junior water rights holder to use water so long as they can prove that they can provide 100% of the water that is allocated to a senior water rights holder should they place a call for water.

For example, if it is determined that a particular parcel contributes 100 acre feet of water to downstream rights holders, the junior rights owner must be able to prove that their parcel still produces that amount of water even after rainwater harvesting.

The augmentation plan is critical to rainwater harvesting. If this pilot program proves that even with rainwater harvesting that the senior rights holder still has access to their full amount of water, then guidelines for rainwater harvesting will be developed and it will possibly be allowed.

As a final note, a 2007 study by the Colorado Water Conservation Board determined that:

“With rainwater harvesting, outdoor water demand is reduced by approximately 65% with moderate conservation and approximately 88% with water wise conservation.”

This is extremely relevant to our dry climate since rainwater harvesting could drastically reduce the amount of water treated to potable quality and subsequently used to water all of our petunias.

In order to properly answer this question, some background is in warranted.

In Colorado there are two types of water rights. The first is called direct flow. This is generally measured as a rate of flow such as 1.0 cubic feet per second. This means that the appropriator (right holder) is allowed to take one cubic foot of water per second. They may do this so long as they have a beneficial use and the water is physically available in priority. That is, if there is a senior water rights holder, they can demand, or “call” the water before a junior rights holder can divert it.

The second type of water right is a storage water right. This means that the right holder can store a certain amount of water each year, to be used at a later time, for a beneficial use. However, there are times when there is a limit to how fast that water may be appropriated to be stored. For example, I may have a right to store 500 acre feet of water in my reservoir. I may only have a right to fill my reservoir at a rate of  2.0 c.f.s.

You may have noticed that I have used the term beneficial use twice. A beneficial use is generally regarded as: domestic and municipal use, mining, irrigation, stock watering, industrial application and other non-wasteful economic activities. That sounds quite broad. However, the rub is that an applicant who wants to put water to a beneficial use must demonstrate that unappropriated water is available. Since water rights in Colorado go back to at least the mid 1800’s there is no water left to appropriate. In all reality, the water here is likely over appropriated.

Therein lays the problem. Since the water is already appropriated a user can’t legally take water out of the system without the rights to do so. One-hundred percent for the rainwater someone harvests to water their petunia garden is actually already owned by someone else!

To answer John’s question, as I understand it, the only way to capture rainwater for up to 72 hours is if someone is already a direct flow rights owner and has a beneficial use.  Even that has a limitation. The water can only be detained if it affords a more efficient or effective beneficial use of the water.

With all of that said, it may change. Check back for my next post about water rights.

Consistency - Now credits and prerequisites are consistent through all of the rating systems for LEED 2009

Credit Weightings - This major improvement addresses the concern that many had where adding a bike rack was just as important as a basic level of HVAC efficiency. Now more points are awarded for reductions in energy efficiency and CO2 reductions. Efficiency and emission reduction are arguably the two of the most important aspects of LEED. Both are essential as we work towards the lofty goal of making building carbon neutral.

Regionalization - Another problem with LEED was that the water rich east coast got as many points for reducing water usage as we do here in Colorado. While it is important to use water efficiently, it is even more so out here in the arid west. The great thing about this change is that the online system recognizes appropriate regional bonus credits based on project zip code - just in case one falls through the cracks.

In addition to these three main revisions, LEED 2009 uses a 100 point scale and building energy bills must now be submitted in order to study performance over time.

1. The property on which the collection takes place is residential property, and

2. The landowner uses a well, or is legally entitled to a well, for the water supply, and

3. The well is permitted for domestic uses, and

4. There is no water supply available in the area from a municipality or water district, and

5. The rainwater is collected only from the roof, and

6. The water is used only for those uses that are allowed by, and identified on, the well permit.

As you can see the requirements are quite strict and very few people are actually eligible to use rainwater. Someone who wants to use rainwater must meet all of these criteria for the new law to come into play. This is good new for those on well or do not have a municipal source of water. It is business as usual for those in who have municipal or water district water.