Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED) is becoming a common word in council chambers and on municipal construction sites across Canada. Green buildings developed using the Integrated Design Process (IDP) and verified by the LEED rating system provide design attributes in the areas of indoor environmental quality, materials and resources, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, sustainable sites, and process and innovation.  In the past three years more than 26 municipalities from across Canada have adopted corporate LEED policies for civically owned buildings.  Municipalities have built 21% of all of the LEED buildings in Canada and are benefiting from the assurance offered by third party verification.   

“The City of Calgary is dedicated to smart growth”, says Russ Golightly, City of Calgary Project Manager.  “Based on the Triple Bottom Line model, Calgary is developing a sustainable urban form that is environmentally sound, socially beneficial and economically viable.  The City's Sustainable Building Policy illustrates that leadership.  Conservation of energy and water, recycled building materials, minimizing waste to landfills and ecologically sensitive landscaping contribute to the overall reduction in operating budgets and infrastructure costs in running a great city."  The City of Calgary has four LEED designated buildings and an additional 20 LEED buildings in various stages of design and construction.

LEED responds to many of the economic challenges facing municipalities including:  rising energy costs, budget constraints and growing infrastructure deficits, urban sprawl and landfill capacity.   By maximizing the building envelope, optimizing the use of daylight, incorporating energy efficient lighting and HVAC systems the energy demand is reduced.  By eliminating the need for irrigation, incorporating low flow fixtures and cisterns the water demand is reduced.  The adoption of construction waste management practices, material reuse and durable design diverts material from the landfill.  Infill and densification maximizes the use of existing infrastructure and combats urban sprawl.  These design features translates into reduced annual operating cost, greenhouse gas emissions and burden on municipal infrastructure.  A less tangible but increasingly supported economic benefit of green buildings is improved productivity and employee morale achieved through improved air quality, thermal comfort and access to daylight. 

“The short term business case that LEED presented us was easy to see - lower operational costs due to primarily to energy efficiencies”, says Paul MacLatchy, City of Kingston Director of Environment. “ I think that with the completion of the Police Building (awarded LEED Gold) and the K-Rock Centre (targeted LEED Silver) we are now seeing those other, less tangible benefits, coming to fruition - things such as improved employee morale, pride in the shared accomplishment and recognition of our efforts to be good environmental citizens".  The municipality’s enthusiasm for LEED, demonstrated by one LEED designated and four LEED targeted buildings has spilled over into the community where an additional four LEED buildings are under design/construction.

Incremental capital costs can be anticipated with LEED buildings.  “Based on the 26 LEED building projects that we have completed and the 140 LEED buildings that we are currently involved in, says Stephen Carpenter, founder of Enermodal Engineering Inc., “we estimate that the incremental capital costs for LEED buildings range from between 0% to 10% of the non-LEED base building with most LEED buildings averaging an incremental capital cost of approximately 5%”.  

Municipalities own their buildings for the long-term; therefore an incremental capital cost that provides annual dividends in the form of reduced operating costs translates into an acceptable simple payback with a positive Net Present Value and an impressive Internal Rate of Return.  Municipalities are building LEED because they can’t afford not to!