Going green - without LEED

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification standards hold a monopoly over colleges' sustainable construction projects. But a lesser-known alternative is beginning to make a mark at universities.

Penn's master plan calls for the construction of a number of environmentally sound buildings, which will be certified as such by LEED, the widely used and expensive third-party review system.

But the University of Arkansas is trying to buck the trend, becoming the first university in the country to utilize LEED's most significant competition, the Green Globes review system.

Arkansas is completing construction on a student housing project that will be certified by the Green Building Initiative, the organization behind Green Globes.

"We're not sure which program is more rigorous," said Arkansas' associate vice chancellor for facilities Mike Johnson, who said a University of Minnesota study convinced them to give Green Globes a shot.

That study was conducted in 2006 and concluded that the two certification processes usually come to the same conclusion.

Mark Rossolo, director of state and local outreach for Green Globes, said the major difference between the two review systems is the application. Green Globes "is trying to make it so that you don't need to hire outside consultants," he said.

Money spent on these consultants, who are often hired to ensure that a building meets LEED standards, may cost between $10,000 and $100,000, depending on the project size.

According to Rossolo, the cost of certifying via Green Globes is rarely more than $6,000, but only five universities are using the Green Globes review system.

He added that LEED is much more prevalent in the United States because it was the first of its kind in the country.

The state of Arkansas recently enacted a law ensuring that all state-funded projects will meet the standards of LEED or Green Globes systems. Thirteen other states, including Pennsylvania, have enacted laws that incorporate Green Globes as an acceptable third-party reviewer.

Penn sustainability coordinator Dan Garofalo said the University will probably continue using the LEED rating system for most of its projects.

"We want to use LEED as a tool," he said," because we have to document so much for LEED, we want to take these documents and identify where the difficulties and solutions are."

Garofalo, who is also the chairman for the Delaware Valley Chapter that deals with LEED, said the University has no requirements for a third-party reviewer and that the choice is placed entirely on the school that is planning the project.

"We're also modeling what we do to what peer institutions are doing," he said. "We're not just doing this to get a plaque."

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