The document discusses the risks associated with building green buildings. It notes that while building green is a noble goal, it is also a risky endeavor with technical, legal, contractual and insurance risks. Some of the key risks discussed include increased complexity, use of new and untested materials and products, lack of price premiums for green buildings, and emerging performance guarantee requirements. The document provides examples of green building failures and outlines factors that owners and designers should consider to help mitigate risks on green building projects.
9. Definitions
Green Building - Design, develop, construct & operate in a
manner that reduces the use of non-renewable resources.
Sustainable - Includes green issues, but also is interested in
economic issues (financial payback)
High Performance Buildings - Interested in measurable and
verifiable improved outcomes (such as 35% improved energy
performance)
9
(attributed to Ujjval Vyas/Alberti Group)
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12
Complex Building + Strong Drivers =
“High Risk” Buildings
Complexity
DRIVERSMild Intense
Source: 1996 Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC) Study.
I “low”
II “moderate”
III “high”
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“New materials are unproven by definition. Like
most experiments they tend to fail. If the
experiment is the whole exterior of the building [or
the entire HVAC system], they fail big.”
Quote from
“How Buildings Learn: What happens after they’re built”
by Stewart Brand
FACTOR 3: Innovative Green Products
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“New materials are unproven by definition. Like
most experiments they tend to fail. If the
experiment is the whole exterior of the building [or
the entire HVAC system], they fail big.”
Quote from
“How Buildings Learn: What happens after they’re built”
by Stewart Brand
FACTOR 3: Innovative Green Products
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Interaction with Other Materials
• If unfamiliar with new material’s individual
performance….
…probably know less about
material’s interaction with
other components
• Recognize additional risk in innovative
products….
…and apply higher degree of rigor
in evaluation
35. What a Peer Review Is
1. Inserting SME into the process
2. Mirrors the healthcare industry
3. Green drives need for SME on products
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36. What a Peer Review Is NOT
1. Additional insurance policy
2. Contracted to Owner
3. Requested by any project team member
4. Does not replace LEED Consultant
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44. FACTOR 5: Emerging Green Building
Requirements
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1. Owner’s commit to sharing use data
(energy/water)
2. LEED certification can be revoked
3. Third parties can initiate USGBC non-
compliance action
45. 121 Building Study by USGBC
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Muscia—energy above promise other energy articlesMusica—lost client due to security daylightingLost tenant who wants green image, including turnkey tenant
CA Academy of Sciences (wavy roof)Reston underground Terraset Elementary schoolFrench museum with vertical garden Musée du Quai BranlyInsurance journal=---current technology is about shedding water; vegetative is about holding water02/23/2006The vertical garden at the Musée du Quai BranlyWalk along the Quai Branly, the thoroughfare that runs along the left bank of the Seine between the Pont d'Alma and the Eiffel Tower, and you'll see a site that will make you rub your eyes in disbelief. A building four stores tall, parts of it still under construction, whose walls are entirely cloaked in living vegetation from roof to sidewalk. You're looking at the new Musée du Quai Branly, and what you're seeing is the latest hallucinatory creation of Patrick Blanc, world-trotting botanist, heavy-weight scientist, inventor, and designer of these stupendous vertical landscapes.For nearly ten years, Patrick Blanc, a resident scientist at the prestigious CNRS (Centre National pour la RechercheScientifique), has been creating vertical gardens of a complexity and scale never before realized. Inspired by the plant communities that thrive on wet vertical rock surfaces in nature the world over, Blanc devised an ingenious system to replicate this natural situation on the walls--both indoor and outdoor--of urban buildings. Drawing from a palette of plants adapted or adaptable to this environment from all over the world, he has installed his mursvégétals (vegetal walls) in at least eighteen different locations, many of them in and around Paris.
Parties share responsibility—musica vicarious liability and client esthetic changes
Musica—unrecognized code changesAIA study
LEED MR-7 requires 50% wood certified by Forest Stewardship Council. There are >50 forest certification regimes globally, four major players in US include FSC, Sustainable Forestry Initiative, Certified Family Forest, and American Tree Farm system. USBGC is considering developing its own—USGBC Forest Certification System Benchmark. Concerns that MR-7, when adopted by government, is anti-trust since only FSC wood can be used. Also, concerns about FSC and USGBC relationship
Thom Mayne—Morphosis—2005 Pritzker prizeSfcurbed.com—Thom Mayne calls bullshit on LEEDGeorge HW Bush Federal Building SFOccupants have complained it is not conducive to workLimited climate controlsSkip stop elevatorsRelies heavily on natural ventilation
