On October 21st, the US Green Building Council and Honeywell announced a new partnership introducing the LEED Dynamic Plaque system. Using technology from Honeywell, this new system will monitor and asses facility performance over an extended period time to ensure the best models of efficiency and sustainability are implemented with each new technology.
The LEED Dynamic Plaque system assesses building performance on measures of water consumption, energy use, occupant transportation, waste output, and human experience, compiling the data to arrive at an overall performance score. The score is applied to the LEED rating system, which is currently the most widely utilized green building certification program worldwide. In the press release from Honeywell, USGBC's chief product manager officer Scot Horst noted, "buildings are alive, always changing and evolving, and optimizing technology and operations requires a solid handle on performance at any moment in time."
Using building management system the Honeywell Enterprise Buildings Integrator and data collection from Attune Services, the collaboration will kick-off with the pilot monitoring of USGBC's DC headquarters and the offices of DPR Construction in San Francisco. DPR is employing the technology not only to optimize performance and hold to LEED standards, but to continue on a path to net-zero energy use for the space. Executive vice president of DPR Construction Eric Lamp said in the press release, "to practice what we preach, we need high-performing buildings. The LEED Dynamic Plaque helps us better understand our facility in an industry-forward way, holding us accountable."
The LEED Dynamic Plaque system will be aimed specifically at buildings previously LEED certified.
The continued approach utilizing building monitoring addresses much of the criticism of the LEED rating system, namely that once building are built using greener materials there is no check-in to analyze if building greener made a significant impact on performance. The LEED Dynamic Plaque system would do just that and provide incentive for buildings to optimize performance through an additional scoring method and assessment that will lower energy and operations costs. The system will provide USGBC with the necessary data to ensure the LEED rating system adapts and makes necessary changes to a certification program that is often additionally criticized for assigning value to green building methods and materials arbitrarily. Whatever works best and has the farthest-reaching impact on performance could be written into the requirements and valuation for certification. Finally, knowing facilities are being monitored, building occupants will be more likely to stick to sustainable habits as well.
If the LEED Dynamic Plaque system and partnership between USGBC and Honeywell is successful, it will take the most widely known system for green building certification from just building green to staying green.
