LEED-EBOM: Eight Steps to Success

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Key Practices for Your Existing Buildings Certification

LEEDuser logoClick here for a free subscription to our email newsletter, including LEED tips and info on future webinars.Getting started on a LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance (LEED-EBOMEBOM is an acronym for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance, one of the LEED 2009 rating sytems.) certification project? If you want to start off on the right foot, or pick things up if they haven't gone so well, watch this LEEDuser webinar recording for essential tips and best practices.

LEED-EBOM without a coronary

A high LEED certification score, a hassle-free process with minimal additional staff time, good return on investment, and real results in terms of energy savings and benefits to occupants—these are good goals for any LEED-EBOM project, but how do you make them happen?

Eight Steps to LEED-EBOM Success

Jenny Carney, one of the country's foremost LEED-EBOM experts, shares her "eight steps to success" in this hour-long webinar:

  • Make strategic use of Performance Periods, and don't dilly dally
  • Get your multi-tenant ducks in a row
  • Benchmark your energy performance early, often, and accurately
  • And more.

Jenny shares her steps with specific to-do's, case studies, and tips you can use to win over other members of your project team.

About the presenters

Jenny Carney, LEED AP
Jenny heads up YRG's Business & Operations Team, based in YRG's Chicago office. She oversees YRG project work related to LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance (LEED-EB:O&M) certification, corporate sustainability programming and reporting, and sustainability strategy development for businesses and existing buildings. She sits on the USGBC-Chicago Chapter's Education & Research committee, and is a member of the USGBC's Sustainable Sites TAGLEED Technical Advisory Group (TAG): Subcommittees that consist of industry experts who assist in developing credit interpretations and technical improvements to the LEED system.  (Technical Advisory Group).

Tristan Roberts, LEED AP
The webinar will be moderated by Tristan Roberts, editor of LEEDuser.com, a website that provides how-to resources for LEED certification teams. Tristan is also editor-at-large for BuildingGreen, publishers of LEEDuser as well as Environmental Building News and GreenSpec.

Continuing education

Please note: continuing education hours were offered for the live version of this event, but they are not currently being offered for the recorded version.

18 Comments

Rachael McClain May 25 2010

slides for presentation

Hi, I was wondering where I would be able to get a copy of the LEED EBOMEBOM is an acronym for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance, one of the LEED 2009 rating sytems. presentation slides?

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Brian Sutton May 25 2010

great presentation

a copy of the slide would be helpful.

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Carmelito Tatlonghari May 25 2010

Copy of the Presentation

Yes, a copy of the presentation would be very useful in explaining the process to my clients.

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Tristan Roberts replied Editor – LEEDuser, BuildingGreen, LLC May 26 2010

Yes, we hear you and are working on posting a copy of the presentation (in addition to the video which is posted above). Dealing with a technical constraint relative to the large file size.

Tristan Roberts replied Editor – LEEDuser, BuildingGreen, LLC May 27 2010

The slides from the presentation are now posted at the bottom of the "bird's eye view" screen above. (Under "attachment.")

Enjoy!

suzy kelly replied Principal, LEEDAdvisors Aug 18 2010

are slides part of video...don't see as attachment?

Tristan Roberts replied Editor – LEEDuser, BuildingGreen, LLC Aug 18 2010

Suzy, see the attachment above, just before the comments begin.

suzy kelly replied Principal, LEEDAdvisors Aug 18 2010

see it! Thanks.

John Ida President Urban Works, Inc. Jun 07 2010

Performance Period - end dates

On p. xx in the GBOM Ref Guide, the asterisk in Table 1:Sample Performance Period declares "All performance periods must end within the same 7-day interval". However, Jenny stated that this has been changed to one month instead of one week. Could someone post a link to the document that states this change? Is it in a document addenda from USGBC or GBCI?

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Tristan Roberts replied Editor – LEEDuser, BuildingGreen, LLC Jun 07 2010

Yes, see the LEED addenda from USGBC issued on 12/2/2009. You can find the document on this page, or download it directly here. Look on page 2.

Denise Thompson replied King County Jun 09 2010

I have found the following information on the overlaps of performance periods from the different versions of LEED for Existing Buildings:

EB v2: all performance periods must end within a shared sixty-day window…
EBOMEBOM is an acronym for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance, one of the LEED 2009 rating sytems.: all performance periods must overlap and terminate within one week of each other...
EBOM v3: all performance periods must overlap and terminate within 30 calendar days of each other…

Have I missed an update to LEED-EBOM to extend the overlap?

Tristan Roberts replied Editor – LEEDuser, BuildingGreen, LLC Jun 10 2010

That matches up with my understanding of the current overlaps.

Denise Thompson replied King County Jun 10 2010

Thanks for the response. If it wasn't so late in the game, I would change to EBOMEBOM is an acronym for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance, one of the LEED 2009 rating sytems. v3. I just hope we can pull off the one week overlap -- it's going to be tough.

Denise Thompson replied King County Jul 13 2010

I just received an email from the USGBC stating they will be changing EBOMEBOM is an acronym for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance, one of the LEED 2009 rating sytems. 2008 to a 30 day window as well.

Karen Stewart President, LEED AP EcoPotential Aug 03 2010

Documented benefits as a result of LEED for Existing Buildings

I am looking for data that shows the benefits (triple bottom line) for buildings that have achieved the LEED for Existing Buildings certification. I've heard that the owner can expect a 30 to 50% return on investment and that a LEED EBOMEBOM is an acronym for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance, one of the LEED 2009 rating sytems. Certified or Silver has a 2 to 3 year payback.
Most of the cost/benefit data that I have found is for new construction. I know I can look at individual case studies, but wanted to see if there were any consolidated results. Does anyone have any suggestions?

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mike w lackey, pe replied principal, lackey de carvajal cx Aug 04 2010

You raise a good question, the results you quote sound aggressive but are not necessarily out of line with published commissioning data. I would like to see this data for LEED EBOMEBOM is an acronym for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance, one of the LEED 2009 rating sytems. certification as well.

Evan Mills's work "Building Commissioning, A Golden Opportunity for Reducing Energy Costs and Greenhouse Gas Emissions" publishes data that show averages for commissioning existing buildings typically show energy saving of 10-15%, average commissioning costs of $0.46 and payback of 1.8 months. All of which are for commissioning, not necessarily LEED certification.

Dan Ackerstein replied Principal, Ackerstein Sustainability, LLC Aug 05 2010

Karen - I dare say that if you find any reliable data like this, you instantly become a hero to the EBOMEBOM is an acronym for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance, one of the LEED 2009 rating sytems. community. Having wrestled with this very issue since the beginning of EB, often in collaboration with the USGBC itself, I'm keenly aware of the difficulty in creating a useful analysis as it relates to existing buildings.

The two problems are this: 1. Different starting points. Some buildings enter the EB process in fantastic condition and use the rating system as a verification tool. Others enter in terrible shape and use the system as a road map to improving operations. As you can imagine, these two buildings would have radically different costs and benefits associated, to a degree that they become apples and oranges. When one building achieves certification for $50k, and another for $2 million, its a tough data set to manage.

2. Cost assignment. Drawing lines around an EB project is extremely difficult. If a building replaces a chiller as part of their EB project, how should that cost be assigned to EB? The entire cost of the chiller? The marginal cost relative to a less efficient replacement chiller? What if they were planning to replace the chiller regardless of EB? There are ways to answer all these questions, but getting survey respondents to answer them consistently is extremely difficult.

All that being said, USGBC/GBCI is collecting some interesting data via the 'Documenting Sustainable Building Operations Cost Impacts' credit in the IO section and perhaps they will soon make magic from those numbers.

Karen Stewart replied President, LEED AP, EcoPotential Aug 06 2010

Dan, thanks for your insight. I agree. It will be difficult. But, it is extremely important that we all understand the documented benefits of LEED EBOMEBOM is an acronym for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance, one of the LEED 2009 rating sytems.. We have over 70 billion sf of commercial building space existing today. Much of which could improve financially, environmentally and socially by following the LEED EBOM certification process. Building owners need this data to make informed decisions. I had thought about the IO credit and wondered how much data USGBC had received on completed projects. A colleague and I are "mining" some data on several completed existing building projects. I'll let you know what we find.

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