Javier

The Economic Benefits of Sustainable Design
Evidence is growing that sustainable buildings provide financial rewards for building owners, operators, and occupants. Sustainable buildings typically have lower annual costs for energy, water, maintenance/repair, churn (reconfiguring space because of changing needs), and other operating expenses. These reduced costs do not have to come at the expenseof higher first costs. Through integrated design and innovative use of sustainable materials and equipment, the first cost of a sustainable building can be the same as, or lower than, that of a traditional building. Some sustainable design features have higher first costs, but the payback period for the incremental investment often is short and the lifecycle cost typically lower than the cost ofmore traditional buildings. In addition to direct cost savings, sustainable buildings can provide indirect economic benefits to both the building owner and society. For instance, sustainable building features can promote better health, comfort, well-being, and productivity of building occupants, which can reduce levels of absenteeism and increase productivity. Sustainable building features canoffer owners economic benefits from lower risks, longer building lifetimes, improved ability to attract new employees, reduced expenses for dealing with complaints, less time and lower costs for project permitting resulting from community acceptance and support for sustainable projects, and increased asset value. Sustainable buildings also offer society as a whole economic benefits such as reducedcosts from air pollution damage and lower infrastructure costs, e.g., for avoided landfills, wastewater treatment plants, power plants, and transmission/distribution lines. Section 2.1 explains how using integrated design and various low-cost sustainable features reduces first costs. Sections 2.2 through 2.5 discuss the other direct economic benefits: annual operating cost savings for energy, water,maintenance and repair, and churn. Sections 2.6 and 2.7 discuss the indirect benefits of sustainable buildings for building owners, and Section 2.8 discusses the indirect benefits of sustainable buildings for society. Case studies and research summaries illustrating various benefits are included in each section.

Lower (or Equal) First Costs
Sustainable design must begin at the conceptualstage of a project to realize the full benefits. The
first step is to form a design team – including the owners; architects; engineers; sustainable design 
consultants; landscape designers; O&M staff; health,
"As the green design field matures, it becomes safety and security experts; the general contractor and
ever more clear that integration is the key to key subcontractors; costconsultants and value achieving energy and environmental goals engineers; and occupant representatives. This team  especially if cost is a major driver." needs to work together from the start, seeking an "integrated" design. The team develops innovative  Building Green Inc. (1999) solutions that meet energy, environmental, and social goals while keeping costs within budget. Using their collective,interdisciplinary analytical capability, the team can incorporate many strategies that, taken alone, would increase first costs. For example, by improving the building envelope, the design team can often eliminate the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning  (HVAC) system around the perimeter of the building (and the associated ducting) and also downsize the primary HVAC system. Downsizing the HVACsystem and eliminating ducting release money  to pay for the envelope improvements. A good example of this phenomenon occurred during the 2-1

design of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s Cambria Office Building. When designers of this building first proposed an upgrade to triple-glazed, double low-e windows, the developer balked at the $15,000 increase in cost. However,...