Certification: The US Green Building Council (USGBC) has through consensus of its membership – primarily design and construction firms, government agencies, product suppliers, and environmental consultants – developed the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System. The USGBC hopes through LEED to “promote integrated, whole-building design practices.” As noted above, using the integrated design approach, higher levels of creativity are tapped, better performance can be achieved, and costs can be controlled – all worthy goals. Also, as noted above, concrete because of its versatility, can play an important role in achieving these results.

Cost effectiveness: National research indicates that a sustainable design approach should not add more than 2% to the cost of a building, and may incur none if done thoughtfully. Research also indicates that the sooner sustainability is introduced into a project, the more likely it can be achieved cost-effectively.

Whole Building Design requires a commitment on the part of the owner and design team to an interdisciplinary approach. Check-ins along the design path and during construction at regular intervals assures follow-through to this commitment. Design and construction contracts should reflect the project’s commitment to whole building design.

Whole Building Design generally means investing in design activities that increase the opportunity for integrated solutions, with an eye to better performance and life cycle savings. Integrated design activities generally include an eco-charette, life-cycle analysis, and modeling, testing, and evaluation studies.

Eco-Charettes are planning workshops that ideally occur early on in a project (no later than the schematic phase). They are the first step in an interdisciplinary design process and should include owner representatives, design consultants, and end users.

Life Cycle Cost Analysis. Typically, first cost is what designers and owners look at when analyzing whether to proceed with a specific strategy, sustainable or not. However, it is in the long period of operation that the given strategy will prove its worth. According to the Sustainable Building Technical Manual, operations and maintenance costs equal 6% of overall business costs, compared to only 2% for initial building costs (the large remainder is for personnel).

Modeling, Testing, Evaluation. An integrated design process assumes a number of building solutions will be considered and that some degree of analysis will take place to compare strategies and determine which ones are appropriate to achieve the desired performance. Modeling (simulation or physical) of daylight, energy use, water use, and air flow are methods that can be used to conduct this analysis. Costs vary with the complexity of the process used.