- Contractor Understanding and
Involvement in the LEED Green Building System
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- Kenneth C. Williamson III, Ph.D., Bentley Scott, MSCM, and Richard R.
Burt, Ph.D.
- Texas A&M University
- College Station, Texas
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This study investigates construction company
demographic factors and involvement factors between selected contractors,
within the state of Texas, on their level of manager understanding of the LEED
Green Building Rating System. Sixty-nine upper management employees responded
to the survey and were stratified into those who could provide an effective
definition and those who could not. Company descriptors included the factors
of company classification, business sector, business volume, and management
employee count. This study found that no demographic company descriptors
indicated a higher level of LEED understanding. Involvement factors included
LEED business, LEED familiar management employees, LEED accredited management
employees, LEED training offered, and LEED training incentives offered. Only
the involvement factors of LEED accredited management employees and LEED
training offered provided significant likelihood results.
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Key Words:
LEED, Sustainable Buildings, Green Building,
Environment, Understanding
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- Rationale
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- All sectors of the construction industry
and every advocate of the built environment are all responsible in some way
for managing the resources that are available to both the private and public
sectors. The responsibility of managing the design and construction of
sustainable buildings is an issue that is beginning to gain some recognition
by certain private owners, public municipalities and particular branches of
the federal government. As a result, these entities are starting to require
the inclusion of environmentally sound and health responsible systems and
materials in many Requests for Proposals (RFP). Sustainable green building
practices have evolved to ensure that buildings are designed and constructed
in an environmentally productive and health conscious manner. The principles
of green building focus on the reduction of the environmental impact
associated with the built environment including operational processes and the
production of raw materials used in building (Black, 2002).
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- Of special interest, to this study, is the
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating
System, which is one of several design and construct control templates and the
most widely used instrument nationwide. The construction industry can be
considered to be a key indicator of how the LEED system is or is not gaining
acceptance. It is imperative to the future of the sustainable building
movement to identify knowledgeable contractors and measure their level of
involvement in programs such as LEED, so that sustainable practices may be put
into a perspective which could assist in affecting positive change.
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- This paper reports on a study undertaken
to investigate construction firm demographics that could identify key factors
which indicate positive LEED system involvement. The investigation measures
multiple company demographics modeled to compare firms by industry sector,
management employee counts, business volume, and training and training
incentives, while controlling for management’s knowledge and understanding of
the LEED system. It is hypothesized that the as LEED system knowledge and
understanding increases there will be differences between construction firms
on the selected key demographic factors.
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- The LEED Green Building System
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- The LEED Green Building System is a
control tool that may be utilized to produce a sustainable, environmentally
sound, and user-friendly building. The United States Green Building Council (USGBC)
is the organization that regulates the LEED certification process. The mission
statement of the program, found in the LEED Policy Manual, states that “LEED
encourages and accelerates global adoption of sustainable green building and
development practices through the creation and implementation of universally
understood and accepted standards, tools and performance criteria. According
to the LEED policy Manual, LEED is a product, a brand and a “flexible yet
consistent rating system.” Some of the strategic goals of LEED include
achieving “high profile and successful product launches, earning widespread
endorsement by the private and public…, to earn widespread and routine
endorsement by Federal State and Local Government, adoption as a vehicle for
policy development and implementation, improved LEED performance criteria as
the industry gains experience with integrated design and green construction,
etc. (USGBC, 2003).”
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- The rating system itself encompasses
several different sets of standards to cover the many different types of
construction projects, across all building sectors. The fully functional
standards include LEED-NC which is a set of standards for new commercial
construction, LEED-EB, which is a set of standards for existing buildings,
LEED-CI, which is a set of standards for commercial interiors. LEED-CS, which
is a set of standards for core and shell projects, is still being developed
and is currently being tested. LEED-H, which is a set of standards for
residential building and LEED-ND, which is a set of standards for neighborhood
development have yet to be developed. According to information obtained from
the USGBC, the LEED rating system was designed to fulfill specific design
goals in the six areas of: sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and
atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environmental quality, and
innovation in the design process. Each one of these categories has an allotted
number of points that are assigned to them for selected elements (of both
design and construction) such as storm water management, construction waste
management, thermal comfort, etc. In turn, each one of these elements is
assigned a point value and an accumulation of a certain number of points may
allow a project to obtain a LEED rating of either Certified (26-32 points),
Silver (33-38 accumulated points), Gold Level (39-51 accumulated points), and
Platinum Level (at over 52 points) for a grand total of 69 possible points.
Not every point is applicable to every project as some elements are project
specific (USGBC, 2004).
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- CEO’s, vice presidents, construction
managers, and other members of mid to upper level management who work for
construction firms are responsible for spearheading decisions within the
company including training in new technologies, systems, processes and
methods. Even though the knowledge of an individual manager and company
philosophy are very similar, it is imperative to the thoroughness of the
research to encompass the knowledge of these individuals who are a reflection
of both a personal and organizational understanding of the LEED system. Of
interest to this study is how the firm is stratified within the industry, how
well it’s managers understand the LEED system, and what the firm does
internally to meet the needs of the LEED market niche.
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- The construction industry continually
classifies its constituent relationships through several ranking measures. The
Engineering News Record (ENR) annually reports the Top 400 general contractors
in the U.S. ranked by construction revenue and new contracts in the previous
year including joint ventures, subcontracts, design-construct contracts and
“at-risk” contracts in sectors ranging from general building, manufacturing,
power, water supply, sewerage/solid waste, industrial process, petroleum,
transportation, hazardous waste, and telecommunications (ENR, 2004). These Top
400 companies are often considered to be the leaders within the construction
industry and are expected to be more cognizant of new market trends and
aggressive in meeting the needs of these new markets.
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- Another classification of contractors is
those who are not only leaders but are interested in investigating trends
within the construction industry that will assist them in making their
corporate decisions. The Construction Industry Advisory Council (CIAC) at
Texas A&M University is an organization supported and composed of subscribing
members ranging from individuals to corporations who are involved in the
construction industry and are interested in supporting and promoting Texas
A&M University in terms of research,
academic and other programs (CIAC, 2004). Therefore, CIAC members will
represent the industries diversity by the quantity and types of the projects
that each represents in their portfolio relative to construction sector
activity. A greater number of these companies would be expected to be less
cognizant of LEED, than the Top 400, due to their lack of national rank.
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- Involvement within a business niche is
considered to include several descriptors that may be used to stratify
construction companies. Factors, which could be used, include annual
construction revenue, count of management employees, familiarity and the level
of involvement in the LEED system. An example would be the annual firm
business volume compared to LEED business volume which would provide the
percentage of total annual revenue that involves the LEED system. This measure
could demonstrate how successful a firm has been in attracting niche business
and how much of the built environment includes LEED elements.
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- LEED System Awareness and
Preparedness
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- In addition to company business sectors
and descriptors, LEED involvement may also be described as a process where
awareness and preparedness of the entire organization to meet niche needs
differ among organizations. In order to be prepared a company must have an
awareness of a program or system, which should include extensive training and
experience in the system and its requirements. Awareness is defined for this
study as a phenomenon that takes place when a person or entity has become
informed about a particular subject to a level that allows the knowledge to be
applied in some way (UK, 2004). LEED knowledge therefore, is an important part
of awareness and branches from an understanding of the concepts of green
building and the technologies behind it that, when combined, make the LEED
system possible. When analyzing awareness and preparedness levels of LEED, it
is prudent to begin by asking what the LEED Green Building System is and what
it is used for. Once this question has been answered and understood the next
step is to understand how it may be used and where the goals of the system are
applicable to the construction industry. Once an understanding of LEED has
been reached, an understanding of how the operational structure of the varying
companies in the form of an integrated approach, should be studied.
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- The awareness levels of upper management
should be a significant predictor of corporate preparedness. Preparedness is
one of the key descriptors incorporated into this study in terms of the
ability a company possesses to efficiently and smoothly implement the green
building processes that LEED requires. Preparing a work environment to accept
change is not always easy, however with a thorough training curriculum an
effort may be made to implement new programs and technologies into the
existing operating structure of a company. In an article entitled Guidelines
for Preparing a Workplace Skills Plan, Jeff Sacht discusses some of the
approaches a workforce preparedness plan should take. According to Sacht one
of the first questions upper management should ask is what functions will the
new program require in the business? Additionally, other concerns should
include new requirements that might be needed in terms of work skills or
efforts in the workforce (Sacht, 2004).
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- LEED accreditation is a process by which
professionals become accredited experts on the LEED rating system, its uses,
and benefits etc. LEED training and accreditation of construction
professionals shows how the construction firm has committed its time and
resources to the implementation and management of the LEED rating system. This
lends some credibility to the green building program as it shows the role LEED
has is of some importance to the construction processes of that particular
organization as opposed to those companies that do not train for or use the
LEED system. Management employee counts versus the counts of LEED accredited
management employees is also considered to be indicative of system
involvement. Finally, it is important to consider whether or not the firm
offers LEED training and training incentives, as each of these are indicators
of company involvement.
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- A basis for the analysis throughout this
study can be found in the way that preparedness and awareness are handled on
either an individual or organizational level. Issues of awareness and
preparedness are essential elements in discovering how the LEED Green Building
System has been accepted and implemented by the construction industry. In a
study by Robert Schafer and John Tait, it is noted that the existing knowledge
and the resulting attitudes which people have will affect whether or not they
adopt new ideas (Schafer & Tait, 1986). This statement guides this research
effort, in that, it is believed that whether LEED awareness is extensive or
meager is a reflection of management’s knowledge and understanding. It is for
this reason that the case has been made for each organization to thoroughly
analyze the manager’s understanding to ascertain how the LEED system has been
accepted in practice.
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- One of the best ways to assess how aware
and knowledgeable an individual or organization is about the LEED system, is
to establish an assessment of awareness levels by asking a specific question
about the LEED system and green building. A key element to this research is
the ability of the manager respondent to be able to define the LEED system
within the limits of their knowledge and understanding. For this study to
effectively stratify the firm’s demographic information on each of the above
measures requires that the respondent be aware of the LEED system concepts and
have a level of understanding that produces an effective and correct
definition.
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- The goal of this study was to investigate
construction industry demographic factors between selected contractors listed
in the ENR Top 400 within Texas and those within the Construction Industry
Advisory Council at Texas A&M University on their understanding and
involvement in the LEED Green Building System. To achieve this goal the
following objectives have been established:
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- To identify how
companies differ with respect to classification, sector, business volume, and
management employee size. It is hypothesized that a company will differ
demographically as the understanding of the LEED system increases.
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- To identify how
companies differ with respect to LEED familiar and accredited employees, LEED
business, and the offering of LEED training and training incentives. It is
hypothesized that a company will become more aware and prepared in the LEED
system as a function of increased manager understanding.
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- The greatest impact this study may have
may be in the level of understanding that associations and team groups are
shown to have concerning the perceptions of importance and benefit of the LEED
system within the construction industry. The construction industry will
benefit by understanding the value of being not only aware but of being
prepared to respond to this new and innovative trend in project design and
construction. In each case, the results may guide these interest groups to
make better decisions, improve marketing strategies, and affect more positive
changes toward sustainable building.
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- The design of the study was a 2 x 1
factorial, which included two between-subjects factors (company description
and LEED involvement) by one within-subject factor (understanding). The
company description factor had four sub-groups (company classification with
two levels [CIAC, and Top 400], business sector with sixteen levels [private
or public, single family, multi-family, office, hospital, retail,
governmental, education, energy, civil, industrial, religious, entertainment,
and miscellaneous], business volume with four levels in millions of dollars
[<125, >=125 - <250, >=250 - <1000, and >=1000], and management employees with
three levels [<100, >=100 - <1000, and >=1000]. The company LEED involvement
factor had five sub-groups (business, familiar employees, accredited
employees, training offered, and training incentives offered each with two
levels [No and Yes]. The understanding factor was scored by counts of key word
inclusion within provided definition using two levels, 0 to 3 and 4 to 7.
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- The sample (N = 155) consisted of members
of the construction industry from a list of the ENR 400 who have offices in
Texas and from the Construction Industry Advisory Council CIAC at Texas A&M
University. Of the surveyed firms thirty-five companies were ranked in the ENR
400 and 120 companies were members of the CIAC. Respondents ranged from
project managers to vice presidents, CEO’s and other members of the project
management team.
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- A postal-based and web-based survey
instrument was developed to assess participant understanding of the LEED green
building system. The demographic questions were formulated from the key
factors identified within the literature review and discussion of study
rationale. The questionnaire incorporated both quantitative and qualitative
questions.
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- The survey protocol was a postal mailing
of the survey questionnaire to each of the participants. Within this mailing
was a letter of introduction, on Departmental letterhead, an acknowledgement
of participation, directions on responding to the survey, and a return
envelope. The participants were informed that they could either respond to the
survey in written format using the postal survey or by electronic format using
the Internet based survey. The instrument was administered in November 2004
and responses were received through December 2004. The web-based survey
automatically placed response data into a database, while the researcher used
the web site to enter the data received from the postal returned surveys.
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- In order to ensure adequate LEED knowledge
and understanding the respondent’s LEED definition will be evaluated using the
following LEED definition:
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- The LEED
(Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building System is a
voluntary, consensus-based national certification program for
developing, quantifying, and verifying high-performance, sustainable
buildings. LEED works to promote the design and
construction of buildings that are environmentally
responsible, profitable and healthy places to live and work. The
program awards individual credits in the areas of site development, water
conservation, energy efficiency, materials and resources, and indoor air
quality.
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- Four external evaluators chose seven key
words, certification, building, design, construction, sustainable,
environment, and health, which would represent full understanding if included
within the definition. Three additional external subject matter experts
provided definitions of Green
Building to establish a score for expert
knowledge and understanding with respect to these key words. Two scored 86%
and one scored 100%. In addition, all definitions will be fit to a word count
listing to assess the counts and implied value of these key words within the
respondent’s definitions.
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- The examination of the data will be used
in a Chi2 test, which required fitting the understanding measure to
nominal representations versus continuous analysis of frequency for
between-subjects. Each participant received all questions of company
description and LEED involvement therefore the independent measures are the
reported values fit to nominal categories controlled for by manager score of
correctness of understanding. Data will be fit to determine the likeliness of
cell membership in one of the independent understanding variable levels.
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- This section reports the results of an
analysis on the information obtained by the LEED survey. This discussion
includes three major sets. The first is a description of the sample
population. The second examines the knowledge and understanding of the
respondents. Lastly, an examination of the effects of the company descriptors,
with sub-groups of company classification, business volume, management
employees, and LEED descriptors, with sub-groups of LEED business, LEED
familiarity, LEED accredited employees, LEED offered training, and the
offering of LEED training incentives.
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- Of the 155 participants, 69 completed the
survey, 37 via Internet and 32 via postal mail, providing a 45% response rate.
Fifty-six (81%) were classified as CIAC and 13 (19%) were classified as Top
400 companies. The annual business volume of the respondents was 63.9 billion,
which was administered by 66,172 management employees. The sectors with the
highest business volumes were office and hospital each with 15%, governmental
with 20% and education with 10%. Table 1 provides a complete breakdown of the
respondent’s work by industry sector.
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