HRGB – Part III
Hidden Risks of Green Buildings: Why Building Problems are Likely Part III
“There’s one sure way to kill an idea: Sue it to death.”
Quote from ENR, July 2008
What is the greatest risk to the green building movement? It’s likely not the increased costs associated with green buildings-it’s more likely green buildings that don’t perform up to expectations and, in some cases, may experience significant failures.
The increased costs of litigation and insurance that could result from underperforming green buildings will be absorbed by designers (in a highly competitive marketplace) but in most cases will be passed onto building owners. These increased costs, along with the negative publicity on failed green buildings, could dramatically influence building owners NOT to build green.
Only recently has the marketplace begun to recognize the various contractual, legal, and technical risks that are inherent to green buildings. A growing number of experts have suggested that the first two steps to improved green building risk management are to: 1) recognize the unique risks for green buildings. 2) Develop a set of guidelines that merge the unique regional with green building guidelines- recognizing the lessons learned in lower risk buildings.
The design and construction community must not assume that if you build green then you will be building regionally correct or even lower risk buildings. Until the gaps between lower risk buildings and green buildings are addressed, the design community would be advised to prioritize the lessons of lower risk buildings already learned from the waterproofing, humidity control, and building forensics community. Without these priorities, poorly functioning green buildings are the likely result and this could be the ultimate killer for the green building movement, especially in demanding climates.
In our opinion the solution to good performing, regionally correct, lower risk green buildings are at least three-fold:
- Development of a set of Climate Design Criteria that integrates (and prioritizes) climate-specific criteria with current green building practices. Best practices for moisture control must take priority over green building practices.
- Development of a detailed Green Building Risk Management Plan that provides guidelines for the design and construction team from concept through the 1-year warranty period. These guidelines would incorporate the best ideas of green building specialists, moisture control specialists, construction attorneys, and insurance companies.
- Apply the lessons learned from past building successes and failures and make green building concepts subservient to these past lessons.
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With over 400 domestic and international projects, LBFG® has one of the most varied portfolios of successful project work in the building forensics community. These projects have included both new and existing buildings, cover both residential and commercial construction, and range in size up to $1 billion in cost.
