Feasibility study of LEED (leadership in energy & environmental design) : in volume certification for hospitality industry

• Main Author: Lam, Sui Chang
• Other Authors: Low, Kin Huat
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/61532
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Historically the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) Green Building Rating System™ developed by United State Green Building Council (USGBC) has certified buildings one at a time, with each LEED customer submitting full support documentation. As the interest in Green Building certification has grown over the years, many customers seek to certify entire portfolio of properties consisting of tens or hundreds of buildings. In view of such phenomenon, LEED have developed the Volume Certification Process in response to the industry’s demand. The Volume Program, through the use of prototype standards, allows organization to simplify the documentation process, achieving economies of scale in terms of certification fees, and leverages a single project team’s ability to oversee a whole portfolio as opposed to individual building certification. Key to the certification process is the assessment of uniformity in the portfolio: whether all buildings in the LEED application are physically similar, performing a similar function, and operate similarly. The uniformity evaluation defines whether each LEED credit’s submittal for the portfolio shares sufficient similarity such that it can be collapsed into a single uniform portfolio submittal. The approach for the evaluation process would vary across LEED credits and across different properties, taking into account ongoing operations and maintenance requirement. The report summarizes the feasibility study conducted to determine the relevance of LEED Volume Certification: Existing Buildings for Ascott’s portfolio of Serviced Residences, starting off with the properties in Singapore before seeking to branch out to the South East Asian region. This paper would also document the uniformity evaluation across the Serviced Residences portfolio, while concurrently recording key learning points and challenges faced during the review process. All of which would cumulate to decide whether it would be economically viable for Ascott to persue such a Rating Certification Scheme across its entire Serviced Residences Portfolio of over 200 properties in more than 40 cities.