USGBC Expands Data Collection from LEED Buildings

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has begun collecting energy- and water-use data from LEED-certified buildings, and is promising preliminary performance reports for building owners participating in its Building Performance Partnership (BPP) by November 2010.

In 2009 USGBC announced that buildings certified under LEED 2009 would be required share energy- and water-use data (see “All LEED Projects to Provide Actual Performance Data,” EBN July 2009). There has been much debate in recent years about whether LEED-certified buildings actually perform as well as their LEED designation suggests they should (see “LEED Delivers on Predicted Energy Savings,” EBN Dec. 2007). BPP should bring a big expansion in the amount of data available, leading to richer and more reliable analysis in the future. “[BPP] is the foundation of USGBC’s commitment to a meaningful demonstration of the value of building and operating green,” said Scot Horst, senior vice president of LEED for USGBC. Brendan Owens, P.E., vice president for LEED technical development, added that BPP is intended to help underachieving projects identify and fix performance problems.