Value Beyond Cost Savings - Green Building Finance Consortium

Value Beyond Cost Savings: How to Underwrite Sustainable Properties3) Bringing the team together as early as possible. This helps maximize opportunities forsynergies and cost-savings and encourages the buy-in and team aspects that are critical tohigh performance.4) Including a diverse set of parties on the team. Include owners, all consultants whowould typically be involved in a project, and a construction manager or cost-estimator.5) Incorporating the requirements for an integrated building design process into theproject documents. Set the goals right from the start. The optimal sustainable rating willthen evolve out of project decisions made to meet the performance targets.6) Consider structuring fees to reward the design team for the initial extra effort andrisks of taking the integrated building design approach, based on its achieving thedesired results.7) Be intentional about the design process. One sustainability consultant told us that thedesign of the ID process could be even more important than the design of the building fordelivering a successful green building.8) Maintain continued vigilance and commitment to the ID process during design andconstruction. This is especially true during construction, when change orders and productsubstitutions can be made based on single-feature based simple pay-back or ROI analysis orscheduling considerations while ignoring the effect on the rest of the building systems.9) When possible and practical based on the size and type of property investment, dowhole-systems analysis that treats the building as a system and takes into account theinteractions and synergies between the different components.10) Remind yourself, sustainability isn’t rocket science. Oftentimes, low-tech solutionscan be combined to produce stunning efficiencies. Teams with less experience should focuson lower risk solutions and products.Project DeliveryThe concepts of ID have contributed to the evolution of Construction/Developmentdelivery models. The Design-Bid-Build process has been the most prevalent processhistorically, but Design-Build, Integrated Project Delivery, Intensive at Risk ConstructionManagement, and hybrids of these processes have become more prevalent. These methods,and related risk mitigation ideas are presented below.Design-Bid-BuildAs might be expected, there are three main sequential phases to the design-bid-builddelivery method: design, bidding, and construction. This process has some benefits in thatthe designer is solely representing the owner, bidding can result in more competitive36