green building attorney

A green building project without sufficient insurance coverage will never get out of the ground, which is why the recent efforts of Marsh to review current trends in the marketplace with respect to green building insurance issues have been particularly insightful.

While I’ve talked extensively here at gbNYC about the potential for green design services rendered by architects and engineers to trigger exclusions in professional liability policies (in relation to the signing of credit submittal templates in connection with LEED projects) the Marsh report did not explicitly discuss this specific risk. However, the report did note the potential liability for design professionals who guarantee or warrant “an outcome without having complete control over things such as construction means and methods, and operation and maintenance” (such as credit submittals in support of a project’s recycled-content material or percentage of recycled construction debris, where means and methods outside of the design professional or LEED consultant’s control may contribute to an unanticipated outcome).

The Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory has earned Long Island’s first LEED Silver rating. Brookhaven’s $12.6 million Research Support Building, designed by Farmingdale, New York-based Ehasz Giacolone Architects, earned 34 credits from USGBC, including the maximum possible for recycled-content and locally-sourced materials. General contractor E.W. Howell of Woodhaven, New York also diverted between 50 and 75 percent of the project’s construction debris from local landfills. The two-story, 65,000-square-foot building includes two different office wings that are connected by a glass atrium lobby, while the exterior is clad with metal panels.

At a press conference last week that was held at Tishman Speyer’s LEED Silver hopeful 555 Mission Street, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom proposed municipal LEED legislation that, if enacted, would be among the most rigorous in the country applying to private construction. Mayor Newsom has vowed to fast-track his signature on the legislation should the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approve it. It's unclear when the Board will debate and vote on the measure.

The legislation would require commercial and residential projects greater than 25,000 square feet, or taller than 75 feet, to earn a LEED Certified rating from USGBC in 2008. In 2009, the requirement for commercial projects would increase to Silver and, in 2010, Gold. Residential projects would require a Silver rating beginning in 2010.

Beginning in 2009, mid-sized commercial buildings would need to meet three LEED credits. This requirement would increase to four credits in 2010, six in 2011, and seven credits in 2012. The text of the proposed legislation does not appear to be available online, and it’s unclear how the ordinance defines small and mid-sized buildings. Nevertheless, all mid-sized buildings would be required to satisfy a checklist based on LEED during 2008.

Small and mid-sized residential buildings would need to receive 25 points under California-based non-profit BuildItGreen’s GreenPointRated rating system beginning in 2009. This requirement would increase to 50 points in 2010 and 75 points in 2012 (2011 for multi-family residential buildings with five units or more).

San Francisco already requires all public projects to earn a LEED Silver rating. The proposal is based on the work of a Task Force featuring a number of local owners and A/E/C stakeholders that Mayor Newsom assembled earlier this year. The Task Force provided the Mayor with a 47-page report (which at one point was available online, but I've been unable to track it down) back in June.

In an article written earlier this week, Dan Walters, a columnist at the Sacramento Bee, articulated his concerns over a LEED-driven green public building regulatory scheme by calling such legislation “part of a broader legislative tendency to avoid tough policy decisions by shifting them to unaccountable outside organizations.” Walters was writing with respect to California’s Senate Bill 86, which would require public projects to comply with LEED beginning on January 1, 2009.