Growing Interest in Green Building

The Athens-Clarke government built the only four officially environmentally friendly buildings in Athens, Ga., but officials hope to spread the gospel of green building at the county's first Green Life Expo on Jan. 30-31 at the Classic Center.

The U.S. Green Building Council started its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program to certify energy-efficient, sustainable buildings in 1998, but only in the past few years has the concept caught on in Athens.

"When we started this five years ago, there was hardly anybody who knew how to spell LEED, let alone what it was all about," Athens-Clarke Environmental Coordinator Dick Field said.

Governments are leading the way, but private developers also are becoming more interested in green building techniques, said Chet Thomas, a Jaeger Co. landscape architect who will participate in a panel on environmentally friendly construction.

For example, Hotel Indigo, an upscale project under construction just north of downtown Athens, will be LEED-certified, Field said.

The Athens-Clarke Commission passed a law in 2004 requiring that all new county buildings be built to LEED standards. Four - two police substations, the East Athens Educational Dance Center and a Lexington Road building that houses services for rape and abuse victims - already are certified. No other buildings in Athens are certified, according to the Green Building Council.

A Public Utilities Department laboratory and Solid Waste Department offices under construction also will be certified once they're completed.

At least four new University of Georgia buildings, including the Miller Learning Center and the Coverdell Building, would qualify for LEED certification, but the university chose not to spend the money to have them certified, UGA lead architect Danny Sniff said in 2007. Several projects under design or construction will be LEED-certified, said Kevin Kirsche, assistant director of the UGA facilities planning office.

"It's very typical for LEED certification being a requirement for the project ... certainly in the public sector, the government sector," Thomas said.

The LEED system rates construction projects according to dozens of criteria, awarding points for landscaping and construction that recycles or reuses materials, minimizes water use, improves air quality and cuts energy consumption.

The techniques used for meeting the criteria - rain gardens, porous pavement or shade trees, for example - can add 1 percent or 2 percent to the cost of construction, but save 10 percent to 15 percent of energy costs.

Certification will become more common in years ahead as builders take advantage of the tax credits and other incentives President Barack Obama has pledged to offer for green construction - one reason why Green Expo organizers are emphasizing it, Field said.

"These things are really on people's minds right now," he said.