Published: January 12, 2009 09:37 pm      

Panel delays proposal for ‘green building’ standard

CHARLESTON — This is a new school in West Virginia. Color it green.

Actually, the green has nothing to do with hue, but is a buzzword for making new structures environmentally safe, friendly, and cheaper to operate.

And, in the long term, says David Sneed, chief of architectural services for the School Building Authority, the concept is intended to save counties money on energy costs over the long haul.

Already, he told Government Organization Subcommittee A in Monday’s round of interims, the SBA has embarked on a pilot project with a kindergarten through second grade school in Berkeley County.

“We’re kind of looking forward to see where things go,” Sneed said.

Panelists delayed action on HCR87, intended to ask the Joint Committee on Government and Finance to allow a study of the proposed adoption of green building standards for all state-owned structures, beginning with simple encouragement, but becoming mandatory next year.

Delegate Dale Martin, D-Putnam, a co-chairman of the panel, indicated the issue would be revisited in February interims.

In its meeting last month, the SBA decided to “go green” in daily operations by setting up electronic communication capabilities via a Web-based project information system.

Under its new policy, the SBA mapped out a course for designing green or high performance schools across the state.

Professionals will be under a mandate to employ the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design building system into new structures so they become high performance school buildings.

“What we’re looking at is, what is it going to cost, and how much is this going to save?” Sneed explained.

Sneed acknowledged the concept is fraught with a number of unanswered questions.

“This is a new issue for a lot of contractors in the state, and our architects in the state,” the SBA official said. “We’re kind of plowing new ground here, but we’re pretty confident that once the standard gets started, it will keep evolving and we’ll end up somewhere out there with a LEED certification or a high performance school.”

For the moment, the SBA has its eyes trained on new schools, Sneed said.

“As we remodel old schools, the components that we replace with high performance equipment will in some way affect that. But we won’t make every school we renovate a green school. It will receive green components.”

Sneed feels the concept ultimately will prove a money-saving venture. Lawmakers indicate the savings will be realized in seven years once the program is begun.

“It will save the state money up front, but it will save the counties quite a bit of money in the long run,” Sneed said. “So the ultimate beneficiary is going to end up being the counties, who save the energy and pay their own utility bills on those buildings.”

One panelist, Delegate Mike Porter, R-Mercer, was unconvinced the idea of turning state structures into “green” ones can generate savings, but rather might wind up hitting taxpayers with higher bills.

“This to me is a second set of rules you’re going to try to run with a computer over here, and not even on the job site,” he said. “I can’t see how that will work. It’s going to cost one-third more to go with LEED.”

Besides, he said, contractors nowadays put up structures with energy-efficient components.

“They’re going to design that building anyway without all this new criteria over their heads,” Porter said.