GREEN BUILDING SOLUTIONS INTERNATIONAL

LEED AND ESTIDAMA; A REFERENCE GUIDE TO CRITICAL SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES

William Whistler, LEED AP, Estidama PQP Managing Director, Green Building Solutions International www.greenbldgintl.com A frequently asked question of the EGBC is how the new Estidama sustainability code compares to the more familiar LEED green building code. How are they the same? How are they different? What is critical to know as a professional involved with the green building industry in the UAE? As a LEED AP and now as Pearl Qualified Professional in the three rating systems, villa, building and community I shall shed some light on these questions to assist our members. I will start with some overall system comparisons then discuss key differences point by point. 1. OVERALL COMPARISONS: The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) code has been adopted by numerous projects in Dubai, and over 500 projects in the UAE have applied for a LEED rating. The Pearl Rating System for Estidama (which means sustainability in Arabic) was introduced as a mandatory requirement for all buildings in Abu Dhabi as of September 2010, which is linked to the Abu Dhabi Municipality (ADM) building permitting process. LEED is voluntary and market driven although some master developers in the UAE have mandated minimum levels of LEED rating on their projects; The Urban Planning Council Abu Dhabi (UPC) have mandated that all new projects in Abu Dhabi must achieve a minimum 1 Pearl and all government funded projects must achieve a 2 Pearl rating. In brief, while the principles and practices of sustainability are similar to LEED, the Pearl Rating System has been regionalized to emphasize the particular concerns of Abu Dhabi and the UAE. These areas of concentration can begin to be seen in a side by side comparison of the point distribution system: (this chart shows typical options for a new building in the two codes) 1.1 AVAILABLE POINTS: LEED Sustainable Sites

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Indoor Environmental Quality Water Efficiency Energy & Atmosphere Materials & Resources Innovation In Design Regional Priority REQUIRED POINTS TOTAL POSSIBLE POINTS 1.2 AWARD LEVELS: Certified 10 required points + Silver 10 required points+ Gold 10 required points+ Platinum 10 required points+

15 10 35 14 6 4 10 120

ESTIDAMA PEARL RATING SYSTEM Integrated Development Process Natural Systems Livable Buildings: Outdoors Livable Buildings: Indoors Precious Water Resourceful Energy Stewarding Materials Innovating Practice Regional & Cultural Practice REQUIRED POINTS TOTAL POSSIBLE POINTS

13 12 14 23 43 44 28 2 1 20 200

40 50 60 80

One Pearl Two Pearls Three PearlsFour PearlsFive Pearls-

20 required points only 20 required points+ 20 required points+ 20 required points+ 20 required points+

60 85 115 140

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As demonstrated above, there is emphasis on water conservation, energy reduction and the use of suitable materials which is appropriate for a hot, arid climate with scarce fresh water and a high cooling load. One additional difference in approach between the two systems is that the LEED Rating System is organized by construction type (new construction, core and shell, major renovations) and the Estidama Pearl Rating System is organized by development type (villa, building, community). In addition, Estidama requires a rating at the end of design (Pearl Design Rating) and the end of construction (Pearl Construction Rating), whereas LEED ratings are only awarded at the end of construction. 2. SITE DEVELOPMENT AND NATURAL ENVIRONMENT: In the two systems there are similar site development concerns for integration with governmental land use guidelines, convenient access to public facilities, encouragement of alternative transportation, site pollution reduction, light pollution reduction, remediation of contaminated land and tenant guidelines. The Estidama system however expands the breadth of site planning considerations to reflect the harshness of the local high temperatures and the UAEs ecosystem. 2.1 INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT PROCESS: IDP-1 Life Cycle Costing. This credit references ISO procedures and performance based guidelines to ensure the longevity, durability, long term quality and ultimately the sustainability of development. The Abu Dhabi government is signaling the seriousness of this issue by requiring the employment of a Chartered Surveyor with experience on at least 2 projects that conform to ISO 15686, the Standardized Method of Life Cycle Costing for Construction Procurement. IDP-4 Building Envelope Verification. This credit requires on-site and offsite testing for proto types and building envelope assemblies as well as certificates testifying that any stand building system element has been pre-tested. The inclusion of this credit, while greatly impacting the site inspection process, will help to counteract the current high percentage of local building air and water intrusion problems. 2.2 NATURAL SYSTEMS: NS-R1, Natural System Assessment, NS-R2 Natural System protection, and NS-R3 Natural System Design & Management Strategy. These credits are all mandatory and taken together represent a much more intensive obligation for project developers and team members in the area of natural species habitation safety and restoration than LEED. In brief the requirement is to identify priority habitats and priority species on the development site. If existing priority natural assets cannot be protected and enhanced on site they must be mitigated for and re-established offsite according to strict guidelines. Whether on-site or off-site, natural habitats must have a filed management plan with a five year funding commitment from the developer. Once again the Estidama emphasizes this issue by requiring the employment of a suitably qualified professional with at least 5 years experience of similar projects. Estidama is taking a proactive stance in the creation and expansion of the regional environmental systems and habitats with NS-3 and NS-4. The NS-3 Ecological Enhancement credit can be obtained by the planting of additional amounts and varieties of native plants and can be coupled with PW-2.1 Exterior Water Use Reduction: Landscaping for additional credits. NS-4 Habitat Creation & Restoration allows up to 6 further credits for the additional creation or restoration of habitats.

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2.3 LIVABLE BUILDINGS: OUTDOORS LBO-R3 Outdoor Thermal Comfort Strategy. This mandatory credit requires either man-made or natural shading for a specified percentage of all car parking, public spaces, walkways and playgrounds and the LBO-1 Improved Outdoor Thermal Comfort credit allows for additional points for increasing the amount of shading for these areas. These credits are a direct reflection of local environmental conditions. LBO-5 Private Outdoor Space. This credit is unique to the Estidama rating system. By giving points for having directly accessible individual outdoor spaces for all residential units, Estidama is communicating its preference for traditional middle eastern architectural forms. In addition there are further credits for traditional planning out lined in the Estidama Pearl Community Rating System: Livable Communities guidelines.

3.0 WATER USE AND CONSERVATION Although the principle of managing our water resources efficiently is consistent in both the LEED and Estidama programs, Estidama provides greater weighting to water conservation. A closer look at the specific credits in this section shows that the increased emphasis is on closely monitoring how potable water is used and by reducing evaporative loss as is appropriate to this climate. PW- R2 Exterior Water Monitoring. This mandatory credit requires that all external water uses such as heat rejection towers, hose bibs, irrigation, pools and water features are metered. In addition, this information must be data logged and Estidama has the right to request this information from the building owner at any time. PW- 2.2 Exterior Water Use Reduction: Heat Reduction. This credit allows for up to 5 additional credits if the percentage of water used in A/C heat rejection is reduced beyond the minimum required in the Estidama Project Exterior Water Allowance. 8 points will be awarded if no water is used for heat rejection. PW- 3.3 Exterior Water Use Reduction: Water Features. This credit focuses on giving credits if the use of water features and swimming pools is curtailed with 1 credit if swimming pool blankets are used and 4 credits if there are no water features or pools included in the project. PW-3 Water Monitoring & Leak Detection. This credit intends to expand the required metering of exterior water uses to include interior use monitoring. 2 credits are given if there is interior water monitoring plus 2 additional credits for a leak detection system for a total of 4 in the category. Similar to LEED, Estidama awards points for reducing a buildings interior water consumption beyond a baseline level. 4.0 ENERGY USAGE REDUCTION Both sustainability rating systems emphasize the careful use of energy and both take the industry changing stance that systems commissioning and subsequent re-commissioning are essential steps to achieve sustainability, energy efficiency and indoor air quality in the built environment. As an example of how the two similar systems differ in intensity, Estidama also makes the metering and data logging of energy usage mandatory with the required credit: RE-R2 Energy Monitoring and Reporting. LEEDs similar credits EA 5.1 Measurement and Verification- Base Building and EA 5.2 Measurement and Verification- Tenant Sub-metering are worth 6 points together but are not mandatory. Other differences in emphasis are: RE-2 Cool Building Strategies. This unique credit point specifically rewards the incorporation of passive design measures. Passive design measures are defined as those requiring no mechanical systems and include building orientation, the use of shading devices, building fabric improvements
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and building envelope air tightness. Once again this demonstrates Estidamas response to the local climate demands. RE-4 Vertical Transportation. Recognizing the Emirates prevalent use of mechanical transportation, this credit is awarded for energy efficient travelators, escalators and lifts. Again, as with the conservation of water, the two systems approach to power usage is similar. Both systems use the American ASHRAE 90.1 Energy Standard to establish the base line energy consumption and award points for demonstrating reductions in the buildings energy consumption beyond the baseline. Estidama encourages aiming for greater reductions in energy use with points awarded for up to 60% reductions rather than 48% in LEED. 5.0 STEWARDING MATERIALS AND RESOURCES This section of the two codes is similar in that there is commitment to the use of non-toxic and nonpolluting materials, the use of recycle materials, recycling of construction and operation waste, the use of regional materials and minimizing material use on site. The Estidama Pearl Rating System also however takes steps that could have long term influence on the regions carbon footprint by adding these categories: SM-2 Design for Materials Reduction. This credit gives an option of various materials reduction initiatives including substituting Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) for traditional building envelope materials, utilizing a vegetated roof or vegetated walls. SM-3 Design for Flexibility & Adaptability. Applying for this credit will have a strong impact on a buildings layout and faade. The requirements call for at least 90% of the building fenestration to have a regular rhythm, 90% of the walls to be demountable and 90% of the buildings pipes and conduits to not be permanently embedded in the building materials. The increase in adaptability should lengthen the effective life of the building stock. Sm-4 Design for Disassembly. This credit is designed to reduce the use of raw materials by allowing the individual components of a building to be reused. The requirements call for a best management plan of disassembly and reversible materials connections. 6.0 INNOVATIVE DESIGN AND REGIONAL DESIGN INFLUENCES. Both system reward innovative design practices and require that the innovations be documented in a way that allows them to be used again by other projects. The regional design influences for each system reflect the geographical background of the system. LEED has introduced in its 2009 version six regional priority packages that only apply to the variety of conditions in the US while Estidama uses its three tier system of Villa, Building and Community to overlap and reinforce a preference for using traditional area building practices like thermal mass and courtyard forms to facilitate living in a hot arid climate. KEY WEBSITES FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: http://www.usgbc.org/ http://www.usgbc.org/projectools http://estidama.org/pearl-rating-system.aspx http://estidama.org/template/estidama/docs/Tool%20Calculator%20Resource%20Register%20Jan2 011.pdf http://estidama.upc.gov.ae/cms/courses.php http://estidama.org/training-and-exams/pearl-rating-system-(prs)-training-program.aspx

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