Energy-Efficiency Standards and Green Building Certification Systems Used by the Department of Defense for Military Construction and Major Renovations (2013) / Chapter Skim
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3 The Committee's Evaluation of the DOD Consultant's Report
3 The Committee's Evaluation of the DOD Consultant's Report
Pages 32-49
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From page 32... ...
A discussion on issues related to the actual measurement of building performance in terms of energy, water, indoor environmental quality, and other factors follows. The remaining sections of this chapter describe the DOD consultant's analytical approach for determining the cost-effectiveness of the relevant building standards and green building certification systems.
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The purpose of LCCA is to base the choice among mutually exclusive alternatives on a broader, longer-term view of costs, rather than on first costs alone (such as acquisition, design, and construction costs)
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Choosing among LCCA, CEA, and BCA Making mutually exclusive choices among alternatives with similar benefits -- such as the design or choice of systems or components for a given building or facility -- is usually conducted with LCCA and CEA, using the associated federally prescribed discount rates. In contrast, assessing whether a given government program or investment has been worthwhile or is projected to be worthwhile is usually conducted with BCA, using its associated federally prescribed discount rate.
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building and then measure the incremental costs and benefits associated with the green alternatives. This type of baseline development is used in the DOD consultant's study evaluated later in this chapter.
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Studies that look at those factors typically develop baselines from a variety of industry publications, including publications by the Building Owners and Managers Association and the International Facility Management Association. Measured Data Versus Modeled Data for Energy and Water Use All building standards and green building certification systems require that a building design meet or surpass an energy efficiency standard.
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• Sensitivity analyses to assess the long-term benefits and costs of the same ASHRAE standards and green building certification systems for a range of scenarios that represented uncertainty in future conditions. The scenarios differed in terms of discount rates, time periods, and escalation rates for energy and water costs.
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. TABLE 3.1 Building Details for Medium Office Prototype Building Medium Office Form Total floor area (sq.
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TABLE 3.2 Building Details for Small Hotel Prototype FURTHER EDITORIAL CORRECTION PREPUBLICATION COPY -- SUBJECT TO Building Small Hotel C-85 Form Total floor area (sq.
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To establish a baseline for each of the building prototypes in each location, costs were calculated as follows: • Construction costs for the baseline buildings were calculated using industry averages as pub lished in RS Means Square Foot Calculator for April 2012 (p.
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. C-23 For the benefit-cost analysis of the ASHRAE standards and the green building certification systems the following factors were used: • Discount rate: 2 percent (consistent with OMB guidance for fiscal year 2013)
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Means data, referred to the total construction costs of buildings. Because those cost data did not refer solely to incremental costs specific to energy-saving or water-saving building features, the consultant's calculation of cost differences between the baseline prototypes and the LEED-certified and Green Globes-certified projects probably include costs that are not related to energy, water, or other green systems.
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. Sensitivity Analysis for Uncertain Future Conditions The second element of the consultant's analytical approach were sensitivity analyses to calculate NPV benefits of the ASHRAE standards, LEED, and Green Globes for a range of scenarios that represent uncertain future conditions.
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Based on the test case analysis, the consultant identified four general categories of issues associated with the application of the proposed approach for analyzing the cost-effectiveness of building design alternatives within the DOD operating environment, as follows: • The timing of economic efficiency analyses for decision support on project planning, design and implementation, particularly in the context of current authorization and appropriation processes and legislative mandates; • Data collection and baseline development; • Use of the analytical approach to track actual performance of buildings relative to expected benefits; and • Industry and market factors influencing the long-term economic efficiency of DOD military construction and renovation (p.
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. Data Collection and Baseline Development The DOD consultant stated that the proposed analytical approach requires credible and verifiable data related to incremental construction costs; major repair/replacement costs; and operations, maintenance, and repair costs over the life of a facility.
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. COMMITTEE'S EVALUATION OF THE DOD CONSULTANT'S ANALYTICAL APPROACH The committee's evaluation of the DOD consultant's analytical approach is comprised of three topics: the consultant's methodology, data sources and the application of those data, and the applicability of the methodology to the DOD operating environment.
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From page 47... ...
First, actual incremental construction cost data for both LEED-certified and Green Globes-certified buildings were not available; those certification systems do not require that type of information. To generate the incremental construction cost data, which are essential to calculations of NPV benefits, the consultant used two methods.
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From page 48... ...
The NPV benefits calculated by the consultant would likely have been higher if the consultant had used the average incremental construction costs from those studies. Therefore, the committee cannot support the absolute net present values calculated by the DOD consultant for ASHRAE standards 90.1-2010 or 189.1-2011 or for the LEED and Green Globes green building certification systems.
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From page 49... ...
Effective use of the baselines will require credible and verifiable data related to construction costs, energy use, water use, operations and maintenance costs, and other factors, such as solid and hazardous waste disposal, that could have effects on DOD's mission, operating environment, and budget.
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