Sustainable building projects : identifying and managing risks of green certifications -

Abstract

The rise of sustainability on the global scale has affected many human-related activities including buildings construction. Today, sustainable building construction is the trend, yet many problems still exist and new ones have been born with the new process. Of these problems, third-party certification is a major risk which is causing significant losses and disputes between owners and other project participants such as A-E's and contractors. This is due to the fact that many market-based and performance-based benefits are directly related to achieving such certifications. Therefore, this study researches the factors affecting third-party certifications and analyzes them to help project participants especially owners achieve their goals and avoid the resulting risks of failure to achieve the certification. Three contractual languages specifically tailored for sustainable building projects by AIA, DBIA, and ConsensusDocs are then compared. In addition, a survey study is done to examine how LEED Accredited Professionals (AP) deal with risks of sustainable building projects. Accordingly, the results are analyzed and, then, related to the factors deduced from literature. The research concludes with a set of recommendations including a mechanism that project participants can use to better deal with certification responsibilities and risks. It discusses approaches such as owner-driven certification process, complete waiver of damages of certifications, applying “green” liquidated damages, and applying a cure clause on the party pursuing certification. Results showed that owner-driven certification process is preferred due to the owner’s inherent level of control over the project’s development lifecycle, followed by the approach of applying a cure clause in case a separate party is pursuing certification. The outcomes shall be of help to all parties involved in sustainable building projects by identifying certification-related risks and proposing contractual provisions to follow.