Saving the Earth Inside the Office

The certification process is typically conducted via the Internet. To certify a project, a developer or owner must first register the building with the council.

Once the building is ready, the owner works through a checklist and submits documentation to back up the claims. A decision is typically rendered in one to three months. The average cost of certification is about $2,500.

Certain minimum requirements must be met to achieve certification. For example, pollution from construction sites must be controlled, certain minimum energy requirements must be met, recyclables must be properly collected and stored, and smoking must be prohibited.

To achieve LEED certification, a builder or developer must earn at least 26 points out of 69. Achieving higher designations such as silver, gold or platinum requires more points. While a builder or owner is free to choose which points are pursued, reductions in both energy and water usage are often necessary to advance. Discovery, for example, reduced its water usage by 25 percent and electricity consumption by 26 percent as it strove toward platinum certification, according to Laque.

Company representatives declined to disclose how much the green initiative cost because Discovery is in a quiet period before an initial public offering, expected this summer.

For new construction, the push to achieve top certifications can lead a developer to embrace a collaborative design process in which architects, engineers and contractors discuss from the onset what is desired, what is possible and what is economically feasible.

The early discussion is important, analysts and builders said, because one design change can often affect another. A building's orientation, for example, may affect what kind of windows are installed, which may then influence the type of lighting employed or what heating or air conditioning system may be required.

Such collaboration is intended to consider these trade-offs to create a more efficient building, developers and analysts said.

"Really that line between architecture and construction has become blurred," said Marnie Abramson, a principal with the Tower Cos. "You have to have a more comprehensive approach."

But some see flaws in the way points are doled out. Bill Oatey, owner of the Oatey Co., a Cleveland plumbing supplier and manufacturer, had one of his company's distribution centers certified under LEED. What perplexed him was that he earned one point for building the plant on a cleaned-up industrial brownfield site and one point for installing a bike rack on the premises.

But if the system is not perfect, for Discovery's Laque it at least allowed his company to set energy-saving goals, foster a team spirit and engage in ruthless self-evaluation. And as the year drew to a close, Laque's ambitions grew.

"We are going for platinum, we are going to do it," Laque recalled telling his staff. "We are going to do this, or we are going to die trying."

The Green Building Council awarded Laque and his team the platinum certification this year.