LEED (Leadership in Energy Efficiency and Design) is an internationally-recognised third-party certification program for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. LEED gives building owners and operators the tools they need to have an immediate and measurable impact on their buildings’ performance. LEED promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.
Increasingly, our clients require their projects to be designed, built and operated to the most environmental of standards. ‘Green building’ refers to the design construction and daily operations of buildings that are responsible, profitable and healthy places to work.
Typically, green buildings:
- Reduce water use
- Reduce energy use and carbon emissions
- Reduce construction and demolition sent to landfills
- Increase productivity and well being
- Reduce time lost to illness
The goal of attaining LEED or BREEAM certification is becoming increasingly popular across all sectors of the built environment. Certification brings not only economic benefits and reductions to building life-cycle costs but also highlights individual projects (and the organisations that operate them) as environmentally responsible and focused on innovation.
LEED and BREEAM use straightforward scoring methodologies that serve as a benchmark for the international green building movement.
One of the most effective ways in which we keep pace with best sustainable design practice is through certification. RKD Associate Sean Hogan is a certified LEED Accredited Professional for Building Design and Construction. The LEED AP credential affirms advanced knowledge in green building as well as expertise in the design and construction phases of green buildings serving the commercial, residential, education and healthcare sectors. A LEED AP has practical knowledge in the LEED for New Construction, LEED for Schools and LEED for Core and Shell rating systems.
Sean was instrumental in the achievement of the LEED ‘Gold’ rating for Genzyme’s Waterford Phase IV office expansion project and his expertise continues to inspire our sustainable design principles to harness new thinking and new technologies. These principles are infused in all design thinking at RKD whether or not a particular project intends to achieve an independent sustainable certification.
RKD’s in-house sustainable design capability brings with it extensive experience of designing to environmental and sustainable standards including a number of notable firsts: we successfully delivered the first BREEAM ‘Excellent’ and LEED ‘Gold’ buildings in Ireland, Simmonscourt & Minerva House at Dublin’s RDS and Genzyme’s Waterford offices respectively. In the education sector two of our current designs are on track to become Ireland’s first BREEAM ‘Excellent’ university buildings: the Bernal Building at the University of Limerick and Phase 2 of the Science Centre at University College Dublin. A LEED ‘Silver’ rating is anticipated for an upcoming industrial research and innovation centre in the east of Ireland and we are also currently working on LEED and BREEAM certification for a major urban industrial development in Dublin.
For more information about how sustainable design principles have been applied to specific projects please browse our portfolio.
