By Matthew DeVries on Posted in Environmental,Green Building,Healthcare Construction,LEEDTiming is everything! As I was preparing for a LEED for Healthcare presentation this week, one of my partners sent me a piece about the innovative use of "pods" to cut building costs. The article by Mike Boyer focused on a team of two plumbing and mechanical contracting firms who want to transform how the… Continue Reading
By Matthew DeVries on Posted in LEEDIn what has been unofficially called LEED 2012, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) opened the first public comment period from November 8, 2010 to January 14, 2011 for the next version of the LEED rating system. Yes, that means the first public comment period closes this Friday. According to the USGBC’s LEED Rating Development page, the… Continue Reading
By Matthew DeVries on Posted in Green Building,LEED,LegislationIt really is impossible to put your arms around the number of green building and energy performance policies and codes that are sprouting up all across the nation. When a project involves private commercial development or public investment, one of the most discussed issues is whether the cost of obtaining LEED certification from the U.S.… Continue Reading
By Matthew DeVries on Posted in LEEDAbout a year ago, I wrote a post on the trending topic of LEED revocation or de-certification. That issue has not gone away … it actually has been brought to the front page of the news. The hot topic, recently reported by Stephen, Chris and Doug (…sounds like three men in a tub…), involves the LEED certification… Continue Reading
By Matthew DeVries on Posted in Green Building,LEEDAs a follow-up to my post yesterday about the costs of LEED certification, I was not surprised to read the following lead line in a local newspaper in Cary, North Carolina: "Cary wants to be green. Just not certifiable." According to the article, the local town council voted to skip the green building certification process because of the high costs. "If the… Continue Reading
By Matthew DeVries on Posted in Green Building,LEEDMost owner and developers would imagine that the most significant costs of LEED certification are the front-end registration and back-end submittal costs. Are they correct? Depends. Environmental Building News prepared a primer on the costs of LEED certification for commercial construction. As noted in the article, LEED certification includes various costs that must be considered separately in order… Continue Reading
By Matthew DeVries on Posted in LEED,TexasI am in Austin, Texas this week attending the ABA Forum on the Construction Industry’s annual meeting. One of the ways that I got more involved in the Forum was participating in the activities of one of the twelve divisions. I am a member of Division 10: Legislation and Environment, which helps assemble information regarding case law and legislation… Continue Reading
By Matthew DeVries on Posted in Green Building,LEEDFor the next couple of weeks, the only thing you will see on our living room television is the Winter Olympics. Luge…daring!. Freestyle moguls…awesome! Snowboard cross…cool! Figure skating…good time to surf the Internet! Last night, while watching figure skating surfing the Internet, I stumbled upon this article about the Olympic and Paralympic Village in Vancouver having received the highest certification… Continue Reading
By Matthew DeVries on Posted in Contract Docs,Green Building,LEEDAs much as possible, I like to highlight various forms of construction contract documents. In most of my green building presentations over the past few months, I have talked about the "soon to be released" Green Building Addendum from ConsensusDOCS. Well, that day has finally come! Based upon my preliminary review of the 310 Green Building Addendum, I… Continue Reading
By Matthew DeVries on Posted in Green Building,LEEDI am certainly not the first … and certainly won’t be the last … person to write about Robert Watson’s webinar presentation yesterday afternoon entitled, Building a Sustainable Future: Progress & Trends Toward Improving the Environmental Footprint of Commercial Buildings. Watson, Executive Editor for GreenerBuildings.com, is most commonly referred to as the father of LEED… Continue Reading
By Matthew DeVries on Posted in Green Building,LEEDWhen discussing the short and long term building performance of a green project, the issue generally comes down to the following question: Is there any identifiable or measurable gap between the predicted building performance (in the design and construction phases) and the actual bulding performance (during occupancy, operation and maintenance)? This issue has been addressed in part… Continue Reading
By Matthew DeVries on Posted in LEED,LegislationA few weeks ago I tweeted about the local building code in Nashville "under review." Actually, those words were a little weak. What about these words: "Contractor Leads Attack Against Nashville’s LEED Legislation" … the exact words used by my colleague Stephen Del Percio, attorney and author of Green Real Estate Law Journal. A good analysis by… Continue Reading
By Matthew DeVries on Posted in Environmental,Green Building,LEEDWhich is worse: (a) one lawyer in a room of one hundred architects; or (b) one architect in a room of one hundred lawyers? Two weeks ago I found myself in the first category (… although I’m sure that I was not the only shark in the room …) at a local United States Green Building Council (USGBC) meeting that featured… Continue Reading
By Matthew DeVries on Posted in LEED,Legal TrendsMom always said I was a late bloomer (… Wonder what she meant? …) Well, you can call me late to this game, but hopefully not too late. Perhaps the best summary of the new LEED 2009 Minimum Program Requirements (MPR) can be found on Stephen Del Percio’s Green Real Estate Law Journal. Last week, Chris Cheatham’s Green… Continue Reading
By Matthew DeVries on Posted in Claims and Disputes,Green Building,LEED,Legal TrendsI realize that the title to this post may scrunch some “What you talkin’ about, Willis?” eyebrows to the many LEED AP-construction-green-building-attorneys out there. However, the title really conveys the first words that ran through my mind as I read Gary Cole’s post on The Real Green Goblin – Emerging Legal Liability for Green Design… Continue Reading
By Matthew DeVries on Posted in LEEDJust when you thought it was safe to put up your study books, your on-line prep exams, and your stacks of flash cards … there is a new professional certification available for all you sustainable design players. Green Roofs for Healthy Cities announced last month its Green Roof Professional (GRP) Accreditation Program at the 7th Greening Rooftops… Continue Reading
By Matthew DeVries on Posted in Environmental,Green Building,LEED,TennesseeLook around the internet and you are sure to find one of these: The design team of a 28,000 sq. ft. public school hope to achieve SS Credit 6.2, Stormwater Design: Quality Control, in the LEED-NC Rating System. Incorporating which of the following green building elements into the design would aid the team in achieving… Continue Reading
By Matthew DeVries on Posted in LEEDAnd I only have 18 days until my test … because I am taking the test on the "second to last" day. If you are wondering why I am calling it the "last" LEED AP 2.2 test, GreenSource explains the basic requirements of the new LEED categories, including an easy-to-read chart of credentials. If you have not already registered for… Continue Reading
By Matthew DeVries on Posted in Building Information Modeling,Green Building,LEED,Legislation,TechnologyThat’s not exactly how the headline reads … but close enough. The actual title is BIM Promotes Sustainability: Practitioners are Finding Paths to Green through Interoperable Software. As reported by McGraw Hill Construction, this article demonstrates the practical utility of Building Information Modeling (BIM) on a construction project … a green one! MH reports about the restoration… Continue Reading
By Matthew DeVries on Posted in Contract Docs,Green Building,LEEDIn this day and age of Biggest Loser, South Beach Diet, and the latest fitness craze highlighted by Oprah, I find myself more and more conscious about my eating habits. In fact, if you promise not to tell anyone, we have a little fitness competition within our own law firm starring four fatties. Although I… Continue Reading
Matt is a construction & litigation attorney at
Burr & Forman LLP and father of seven young kids. 