State Offering Businesses LEED Energy Reviews

A state agency is offering commercial businesses assistance in evaluating their facilities for energy and resource efficiency.

The program is being offered by the State Energy Office, a branch of the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. The effort will provide eligible building owners and facility managers with technical assistance to evaluate the buildings under the criteria of the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, also known as LEED.

Those interested must submit an application which will be accepted on a first-come, first-served. Applications must be received by Aug. 20. The program is being offered for a limited time because of funding limitations.

The participants must meet certain criteria to qualify for the program. According to state officials, those include recent Energy Star certification; upgrades to air conditioning, lighting and water heating systems during the past seven years; and having all energy sources metered. For hotels, guestrooms must have been renovated in the past five years.

The LEED and Energy Star building programs support the Hawai`i Clean Energy Initiative which sets a 70% clean energy goal by 2030 – 30% from energy efficiency and 40% from renewable energy.

At the conclusion of the program, participants will receive a LEED Existing Building: Operations and Maintenance scorecard indicating their potential to achieve credits toward LEED certification, which comes in four levels: Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum.

Examples of buildings on the Big Island that have achieved Platinum status include the Kanu O Ka Aina Learning Ohana in Waimea, the Visitor Emergency Operations Center at Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park, the Gateway Energy Center at Natural Energy Laboratory Authority Hawai`i, and the Energy Lab at Hawai`i Preparatory Academy.

Property owners and managers interested in applying for the LEED EB: O&M evaluation assistance may contact Gail Suzuki-Jones at [email protected] or (808) 587-3802.