The new $5.7 million Whole Foods Cooperative at 610 E. 4th St. in Duluth is the first building in the region and only the third in the state to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental (LEED) certification design).
The nonprofit US Green Building Council awards certification to buildings designed for energy efficiency and low environmental impact.
Duluth Mayor Herb Bergson presented the cooperative with a certification plaque at an Oct. 18 ceremony.
It is the first of many LEED-certified projects in the region.
The $76 million, 250,000-square-foot expansion of the downtown Duluth Clinic opened in April. It will be the largest LEED-certified healthcare project in the U.S., said James Brew, building performance specialist for Duluth-based LHB, Inc., LEED consultant for Duluth Clinic and designer of the cooperative building.
The clinic is already certified at “Silver Level,” but SMDC is pursuing a higher “Gold Level” certification. A building can receive up to 69 points, from 26 for a certified base level to 52 for Platinum. Only 24 buildings in the country have reached the Platinum level.
Buildings achieve certification by incorporating design considerations such as energy conservation, improved indoor air quality, use of recycled materials, reduced outdoor light pollution, water efficiency and use of carpets, adhesives and paints that emit low levels of toxic fumes.
Other LEED-registered but not yet certified Duluth projects include the UMD Labovitz School of Business & Economics, the UMD Life Science Building and the Lake Superior College Academic and Student Center.
LEED projects under development in the region include the U.S. Forest Service's Kawishi Ranger Station in Ely and the Bad River Band Community Center in Odanah. LHB is involved in all of these projects, with the exception of the Labovitz School.
Mayor Bergson told BusinessNorth that the proposed expansion of the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center, pending a state funding commitment, will be designed for LEED certification and will include a rainwater garden.
Earlier this year, the city of Minneapolis required all new buildings to be LEED certified.
In May and September, LHB hosted LEED training workshops for contractors in Duluth and St. Paul, with an expected audience of 30 to 40 people. Instead, 140 contractors showed up and some were turned away due to space constraints.
Given the cost and required documentation, not everyone is enthusiastic about LEED.
“We fear that LEED has become expensive, slow, confusing and unwieldy, a death march for applicants administered by a Soviet-style bureaucracy that makes green building more difficult than it needs to be,” wrote Auden Schendler and Randy Udall October 2005 issue of Grist, an online environmental magazine.
“It’s not an easy process,” Brew said. He's impressed that customers are willing to follow through. “They say it’s about doing the right thing or about marketing.”
The rationale for the Duluth Clinic expansion was more focused on creating a healthy building, said Harvey Anderson, vice president of facilities for parent St. Mary's/Duluth Clinic Health System.
The new Duluth Clinic building also uses 32 percent less energy than a comparably sized building that only meets code requirements, Anderson said.
“Of course there are additional costs and additional paperwork,” said Mark Poirier, architect for LHB and project manager for the Whole Foods Cooperative design. He added that the cost of obtaining LEED certification is a matter of size; For a larger project, the relative costs are lower.
SMDC's Anderson said the LEED standards added $400,000 to $500,000 to the cost, about $1.80 to $2.00 per square foot.
By one estimate, LEED certification added $15 per square foot to the co-op project. But Sharon Murphy, general manager of Whole Foods, questioned that number. The additional effort is difficult to estimate because the project would have included environmentally friendly design even without LEED certification; Some subcontractors were also unaware of the paperwork involved when they bid on the project, she said.
Useful links:
Green Building Rating System
US Green Building Council