LEED Driven Services – The Chauffagiste

There is much discussion on various forums these days, such as here and here, about the impact LEED is starting to have on designers, developers and owners of certified buildings.  De-certification is being discussed as a way for LEED to maintain some teeth post-construction, while LEED already includes building operations in the certification process.  It looks like LEED is moving in the direction of including the post-construction lifespan of the building into the construction certification process and it brings up many question. LEED is already available for existing buildings, meaning that a structure for measuring operations and maintenance is already in-place.  When discussion about the potential impact is so lively, and the potential for risk so palatable on all sides of the equation it usually means some interesting solutions may start popping up.  One successful model that comes to mind is that of the chauffagiste.

The concept of a chauffagiste was first brought to my attention in the book Natural Capitalism (Amazon).  In France a chauffagiste is a provider of a service, such as a company or person, that provides ventilation, temperature and humidity levels to a building.  The service does not include purchasing equipment or capital investment in mechanical systems by the buildings owner.  How the building is heated, ventilated and cooled is up to the chauffagiste.  No matter if it is replacing windows or light bulbs to reduce coolling loads, or replacing the furnaces with more efficient ones, the job of the chauffagiste is to maintain the environment inside the building within a certain range over the life of the contract.  How the building is heated or cooled does not matter to the owner or occupants and is paid for in installments at an agreed upon price.  Any benefit from increased efficiency will be reaped by the chauffagiste and the owner pays for what they want at a fixed, predictable price.

Since LEED will be focusing more on the performance of a building and it’s operations post-construction this type of service starts to make sense.  Having a third-party maintaining and operating the mechanical systems regardless of owner or occupant would hopefully decrease liability to the designers and builders while making costs predictable to the owner.

Some big questions that arise around LEED certification are, what happens if the building changes owners and then uses?  How would this affect the re-certification process?  Who is liable if the building does not perform as expected.?

If a third-party familiar with the operations of the building were involved in a change-of-use plan, hopefully the building would maintain the desired level of efficiency.  The chauffagiste would be at the table from day one in the planning stages to determine the best systems and routines for their services.  Obviously the liability of mechanical systems performance would rest more on them since they would be playing such a specific role.  Hopefully they would come to the table with significant experience and be able to predict an outcome closer than an architect running Energy10.

This type of service could potentially mitigate risk in terms of de-certification and guarantee the efficient operation of the building over its lifespan.  This latter goal is really what LEED is all about isn’t it? I can see some weaknesses in the chauffagiste service, but not any large enough to warrant ignoring it as a solution to a potentially litigous situation.

What do you think?  How would this work?  Do you have any solutions to these issues created by post-construction certification requirements?

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