The need for green

Epstein, APA Kuryłowicz & Associates, Aedas, Studio Architektoniczne Kanon, Chapman Taylor International Services and APA Wojciechowski. "These are only a few of the architectural studios operating in Poland whose teams include qualified LEED and BREEAM assessors, and the list of those which have is getting longer and longer. Having an assessor in a studio's team is absolutely necessary nowadays. We are working in the commercial project market, where such knowledge is essential. Each project of this type is built in order to be sold sooner or later, and selling it might turn out to be impossible without a suitable certificate. Actually, it never happens these days that the buildings we design for clients do not get certified," says Szymon Wojciechowski of the APA Wojciechowski Architekci studio. According to Regina Gul, a senior manager in the project management department at Jones Lang LaSalle as well as a LEED Accredited Professional and BREEAM Assessor: "Actively working for the benefit of sustainable development has become an increasingly popular element of the development strategies of the real estate companies operating on the market, particularly in the office sector. Obtaining the various types of certification is currently one of the most popular methods of emphasising your involvement in the development of investment projects that conform to sustainable construction principles. The buildings that have been awarded the certificates are characterised by a higher leased area ratio because the owners find it easier to build a tenant portfolio that consists of strong, recognisable brands that regard caring for the natural environment as an important element of their organisation's culture. This in turn translates into a higher value for the properties, which are viewed as securer investments. For these reasons, an increasing number of investors are taking the steps needed to obtain BREEAM or LEED certificates to show that their buildings are ecological in both the materials and technological solutions used.

An architect and assessor in one?
However, it turns out that architects need an assessor's diploma, but not for managing the certification process themselves. "The overriding rule of assessment is, and should be, complete independence and transparency in order to obtain full objectivity regarding a project which is planned, designed, built, managed or verified according to BREEAM or LEED. It should be carried out by a person who will impartially conduct the process and verify the project. It should not be the case that an architect or engineer who is designing a given facility or a section of it or is involved in the construction process is assessing it at the same time. This might result in a lack of transparency and considerably lower the quality of the project, or even result in malpractice. Some architectural studios and architects believe that BREEAM or LEED implementation by an independent assessor is tantamount to entering their area of activity and interfering with their responsibility for a project. Sometimes communication barriers and conflicts arise in the design process due to a failure to understand the assessment process. In the UK or US each of the participants in the construction process tends to be proud of their functions. It is out of the question for anybody to overstep their authority or have two functions in one project. Can an architect be an assessor? Of course they can, provided that the architect either assumes the role of lead designer, which automatically excludes the possibility of the same person being in charge of the assessment, or the role of an assessor, which so to speak excludes them as a designer," explains Piotr Olkiewicz, the managing director of Senvi. However, not all architects are willing or have the time to step into the authority of independent assessment companies. "An assessor is a member of the design team who accepts the responsibility for servicing the certification and is also a liaison between the participants in the design process. It is worth having assessor title holders in an architectural studio, but not necessary. If the investor's consultant is competent and the design team has some experience in certification, the presence of an assessor is not required. There are two LEED and BREEAM qualified people in our studio, which has been added to the official list of assessors, and a few more have been educating themselves in this field. However, the assessor title does not provide broad technical knowledge on green solutions. It only involves familiarity with the mechanisms of the whole system and the rules of the certification process. You need to extend your knowledge regarding the solutions that obtain credits in the certification process in additional training sessions and while working on new buildings to be certified," claims Marek Kuryłowicz, a proxy of the APA Kuryłowicz & Associates studio. And the mechanism of the process does not seem to be difficult at its basic level. Investors who wish to obtain a certificate only for the sake of having one will reach their goal easily and cheaply. Because obtaining a certificate at a basic level costs 0.5 pct of a project's value. Of course, as the grade increases so does the price. In order to obtain a higher level (e.g. LEED ?Gold') you need to spend app. 2.3 pct of the project's value, while the ?Platinum' level costs app. 5 pct. Some claim that in order to become LEED certified at the basic level you only need to strictly follow Polish construction law. However, if this turns out not to be enough, you need to use some tricks, e.g. adding a bicycle rack or a cloakroom for the employees - and these are normally located over areas which would be empty anyway, so the benefit is doubled. Besides, the American certification system LEED awards additional points for locations in city centres, good transport links and roofed car parks - everything that is standard with office projects in Europe. "Our role is to help the client choose an assessor, develop the preliminary assumptions of their work and help them conclude a beneficial agreement with a company offering assessment services. It also involves educating other employees of the architectural studio about the issue of sustainable development," adds Agnieszka Kalinowska-Sołtys. New certification systems will be appearing on the market which will not be so easy to manipulate, i.e. obtain a higher number of points at a low cost. The German DGNB (Deutsche Gesellschaft fűr Nachhaltigens Bauen) certificate is one of the most demanding ones and it is not possible to bend its rules in order to make it easier for any certification party to obtain it. So far only one Polish architect has taken up the challenge and is undergoing training to become a DGNB assessor.

Perhaps independently?
However, not every investor is willing to entrust external assessors with the certification process. International corporations, where the idea of sustainable development has been emblazoned on their banners for a long time, are among those who particularly focus on educating their employees. Skanska Property Poland, the unquestionable leader when it comes to green building and which certifies all its buildings under the LEED system, employs 20 LEED Accredited Professionals and one person who specialises in BREEAM. "We have a lot of specialists in our teams, and this is why we do not employ external assessors. We have an exchange programme in which we are in contact and in consultation about certain issues with foreign specialists from the Skanska group, for example from the US, where our company also holds a strong position. When an architect or designer has LEED AP qualifications, and consequently broader knowledge of building certification, it makes the work much easier during the project. Thanks to this our specialists with LEED AP titles find it easy to talk to them, making it easier to work together," says Michał Marszałek, the sustainable development coordinator at Skanska
Property Poland. It might seem that the most important thing during the certification is the experience of the people who deal with it. "The assessors market and the entire idea of the assessment process, such as for BREEAM or LEED, require suitable preparation and professional experience. The quality of assessors' work results directly from the above, so as a result people who have spent many years working on investment projects and design have the opportunity to offer the best possible quality in the assessment process. Just look at the experience of the American or the British market - a few years ago nearly anyone could become an assessor - a real estate agent or any humanities graduate. And then it transpired that such a formula unfortunately did not guarantee an appropriate quality level in terms of the expected results, such as high quality buildings and the improvement of processes. As a result it led to lower quality assessment services, which were supposed to lead to better results. As shown by the experience of these markets, you simply need to have decent experience in the design and construction process," adds Piotr Olkiewicz.

Looking eastwards
Across the CEE region many of the architects we talked to emphasised that there is still little awareness of LEED and BREEAM. Ian Bryan of Ian Bryan Architects is a British architect working in Prague, who just happens to also be a BREEAM assessor. The number of BREEAM assessors active in Prague he believes is due to the initial necessity for candidates to travel to the UK. BRE (the organisation that administers BREEAM certification) has only just set up a qualification route which can be undertaken in Prague. "It was a case of having to go to Watford," he says. He stresses that this lack of coverage in the Czech Republic was due to the relatively young age of the ?International' version of the BREEAM certification system which is used outside Britain. Cory Benson, the director of Made Sustainable, is an American LEED Accredited Professional living and working in Prague for the last six years who stresses that the Czech Republic remains a small but growing market. "There have been between six and eight LEED certified projects over a five-year period, with maybe 25 projects currently under development. It still represents a fairly small market. Maybe four to five companies could handle all that work," he claims.

Nonetheless, many investors regard the Czech Republic as a relatively healthy real estate market in these still challenging times, whereas the Hungarian market is not. "The building market in Hungary is in bad shape, with only a few buildings being built or designed," states Adrienn Gelesz, as sustainability expert for Abud Engineering. "There are, however, several pre-assessments that have so far not been built. A lot of developers try to get a view of the market, but after pre-assessment it has been quite common to put projects on hold," she adds, stressing that the suspension of projects generally has nothing to do with the results of the assessment. But despite the fragile state of the market in Hungary, there appear to be many more architects registered as BREEAM assessors or as LEED accredited professionals than there are in the Czech Republic. These Hungarian architects are also not much impressed with the awareness of sustainability issues on their market. "Even many professionals don't understand what sustainable development is about. They don't really understand the whole assessing methodology. They think it's enough to select an air conditioning unit with good parameters and to employ renewable energy sources," complains Peter Sebes, an international BREEAM assessor with the Stílus+P architectural studio. "In regard to what I have seen in our projects, very few architects have a proper overview of BREEAM or LEED requirements," says Gábor Lipcsei, the sustainability team leader of Óbuda Group, which provides engineering consultancy and project management services in Hungary. He goes on to point out that "overall, green certification schemes are very poorly understood within the engineering profession. Some engineers are aware of the specific requirements of BREEAM or LEED, for example, of mechanical or electrical engineers, although a general overview and a broad understanding is very rare. This lack of understanding also applies to project managers, cost consultants and technical supervisors. I think this will change in the short to medium term, as engineers get used to certified projects." In his experience, it is still not common practice to integrate LEED or BREEAM requirements at the early stage of a project. But he believes the situation is changing. Although he does not see many Hungarian architects with BREEAM or LEED qualifications, he admits that there are more and more conferences and events aimed at raising the awareness of the industry when it comes to issues of sustainability. Despite the gripes of Hungarian architects, the situation still looks more advanced than in Romania, where precisely one architect is registered with the Green Building Certification Institute as a LEED accredited professional - and she also happens to be one of the few people registered in Romania as a BREEAM assessor. Alinda Dudu is a senior architect with Epstein Engineering and has recently been elected director of the Romanian Green Building Council. "Architects in general don't see this as a real market for their services," she claims, but she qualifies this by saying that architects do understand the need to incorporate green solutions into their work.

Comprehensive assessment
However, this does not mean that architects are unsuited to the role of "green professional". When it was suggested to Ian Bryan that many regard BREEAM as a qualification for engineers, he replied: "If you put that to an architect in Britain, he would say, this is our turf!" In his view, "the BREEAM qualification is pretty ideally suited to architects." And he justifies this opinion by saying that the architect is in a unique position taking the widest overview of the project. As for being excluded from the assessment of one's own buildings: "BRE has got no problem with you being an assessor as long as you notify them," he claims. Alinda Dudu, on the other hand, stresses that BRE was quite strict (or at least stricter than with LEED) in separating the role of architect and assessor, but there is a caveat: "You can always hire the assessor for some guidance," she says. When it comes to LEED, objectivity is ensured for all projects being assessed in the United States (by the independent Green Building Certification Institute), therefore the role of a LEED Accredited Professional is simply to prepare the necessary documentation and to be a consultant for the project (throughout its complete development). And this is why Cory Bensonclaims that the role of LEED consultant works well throughout the architectural team. Although more engineers and project managers than architects are currently qualified as BREEAM assessors and LEED accredited professionals, perhaps this is only a sign of the current immaturity of the market. It could be that architects, with their broader view of projects and the necessity for beginning accreditation from the very conception stage, are best placed to ensure the sustainability of future developments.