Evaluating the Long-Term Cost Effectiveness of LEED Canadian Schools

摘要

There is a notable lack of empirical evidence to justify green buildings' long-term cost effectiveness. To overcome the lack of relevant quantitative data in the field, the documented electricity, gas, operating, maintenance, rehabilitation and total costs of 10 conventional, 20 energy-retrofitted, and three green LEED Toronto schools were analyzed statistically over a maximum study period of eight years. The analysis of the data showed that green schools' energy, operating, maintenance, rehabilitation, and total costs were 28%, 17%, 20%, 32%, and 25% lower than conventional schools' costs respectively. Nevertheless, none of those differences in costs were statistically significant. The equivalent annual cost analysis of the data also showed that energy cost savings alone might never outweigh green buildings' initial cost premiums. On the other hand, 14 years of savings in operating, maintenance, and rehabilitation costs would be needed for green schools to recover their initial cost premium. Future research should build on those results in order to address the limitations of current research, and respond to the specific needs of practitioners in the field.