Factors causing variation between the LEED final and pilot checklists in green health-care projects

Among most of the LEED registered and LEED certified health-care facilities, there is a credit variation between the LEED pilot checklist and the final checklist. The credit variation between the LEED pilot and final checklists implies failure in achieving the pre-defined green objectives. Most of the credits were given up due to financial reasons. Although most of the credits in the LEED credit list emerge as design issues, accomplishing a LEED rating is primarily the owner??s responsibility. In order to minimize the variation between the LEED pilot checklist and LEED approved checklist, the owner needs to conduct significant project planning. The owner should integrate the LEED objectives early in the project and should include the cost of the LEED process in the capital budget. Since there are limited LEED certified health-care projects, adoption of the systems approach for planning and developing a green health-care facility using the IDEF0 method is recommended. The IDEF0 method can produce an outcome array which represents the matrix of all possible circumstances. This will give the owner and the project team the ability to better forecast cost and schedule decisions, even when there is a lack of historical data relating to green health-care projects. The approach will be beneficial in analyzing the various outcomes, cost, and feasibility of projects in terms of integrating LEED objectives early on. This could minimize the credit variation, as well as cost and schedule overruns during the project execution stage. Adequately defining the full development process upfront is vital to the overall success of any project, especially for green buildings, since they are a developing trend in the construction industry.