The Green Space Project™ was conceived with the mission “to provide a way for all commercial and residential buildings to increase energy efficiency, water efficiency and human comfort through sustainable actions. Our goal is to help businesses and individuals adopt principles, policies, and practices that improve the quality of life for themselves, their communities, and the environment while being recognized for their efforts and encouraging further enhancements for the future.” We recognized that the current systems were designed for mainly new construction and top tier projects and are not feasible for EVERY building to achieve their rating. Our mission proclaims that all can contribute so we conceived Green Space Project™.
The current systems are:
Ø Time consuming
Ø Have prerequisites
Ø Expensive
Ø Requires trained personnel or consultants to administer
Ø Heavy documentation
Ø Includes many criteria whose results are hard to measure
Ø Impacts not realized for months or years into the future
Ø No incentive after certification to increase efficiency and sustainability
The current systems are complicated and are all or nothing. If you don’t meet the prerequisites to make LEED® Certified Commercial Interior, are you going to spend the money to implement any of the other very valuable and useful criteria they have in the CI rating? Probably not. There is no honorable mention, no press release to attempt something like LEED® and most of the time when a human being can’t “win the prize” they don’t even “play the game.”
So does this make the other certifications wrong? Are we competing with them? Absolutely not, LEED® is an incredible program and is very far reaching in its scope. We support them and their mission. The only flaw with LEED is this: It’s just not feasible for everyone and GSP believes everyone should have the opportunity, and responsibility, to impact our environment and be recognized for it. A lot of people doing a little can often have a more dramatic impact than a few doing a lot.
Saving energy, water, and being a good steward of resources isn’t complicated. Would anyone argue that replacing a 100 watt light bulb with a 25 watt bulb will cut energy use by 75%? Of course not. It is pure, accepted science and easily measurable. That’s where GSP fits in. If you can change something, why not do it! We give you the ability to make a difference in ways that are easy, measurable, and affordable and receive the same public recognition as with other certifications.
What makes GSP different?
The Green Space Project™ self assessment is easy to understand, clear and concise, and focuses on issues that are both attainable and have significant environmental and social impacts. The most significant aspect of the GSP assessment is that it is designed to allow a building owner to become GSP certified and incents them to progress to higher certification levels through further efficiency and sustainability improvements to their building. It has no prerequisites and allows for a tremendous amount of flexibility in how one achieves the desired rating score.
The assessment has been modeled after accepted best practices in the industry such as LEED, ANSI, ASHRAE, Energy Star, and the EPA. The GSP Assessment covers the following categories.
1) Community Connection
2) Energy Efficiency
3) Water Efficiency
4) Building Quality & Landscaping
5) Recycling
6) Indoor Environment Quality
7) Materials & Resources
GSP weights Energy Efficiency and Water Efficiency equally to total 50% of the available points. The other categories comprise the remaining 50% of the points. Why energy and water? Because they are the most critical aspects today on impacting our environment and offer the most readily available remedies both in new construction and in retrofits.
Of course we believe that community connection and being close to bus stops and having bike racks readily available is important, too. But let’s face it, just because you have a bike rack available doesn’t mean that people will ride a bike in lieu of taking their automobile. And the same goes for the public transportation. All aspects of “greening” your project count, GSP just wants to provide for the most effective and easiest way for you to make a difference. We don’t want you to swap the bike racks for some important part of energy or water conservation just because they equal the same number of points and one is less costly than the other. Our goal is to give the client the biggest payback while giving our natural resources the biggest benefit.