LEED design vs. regular design fees (Civil)
LEED design vs. regular design fees (Civil)
(OP)
I'm curious to see if any of you have any rules of thumb for Civil fees on jobs incorporating LEED. Green building in my area is really just coming of age, in fact we're just receiving our first request for a green proposal. Having just obtained my LEED GA, I myself am green in experience in this area!
In this particular case, an architect is the LEED project manager, and would be assigning us the site credits.
For non-green jobs I've heard other engineers quote several rules of thumb such as 4-5% of construction cost. Any ideas for similar rules of thumb regarding basis of civil engineering fees for LEED projects? Or do most of you just go with hourly rates?
I've searched around, but not really coming up with much off the net. Thanks for any help!
In this particular case, an architect is the LEED project manager, and would be assigning us the site credits.
For non-green jobs I've heard other engineers quote several rules of thumb such as 4-5% of construction cost. Any ideas for similar rules of thumb regarding basis of civil engineering fees for LEED projects? Or do most of you just go with hourly rates?
I've searched around, but not really coming up with much off the net. Thanks for any help!





RE: LEED design vs. regular design fees (Civil)
We're actively pursuing other LEED projects and so far it seems that we are simply adding in the extra hours into the proposal. It seems that this foray into LEED is too new and we have too little experience to actually put a percentage on the extra cost. I also beleive that this is new to the client as well and future clients will have to understand the increase in fees due in part to the A/E's working their way through the LEED process. I've talked to a few other peers and it seems that they have been burned in the past by putting in the extra hours for the LEED process only to lose the job to a competing firm that underbid them. The competing firm then loses any sort of profit once it realizes the effort it takes (meetings, online portal, coordination with contractors) to finish out the LEED submittal process.
I think it will take some time (at least down here in the South) for both the A/E firms and contractors to grasp the scope of work involved with LEED. And by that time, another standard (or agency) will be the darling of the market. Good luck with your estimates.
RE: LEED design vs. regular design fees (Civil)
Civil Development Group, LLC
Los Angeles Civil Engineering specializing in Hillside Grading
http://civildevelopmentgroup.com
http://civildevelopmentgroup.com/blog
RE: LEED design vs. regular design fees (Civil)
A civil engineer can contribute to several credits in the sustainable sites (SS), water efficiency (WE), and materials and resources (MR) categories. If your dealing with LEED 2009 (v3), then take for example SS credits 6.1 and 6.2. Both deal with runoff mitigation and treatment which should be right up your alley (unless of course you deal mainly with the structural side of your discipline). Hopefully for your project you will have a design charrette (fancy name for meeting) that will help allocate team members to specific roles in achieving certain credits. Once you look over some of the requirements of the credits involved, then you should have a better grasp of what is within your experience and what isn't.
Good luck. There's a learning curve invloved and I'm still climbing it.
RE: LEED design vs. regular design fees (Civil)
RE: LEED design vs. regular design fees (Civil)
unless you are providing expert-level design (constructed wetlands, innovative water/ww tech, commissioning, etc), then you won't see any profitable work items. i've worked on several large leed rated buildings and the fees were all less than $5K for general civil-site design.... most of which was meeting and coordination time. small potatoes, really. the real money is in commissioning.
RE: LEED design vs. regular design fees (Civil)
I was under the assumption that civils had no say in what goes into a LEED building, and it's the architect who comes up with what to do, and we may have to figure out how to make that work with the other consultants.
Civil Development Group, LLC
Los Angeles Civil Engineering specializing in Hillside Grading
http://civildevelopmentgroup.com
http://civildevelopmentgroup.com/blog
RE: LEED design vs. regular design fees (Civil)
Civil Development Group, LLC
Los Angeles Civil Engineering specializing in Hillside Grading
http://civildevelopmentgroup.com
http://civildevelopmentgroup.com/blog
RE: LEED design vs. regular design fees (Civil)
It's hard to budget LEED support as a lump sum unless you know in advance which credits you'll be going for. We like to exclude it from our fixed fee and include it as an hourly line item.