Review of the Green Building Addendum from ConsensusDOCS

ConsensusDOCS is an organization that has developed construction contracts endorsed by 23 leading industry associations representing owners, contractors, subcontractors, designers and sureties. ConsensusDOCS states that its contracts protect the best interests of the project rather than a singular party, yielding better project results and fewer disputes.  ConsensusDOCS seeks a broad range of industry viewpoints when drafting its standard contracts, “ensuring an equitable balance of risks and responsibilities and an appropriate baseline for the parties’ legal relationship.”  It publishes a comprehensive catalog of standard contract documents that now includes a Green Building Addendum.   

 

The Green Building Addendum attempts to provide “a contractual mechanism to identify clear objectives, and assign roles and responsibilities to achieve green goals” for use on “projects with green building elements, particularly those seeking a third-party green building rating certification such as LEED.”

Sections of The Green Building Addendum

1. General Principles – lays out broad goals for the Addendum
2. Definitions – defines specific terms that are used elsewhere in the Addendum as capitalized terms
3. Green Requirements and Procedures – identifies the specific regime to be used on the project
4. Green Building Facilitator – introduces and defines a point person/entity for green issues and coordination
5. Green Status – process for selecting a specific green certification regime
6. Green Measures – process for identifying responsibilities for implementation of green certification
7. Plans and Specifications – how the green steps are to be incorporated into the plans and specifications
8. Risk Allocation – confirms the allocation of risk laid out in the underlying contractual documents between parties

Pros of Green Building Addendum

• Regime Agnostic

  The Green Building Addendum does not incorporate any particular “Green Status” from any specific organizations, such as the USGBC’s LEED standard or Green Globes from the Green Building Initiative.  This gives the Addendum staying power for new standards where none currently exist, flexibility for future revisions, and is not beholden to one set of certification regime or processes. 

• Seamless Integration 

   As would be expected, the Green Building Addendum is designed to integrate seamlessly with existing ConsensusDOCS contract documents and procedures.  If one is familiar with ConsesnusDOCS, one will be comfortable with this Green Building Addendum. 

• Clarity

  The Green Building Addendum provides clear processes and who is responsible for identifying green certifications, communicating steps towards green goal achievements and how/if any green issues affect the underlying relationship between the parties in the construction project. 

Cons of Green Building Addendum

Many of the weaknesses below are inherent in attempting to be an industry standard form in an industry that is by definition constantly being redesigned. 

• Vaguenes

  As a noted strength, the Green Building Addendum is “regime agnostic,” therefore the processes defined are generic.  Something along the lines of “A goes to B who has 30 days to respond to [generic process]” as opposed to “A submits [LEED process] to B”

• Length

  It is a contract so the definitions are very lengthy and could be confusing to non-attorney users.  The Addendum itself is 10, single spaced pages.  There is room for condensing sections and tightening of the language, in my opinion.  This, in and of itself, may limit its use to larger projects that warrant large documentation packages. 

• Requires More

  The Green Building Addendum is not a stand alone document, nor is it intended to be.  Underlying contracts are required between all the various parties, including the new Green Building Facilitator, if an additional party. 

As with any industry form or other construction contract, parties are encouraged to consult competent legal, insurance and surety advisors before using, modifying or completing the Green Building Addendum.  Everything needs a first step.  The availability of the Green Building Addendum will help speed up the incorporation of green and sustainable construction practices in the industry.

Comments

[passivhaus]

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