ABSTRACT
Since the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Certification was established in
1993, many buildings have been certified in the United States (U.S.). Although the performance
of LEED-certified buildings has been studied with comparison to the conventional buildings, few
studies have been conducted to evaluate whether the higher incremental investment
guarantees higher points in LEED certification. LEED credits related to energy and water
consumption savings were correlated with the initial incremental costs spent for the application
of sustainable items constructed in nine LEED-certified buildings at the University of Wisconsin-
Madison campus. Besides, the discounted payback period (DPP) used widely for the decisionmaking
of project investors were compared with the incremental investments in order to check
if the investment made to obtain LEED certification is affordable to achieve their expectations.
Low correlation was found between the earned points on energy & atmosphere (EA) and water
efficiency (WE) credits and the initial incremental investment, but relatively high correlation
coefficient for energy-related points versus the initial incremental investment was found. The
sustainable items that lead to the increased initial construction costs were mainly related to
energy savings, as anticipated. Seven LEED projects showed an affordable DPP depending on the
level of LEED certification while others had higher DPP at the Gold and Platinum levels of LEED,
implying excess incremental investments along with unfulfilled discounted payback period. The
cost effectiveness index (CEI) proposed in this study was found to represent the net savings of
the life cycle costs and cost effectiveness for a green building better than LEED.