The Far East District Sustainable Design and Development (SDD) program can’t succeed without engineers from the design, technical review and quality assurance branch leading the way.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects comply with SDD policy from the Department of the Army. Per SDD Policy, all new construction vertical projects and comprehensive building renovations meeting the minimum thresholds are certified through the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system managed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).
At the Far East District, U.S. funded projects are required to achieve a minimum Silver certificate and Republic of Korea funded projects are required to be Silver certifiable in LEED. The process takes time and requires a collaborative effort.
Dong Shin, Chief of Far East District technical review branch, said during the early part of the design process all achievable LEED credits are identified by the design team through design charrette or other form of design activities.
“Those achievable LEED credits are verified and adjusted during the phases of design, and all required information, calculations and photos are submitted to the USGBC for approval,” said Shin.
All members of the FED design team are required to have LEED accredited professionals who will lead the entire process, as well as coordinate, verify and respond to questions from the USGBC.
When the design is completed, the LEED credits that still need to be approved by the USGBC are turned over to the construction contractor. The Far East District LEED consultant will work with the contractor to obtain the remaining LEED credits during construction. Far East District quality assurance representatives Sang Lee & Ho Sung oversee LEED activities during the construction process to make sure all USGBC requirements are obtained.
“Getting a LEED certificate is a very long, tedious process that requires continual attention in programming, design, construction and extends to operations and maintenance. It is truly a team effort,” said Shin.
As a result of a collaborated effort, all three buildings in Battalion headquarters complex project at Camp Humphreys designed and overseen by engineers from FED, achieved LEED Silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council on Jan. 21, 2018.
“Since the USGBC requirements are mainly for the U.S., it is more difficult to obtain the required credit in a foreign environment like in Korea. Therefore, it is a bigger deal to have an official certificate here in Korea.” said Shin.
Shin said the family housing projects at Camp Humphreys and Camp Walker will be the next to be LEED certified.