Impact of charrettes and their characteristics on achieved LEED certification

Abstract

Charrettes are collaborative, interdisciplinary workshops. They are a commonly used process in the design phases of sustainable building projects and are often used in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified building projects. Charrettes are implemented to increase collaboration and communication across different building professionals and stakeholders. However, it is unclear what specific outcomes of the charrette process are and what factors may contribute to the overall success of green building projects. The study seeks to answer what impact charrettes and their characteristics have on LEED certified building projects? It uses LEED points awarded as a metric. Using a focus group, characteristics of charrette processes were identified. These characteristics were presented in a qualitative survey distributed to professionals involved with 177 projects certified using LEED for New Construction (NC) v2009. Looking broadly at the charrette process and its impact on the number of LEED points achieved revealed a significant positive relationship between LEED points and the implementation of charrettes. Correlation and regression analysis were used to examine the relationship of individual charrette characteristics to LEED points achieved. A significant negative correlation (p<.05) was discovered between three separate characteristics which, in-turn, negatively impacted LEED points achieved. Results suggest the charrette process has the potential to provide significant benefits regardless of characteristics implemented, but that to fully realize this benefit, the charrette should not include factors that limit a group's ability to produce creative ideas, goals, and solutions.