How does a building owner/manager go about doing a thorough Green building audit?
“Anyone conducting an audit will need all of the building information at hand. So all of the building’s plans and specifications should be gathered and put into a central place so the auditor won’t have to search for the information. Also, the building owner should create a hit list of those areas that they recognize as being inefficient or problematic from an operational standpoint. Then they’d want to define their goals. “The other critical item is to establish benchmarks for the audit. Two industry-recognized sources would be the U.S. Green Building Council – their LEED standards – or the EPA’s Energy Star standards would be perfect resources for benchmarks for the auditor. “Also, use an independent, unbiased firm to do the audit. You would not want a company that was looking to sell a product because they might have a conflict of interest. You’d typically want to use an independent, unbiased firm – often a consultant that is a U.S. Green Building Council-certified professional or a
