Does LEED Certification Save Energy? Evidence from Retrofitted Federal Buildings
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Karen Clay; Edson Severnini; Xiaochen Sun
Version: View help for Version V1
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Project Citation:
Clay, Karen, Severnini, Edson , and Sun, Xiaochen. Does LEED Certification Save Energy? Evidence from Retrofitted Federal Buildings. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2023-09-08. https://doi.org/10.3886/E193685V1
Project Description
Summary:
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This collection includes the data and code for replicating the main results in paper "Does LEED certification save energy? Evidence from retrofitted federal buildings".
This paper examines the causal impact of LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) certification on energy consumption among federally owned buildings that were retrofitted over the period 1990–2019. Using a difference-in-differences propensity score matching approach, the paper has two findings. First, despite energy savings being an explicit federal goal, LEED-certified retrofits of federal buildings did not have statistically significant energy savings on average. Second, LEED buildings with higher energy scores had greater energy efficiency post-certification, and the improvements were economically meaningful. The absence of energy savings on average appears to be driven by three factors — trade-offs across energy and other areas in acquiring points for certification, possible changes in energy use after the official performance period for LEED certification ended, and improvements in the energy efficiency of all federal buildings.
This paper examines the causal impact of LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) certification on energy consumption among federally owned buildings that were retrofitted over the period 1990–2019. Using a difference-in-differences propensity score matching approach, the paper has two findings. First, despite energy savings being an explicit federal goal, LEED-certified retrofits of federal buildings did not have statistically significant energy savings on average. Second, LEED buildings with higher energy scores had greater energy efficiency post-certification, and the improvements were economically meaningful. The absence of energy savings on average appears to be driven by three factors — trade-offs across energy and other areas in acquiring points for certification, possible changes in energy use after the official performance period for LEED certification ended, and improvements in the energy efficiency of all federal buildings.
Scope of Project
Subject Terms:
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Energy efficiency;
LEED certification;
Energy savings;
Federal buildings;
Trade-off across LEED attributes
Geographic Coverage:
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United States
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