Orange County Register

Tresor Properties is seeking a platinum LEED certificate for this home it is building at 990 Ocean Front in Laguna Beach.

A Laguna Beach company appears to be right on track for obtaining super-green building certification for the first of two luxury home projects.

Tresor Properties is seeking a platinum certificate through the  U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program for homes at 990 and 992 Ocean Front in Laguna Beach’s Village area. 

If Tresor succeeds, these luxury houses will likely be Orange County’s first LEED-certificated single-family homes, and the firm will be in rarified company nationwide. (Read more about the projects on our South Coast Homes blog.)

Registering for LEED certification doesn’t guarantee one will be granted, though, and nothing is harder to obtain than a platinum certificate, the highest possible.

Nationwide, 253 projects totalling 450 homes have obtained the platinum certificate, according to the Green Building Council. In Orange County, about eight other home projects are seeking some level of certification, and the only platinum certificate has been earned by the Environmental Nature Center in Newport Beach.

So, how hard is it?

The LEED process is complex. Separate rating systems apply for different types of construction and project types . And the point targets for secure silver, gold and platinum certificate levels follow a sliding scale based on a project’s square footage.

LEED for Homes rates single-family and multi-family projects in eight areas: Innovation and design process; location and linkages; sustainable sites; water efficiency; energy and atmosphere; materials and resources; indoor environmental quality; awareness and education.

A regular certificate is awarded for projects achieving 45-59 points; silver, 60-74; gold,  75-89; platinum, 90-136, again, with the sliding scale capable of altering those levels.  Tresor’s 990 Ocean Front project, for example, encompasses 3,601 square feet, pushing the minimum for platinum to 98.5.

Tresor officials have calculated that this project is on target to achieve  106.5 points. They haven’t run the numbers yet for the second home, but the design elements will be similar.

So, how is the company getting there?

At the 990 home, a key element is the water systems, which harvest rainwater and trap runoff at retaining walls, diverting the flow from beaches and into a cistern for use on eco-friendly landscaping.

The home is expected to use 40 percent less water than a typical property of the same size.

Secondly, the home’s design and energy systems, including solar,  make it likely to use 70 percent less energy than a typical house of the same size.  

Project manager Michael Fischbeck said California regulations and building standards are increasingly focused on such efficient systems.

“This is where it’s all going,” he said. “We want to be on the forefront of that curve.”

Tresor President John Fischbeck said the company doesn’t intend to stop after these two homes. It is already looking at how it can apply green construction methods to renovating historic Laguna Beach homes — a potentially greater challenge than new construction.

(Home image courtesy of Tresor Properties.)

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