“It has natural daylight, has fresh air. Those types of things are good ideas,” Montgomery said. “There is natural daylight going into almost all interior rooms, by use of interior glass. Light goes from the outside through glass walls to inside rooms.

“The air conditioning and heat are on a recovery wheel,” he said. “Commercial buildings, as opposed to homes, are required to bring in some fresh air so it does not become stale. You then have to let the older air back out.”

Heat and money spent to heat the air is wasted when the older air is expelled.

“If you can get the heat out of it before it goes out you save money,” Montgomery explained. “As the air blows out it goes through a wheel. New air coming in is pre-heated, reusing heat rather than losing all of it.”

The additions and renovations to the Pendleton Community Library will be finished in 2007.

“That will have geothermal heating and cooling system on the addition,” Montgomery said. “It takes the heat out of ground and takes the cooling out of ground as opposed to burning gas. There is also natural daylight into virtually all the rooms and many materials have a high percentage of recycled content.”

In the last year, Montgomery and his associates have made it a policy to always bring up LEED qualities with clients so they can decide if they would like to build under that design.

“Not everybody will be interested,” he said, “but we view it as a public education thing that we need to do. The more we talk about it, the more it’s on their conscious. If we keep pushing it, it will be part of life, like ADA is now.”

There are two additional costs for clients who want to build under this design. But although “green” building costs more upfront, money is saved over the lifetime of the building through lower energy costs.

“Equipment and slightly more expensive materials are estimated at 1 to 3 percent premium over normal construction,” Montgomery said. “The other cost is if they’d like it to be LEED certified. It costs to apply to the U.S Green Building Council. It takes time and time is money with the paperwork. It can cost $15,000 to $25,000.”

Some places, like Purdue University, are following LEED standards but are not having it certified because of the extra paper work, he said.

“Instead they are using it as a moral compass — good for the environment, good for our state.”

Benefits include “the knowledge that they are doing their part in helping our long-term environment and reducing consumption of natural resources,” Montgomery said. “They have designed buildings that over the long haul are more economical for energy rates. People will like them more because they are nicer places to live and work.”