Skeptics and Believers

Earlier this week at the AHR show in Chicago, I witnessed an interesting conversation after a press conference. The discussion of the few stragglers left turned towards USGBC’s LEED green building rating system.

A couple of people were particularly skeptical of LEED and any LEED-certified buildings. Their arguments seemed to be based around the fact that major HVAC upgrades will earn the same amount of points as something as simple as installing a bike rack. They were also concerned about the fact that after certification, there’s no guarantee that these buildings actually perform up to the high standards designed for.

We’re big advocates of LEED around here, but both arguments have merit and are probably the biggest issues LEED critics bring up. Luckily, USGBC seems to be aware of LEED’s shortcomings and is starting to address some of them with LEED’s new version, LEED 2009.

The biggest change in LEED 2009 is the “weighting” of points. According to USGBC, that refers to the process of redistributing the available points so that a given credit’s point value more accurately reflects its potential to either mitigate the negative or promote the positive environmental impacts of a building. In short, it will be more important to upgrade your HVAC than put in that bike rack.

The issue of energy performance is a much more complicated problem. As examined in this article by Naomi Millan in Building Operating Management's June 2008 issue, USGBC performed a study of LEED-NC buildings and found that many were under — if not way under — their energy efficiency targets. Credits for measurement and verification exist in LEED, but obviously there’s something wrong with the equation if buildings are underperforming so badly. USGBC is aware of this issue, though no signs point to it being addressed in LEED 2009. Hopefully in the (near) future, USGBC will recognize this opportunity for improvement that greatly enhances their reputability.

So while USGBC is trying to work out some of the kinks in LEED, there’s still plenty of room for improvement. I hope that despite all the problems of a green building rating system in its adolescence, facility executives can recognize that it’s still the best and most-traveled path to sustainability.