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opinion
REX LAMERAY Thinks "Green" Building Certification is Bogus The Color of Hogwash 
"Plenty of amenities. And not one blade of grass to mow." -EnsoLiving.com On the corner of Denny and Westlake in downtown Seattle, a sign — billboard size, tawny brown, the color of cedar bark, or fresh Northwest loam — warms the street scene by announcing, "More than 84%, or 5,015 tons, of construction waste is being recycled instead of landfilled." Behind the sign, 10 stories of heaving, skeletal construction guts neatly unwarm the street scene and brutally induce the sign-reader to ask: "Say ... I wonder what yuppie billionaire came up with this bogus attempt at eco-friendliness?" Forged in the fires of Paul Allen's Vulcan Industries, the Enso Condominium project is one of many in the booming South Lake Union construction zone to boast of "green materials" usage and what is called "LEED certification." That stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design; the coveted accreditation is issued by the U.S. Green Building Council, a non-profit group "dedicated to sustainable building design," according to their website. And what sort of aged vegan hippies sit on the board of this council? Hmm ... you've got nabobs from Bank of America and Starbucks ... a panjandrum from Turner Construction ... yet another nabob from Forbo Linoleum ... and a grand muckamuck who cut his teeth at United Technologies. You remember them, they're the ones responsible for 23 Superfund sites. Maybe they called it the Green Building Council because of, you know, the color of money. Good one. Anyway, what this means is that if you were to seize a parcel of land in the Emerald City, not plant trees there, and then — while digging out a million cubic yards of Northwest loam and loading it onto rail cars for the trip to an Oregon landfill, all the while barfing out great rusty geysers of diesel exhaust, and then you fill that hole with a million tons of clean, virgin timber, ore and plastic, all this so the wealthy might have expanded living opportunities — anyway, after all that, if it turns out you didn't rampage through Seattle's unspoilt environs as badly as you possibly could have, they give you an award. Sounded suspicious, so I contacted a disgruntled architect with multinational corporate experience to see if he could help nurture my growing conspiracy theory. He wishes to remain anonymous so that he can keep his comfortable architect position and maintain his disgruntled status. — Says here you're disgruntled ... something about the USGBC. DA: For a non-governmental organization, they have an unseemly amount of power. If you go to greenbuildingpages.com, you'll find a long list of states, counties and cities that now require some kind of LEED certification for certain projects; Seattle, for example, requires an LEED "Silver" certificate for projects over 5,000 gross square feet. At first glance this seems like an okay thing, but then you realize that the government is requiring people to follow rules established by a private, non-governmental institution. The USGBC may be, in and of itself, a non-profit organization, but their rules dictate that developers buy products from for-profit companies. A scary amount of control over all stages of the construction industry. — Does it cost money to get LEED certification? DA: At every turn, from the manuals needed to learn their rules, to the seminars to learn more of their rules, to the cost of becoming a LEED Accredited Professional. Then construction firms have to hire people who are LEED-AP as consultants and commissioning authorities. Then there's a flat fee and a per square foot fee for the building. All this even though the USGBC does not actually inspect the buildings they are certifying, only the small percent they audit. In the end the process costs thousands, even tens of thousands, none of which goes toward anything that will add to the sustainability of the building. — Do you think developers have gone overboard promoting various green features on buildings? DA: It's not that they've gone overboard, but they have turned it into a matter of style. And styles come and go. Sustainable building practices ought to be central to every project, as much as the foundation. Green fads may actually help drive the price up the way brand identity can: people in green houses tend to be more trend-conscious. — Isn't LEED better than nothing? Should the government run a similar program? DA: Local governments should make aspects of sustainable design part of the building code, but unfortunately it can take many years to hammer out the details, so there needs to be initiative on the public's part. And I have faith that Americans can learn to build green without instruction from the USGBC. — Is LEED fair? DA: One of the glaring problems with LEED is the inequities built into the system. For example, if a developer is lucky enough to be building next to public transit, he can get as many points by installing a few bike racks as he would earn if he retained half the site as open space. Bike racks are great, but come on. The really challenging credits, the ones that are almost always difficult to implement in urban and suburban environments, are not rewarded commensurate with their importance. — I'm a muckraking investigative reporter looking to do a serious piece about LEED. What should I investigate? DA: Look at how many of the people behind LEED have some financial interest in FSC wood companies or companies that produce green carpets or green paints and adhesives. Part of me doesn't care, and applauds the good things this is doing for the world; but if the arrangement is corrupt, it could end up tarnishing the whole green movement. — Originally published at DoomedPlanet.com |
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