Some Buildings Not Living Up to Green Label

New York Times ^ | August 30, 2009 | Mireya Navarro

[Lorianne]

The Federal Building in downtown Youngstown, Ohio, features an extensive use of natural light to illuminate offices and a white roof to reflect heat.

It has LEED certification, the country’s most recognized seal of approval for green buildings.

But the building is hardly a model of energy efficiency. According to an environmental assessment last year, it did not score high enough to qualify for the Energy Star label granted by the Environmental Protection Agency, which ranks buildings after looking at a year’s worth of utility bills.

The building’s cooling system, a major gas guzzler, was one culprit. Another was its design: to get its LEED label, it racked up points for things like native landscaping rather than structural energy-saving features, according to a study by the General Services Administration, which owns the building.

Builders covet LEED certification — it stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design — as a way to gain tax credits, attract tenants, charge premium rents and project an image of environmental responsibility. But the gap between design and construction, which LEED certifies, and how some buildings actually perform led the program last week to announce that it would begin collecting information about energy use from all the buildings it certifies.

Buildings would provide the information voluntarily, said officials with the United States Green Building Council, the nonprofit organization that administers the LEED program, and the data would be kept confidential. But starting this year, the program also is requiring all newly constructed buildings to provide energy and water bills for the first five years of operation as a condition for certification. The label could be rescinded if the data is not produced, the officials said.

[Lorianne]

Promise vs. Performance: A Deeper Shade of Green
http://www.architectmagazine.com/green-building/promise-vs-performance-a-deeper-shade-of-green.aspx

[This_far]

It has LEED certification, the country’s most recognized seal of approval for green buildings.

The government might as well find a use for the acronym EGRESS, as used by PT BARNUM.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Just like all the other “green” garbage we see in this country. It’s all a fraud.

[Waco]

Think I’m gonna cry, boo hoo

[Thebaddog]

I read this to be a pretext for even more regulation and oversight. And I always come back to the realization that if we were to utilize nuclear power, all this handwringing is moot.

[Deagle]

What! I say tear it down and start again! If it is NOT green, then it is not seen - in the proper light...

[crazyotto]

Green my A$$.

[sionnsar]

The LEED ratings systems offer many ways to earn points toward certification and were not intended to be a measure of building's every efficiency. For example, in some LEED 2009 (LEED v3) rating systems a building can earn up to 2 points based on the food and beverages purchased for consumption in the building:

That said, there is work underway to improve this.

[FTJM]

I’m going rammed earth construction with every available way to be naturally efficient. Supplement with solar and wind, a still for making fuel and rainwater collection. Goal is to be off the grid or close to it.