Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design or “LEED” certification sucks for two reasons:
1) It’s expensive.
The first platinum certified (platinum being the highest followed by gold and silver) carbon neutral building cost $4 million dollars.
First of all I have a problem with any organization that categorizes the quality of things like Master Card. That aside, $4M dollars is crazy.
LEED can add anywhere from 4-30% to the total cost of new construction. Many of these extra costs provide NO environmental benefit. These “soft” costs are basically greedy designers charging a premium for their “green” services and various administration and compliance fees.
you see right there? yup, that's where you're getting reamed.
2) All LEED points are created equal regardless of their environmental impact.
In a recent building, we received one point for spending an extra $1.3 million for a heat-recovery system that will save about $500,000 in energy costs per year. We also got one point for installing a $395 bicycle rack.
Whaaaaa??? Yes, I think that deserves three question marks. How the hell can a bike rack get the same amount of points as a 1.3 million dollar heat-recovery system. Answer: Because LEED sucks.
Although I’m glad there is a standard for what makes a building green, from what I’m reading about LEED it seems like the USGBC has a ways to go.
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August 6th, 2008 at 10:05 am
Projects DO NOT get a point for simply installing a bike rack!!!! Read the Reference guide!!!!!!!
And nobody makes you choose expensive options!!!! Some clients actually care about much more than the money so they DO spend more……you must have very little experience…..
August 6th, 2008 at 10:45 am
I’m simply quoting directly from a response given to a Green Building Alliance survey. Although that is a particularly extreme case, I think it points out a bigger problem. I will quote my source, yet again, as I think they said it better:
“Why install new HVAC equipment for a few extra points when you could get the same points by changing the color of your shingles at no cost? Machiavellian? Sure, but builders are businesspeople, and financial pressures are real.”
I look forward to hearing more of your perspective!
Oh, and everything on this site is a bit tongue and cheek so please don’t take anything too seriously.
August 6th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
I think you missed the point - LEED rocks! All construction is expensive. A regular old renovation of an office can run $20 million. The same project certifed through the USGBC - that has chosen a greener location, will use less water, use 20% less energy, use recycled materials, recycle the construction waste, and have better air quality through low voc paints, carpets, sealants…20 million also. Same goes for your starbucks or citibank branch new renovations.
The goal of the USGBC via LEED is to ‘transform the market’ / built environment…it’s not perfect, but it’s a good start (better than nothing says edmund burke, right?) and better than anything else out there. Measureable and tangable.
As a sustainability consultant, based in NYC, I see typical LEED interior projects run .5% to 2% additional cost, if everyone on the design team knows what they are doing.
Your comments mirror many of those who have to piss on good things (like I did on my neighbours flowers after too much beer saturday) Here’s an article from last fall:
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/119/the-green-standard.html
Some valid points presented (the bike rack argument is old…why not bitch about the weight of CO2 censors).
But don’t lose sight of the big picture. Not everyone is going for sexy platinum…LEED presents a way to bring sustainable design to all projects in an affordable way and to build momentum about the right way to build. Check out the facts on the USGBC web page, read some case studies and about the revision of LEED 2009 that discusses weighing credits. The you will see…
LEED Rocks!
August 6th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
James you make some great points. I don’t mean to be too whiney, but the LEED certification system does have it’s flaws (more of which I’ll point out in future posts.
As far as your figures of generally running .5% to 2% over traditional jobs, you provided quite the caveat: “if everyone on the design team knows what they’re doing.”
That’s a pretty big “if.”
I don’t mean to “piss on good things,” merely point out some flaws that should and can be remedied and have some fun while doing it. And while I do agree that something is better than nothing, it’s my duty as the GreenestDudeEver to point out when parts of something suck.
Unfortunately, LEED sucks…sometimes doesn’t have quite the same ring to it and wouldn’t inspire such fruitful comments.
August 11th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
As a professional in the field, and as a Mechanical engineer, I can tell you LEED sucks when the people designing have no idea what they’re doing. I’ve seen projects where people will say “Oh, just buy this absorption chiller, and we’ll get all the points we need”.
Gross ineptitude is driving these ridiculous costs.
Also, I agree with “greedy designers” except that I would change it to say “Greedy Green Consultants”. I’ve worked with some swindlers out there (who shall remain nameless) who have NO experience in design and construction and generally are the major aggravators of expensive, no-return-on-investment craziness.
Education is the best weapon.
A green building done the right way can, in some cases, reduce construction costs, because the design is completed “holistically” where all disciplines are on board from the beginning. The Architects aren’t allowed to do whatever they want anymore, for the sake of “art”. They have to make it efficient as well.
We mechanical engineers usually get the short end of the stick on this stuff, mostly because of the ignorance of others.
August 14th, 2008 at 8:26 am
I see Mike’s point BUT underfloor delivery systems are the answer to all mechanical woes, right?
But who let this mechanical engineer out of his hole? Shouldn’t he be in a windowless office waiting for an architect to throw some drawings over the wall? “Now, you have 5 days to design the HVAC to meet clients expectations and ashrae….” Later, doctor your energy model for the Leed submittal…
There are alot of crap consultants out there who have managed to pass the LEED exam and believe they can charge 200 per hour for ‘advice’…about bike racks. They are not engineers or architects.
Even better is their relationships w/ Renewable Energy Credit providors…you can buy a LEED point for 1000-20,000k depending on the size of your project. Who is buying dinner, I wonder?
I think parts of LEED sucks. Some is just OK and some things that are actually measureable (not modelled) are a good step in the right direction.
August 15th, 2008 at 11:00 am
HA! Touche! They can take away my sunlight, but they can never take away my internet!
LEED sucks, now, but it’s gaining traction, and it’s getting better. Something is better than nothing. It’s not like the standard is making buildings WORSE or anything. By the way, even if these certain green consultants suck, and the owners are dumb enough to spend $20k on green power, then at least it’s dumpig captial into the green power market, which needs it to continue building wind farms, solar farms, etc etc etc. I would definitely like to see some accountability on the part of the green power, providers, though. Everyone here is probably familiar with how worthless the system can be right now…..
BTW, LEED 2009, AKA Ver. 3 is going to change the system points to give more leverage for certain points.