Is LEED a Scam

Is LEED a Scam?

The LEED Green building certification is the current go to thing to have if you want to be hip and with it in the green construction and environmentally responsible building designs. But suppose you go out and build your building do everything your supposed to do get the top LEED certification get all the good green press that you can then go away. All is good right? Not really if your building is not really green at all. This is precisely what happened with the Bank of America Tower that opened in New York City in 2010. This building was given the LEED Platinum rating. (see this article in co.design)However it is truly a high energy user in fact it uses more energy than many older buildings in New York. Suppose your building is really not a Prius but a Hummer H1 going down the freeway at 80 miles per hours in terms of energy consumption? Well then you have a problem right, well not really because it's not like the Leed people will fine you or take away your LEED certification. They really can't do anything to you since they have no power to do anything like that. They are just a certifying group. They are a group of designers, builders and industry people really who have a vested interest in your building being LEED certified. 

Replace Leed With Something Better

Replace Leed with something better. That seems easy enough right. I think it can be done pretty easily. You see a Leed certified project is a building that is certified before it is built and they tell you what the energy usage will be before you ever build the project. To me that is completely backwards they should be giving out certifications after the building is built. Only then can you see how much energy this project uses. That is the way to determine if this is truly a green building or not.

Living Building Challenge Beyond LEED Certification

Living Building Challenge

     The Living Building Challenge is a new green rating system for buildings that was developed by Jason F. McClennon. It creates a building that is not only a green building in initial design and construction but what actually happens down the road in everyday use of the building. How is that accomplished? Every Living Building Challenge Building is judged not during the design or construction, like a LEED building but twelve to sixteen months after the building has been in day to day use to see if the grand green ideas have panned out. 

LEED Was The First Step

So where LEED was a great first step in the designing green buildings and really bringing about this whole green building industry the LBC is about taking the next step to see which of these designers ideas really work in your day to day life. Because let's face it when you are designing something, how you think something will work out versus how it really does can change dramatically. Not to mention the fact that when a lot of these so called green buildings were built a lot of this technology was just someones idea on a drawing board. That hadn't really been tried out yet. So now with the Living Building Challenge and the new standards in place those buildings that are LEED certified can be tested to see if they meet the new standards and the ones with the best technology and best ideas can be replicated.