USGBC Finally Makes Building Performance Requirement For LEED Certification
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While the stated goal and intent of the LEED program has always been to provide an independent third-party certification of a built structure's green or sustainable attributes, the awarding of the certification level itself has never been contingent on the building actually performing as designed and/or marketed. This obvious program flaw is now being addressed as the USGBC has announced a new performance reporting requirement for all newly certified buildings.
The United States Green Building Council (USGBC) has become synonymous with green building in the last several years mainly as a result of its green building certification program known as LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). While the stated goal and intent of the LEED program has always been to provide an independent third-party certification of a built structure’s green or sustainable attributes, ostensibly insuring a ‘greener’ more environmentally friendly structure, the awarding of the tiered certification level itself (certified, silver, gold or platinum) has never been contingent on the building actually performing as designed and/or marketed; namely in its energy efficiency. This has always been one of the major flaws with the LEED program seeing as the reduction of energy consumption by buildings is the largest most effective method green-built buildings can have in helping mitigate GHG emissions.
You Sure This Is A Green Building?
This lack of performance data has not only left LEED’s purported environmental benefits speculative at best, but it has also led to what is known as LEED-washing. This is when buildings have been able to attain high levels of LEED certification by simply ‘adding green stuff’ to attain more certification points without verification of their effectiveness or practicality. Often times this ‘green stuff’ is either not necessary, like capturing rainwater for irrigation when there is no landscaping to irrigate, or it is installed improperly or ad hoc making it almost completely ineffective at performing it’s intended function (my favorite example of this can be seen in the photo below of a $100K solar PV system basically being used as decoration due to improper alignment and installation). Unfortunately LEED’s increasing popularity among the public has led more developers, who in large part are more interested in the marketing potential of LEED rather than its actual environmental benefits, to LEED-wash their projects instead of employing more effective measures that may not yield as high of a score. Subsequently, the end product built and marketed by these developers has left the USGBC with more examples of LEED-washed houses out there than they would care to admit.
Seeing that the performance data gap left by LEED certified structures only served to further undermine not only the program’s legitimacy and effectiveness, but the environment itself, the USGBC announced in a press release last week that all new LEED v.3 certified projects will be required to agree to provide energy and water usage data in order to attain certification. The release states:
“Today there is all too often a disconnect, or performance gap, between the energy modeling done during the design phase and what actually happens during daily operation after the building is constructed,” said Scot Horst, Senior Vice President of LEED, U.S. Green Building Council. “We’re convinced that ongoing monitoring and reporting of data is the single best way to drive higher building performance because it will bring to light external issues such as occupant behavior or unanticipated building usage patterns, all key factors that influence performance. Building performance will guide LEED’s evolution. This data will show us what strategies work – and which don’t — so we can evolve the credits and prerequisites informed by lessons learned,” said Brendan Owens, USGBC’s vice president of LEED technical development. “
So how will all of this data collection and ‘enforcement’ work? Well, the USGBC, as usual, has an idea, but no specifics. The release goes on further to say the following:
Projects can comply with the performance requirement in one of three ways:
1. The building is recertified on a two-year cycle using LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance.
2. The building provides energy and water usage data on an on-going basis annually.
3. The building owner signs a release that authorizes USGBC to access the building’s energy and water usage data directly from the building’s utility provider.
USGBC is proactively investigating cost effective ways for every LEED building to become metered as a way to capture this data,”
Supporters of LEED will hail this announcement as proof that LEED and the USGBC are trying to maintain an environmentally effective and relevant program, while critics may view this new performance criteria as another way the USGBC can earn more money. Only time will tell.
The Good: The USGBC finally recognizes and addresses what critics have said for years is one of the biggest problems with the LEED program. The new data stream will hopefully enable the program to evolve faster and in more effective ways.
The Bad: Will most likely add more complexity and to an already convoluted, and often times bureaucratic, expensive certification process. It is still unclear if buildings already certified that don’t perform as expected will have their certification revoked.
The Bottom-Line: While this announcement is a welcomed, and long overdue, adjustment to the program requirements, details regarding its implementation, cost, and ultimate effectiveness are still murky at best. It will at least (hopefully) eliminate the problems with LEED-washing.
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