PortlandTribune THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2013 • TWICE CHOSEN THE NATION’S BEST NONDAILY PAPER • WWW.PORTLANDTRIBUNE.COM • PUBLISHED THURSDAY A helicopter pilot sprays herbicides after a 109- acre clear cut in 2010 on Callahan Ridge, west of Roseburg. Such practices are routine for companies certifi ed under the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. The LEED green building rating system won’t give developers points for using lumber harvested under the SFI label. COURTESY OF FRANCIS EATHERINGTON City Club ■ LEED, Green Globes battle for hearts and minds of building industry report is CLASH OF THE swamped in tussle Group proposing GREEN new board leery of study committee By JIM REDDEN The Tribune GIANTS The fi ght over the pro- posed Portland Public Water District is under way even though the measure has not political slugfest is cloud- offi ce buildings. yet qualifi ed for the May 2014 ing the future of the $50 The biggest benefi ciary could be TRIBUNE PHOTO: JAIME VALDEZ primary election ballot. billion green building in- a low-profi le Portland nonprofi t, the Byron Courts, who helped secure Green Globes certifi cation for the Columbia The measure would take Adustry, and Portland is in Green Building Initiative, which Square offi ce building downtown, explains how a $500,000 water chiller slashed away control of the water and the thick of the fi ght. bills itself as the industry-friendly electricity use for the building’s air conditioning. sewer bureaus from the City Few cities have embraced green alternative to LEED. Council and place them under buildings more — so much so that “LEED was a monopoly,” says tration elevated it to near-equal sta- a net gain for the environment, the control of an independently Portland developers, architects and Sharene Rekow, the Green Building tus with LEED, which had been the Grant says, “At the core of the stan- other green building specialists are Initiative’s vice president for busi- exclusive green-rating system used dard, it doesn’t challenge these in- touted as an export ness development. “We for federal building projects. dustries to improve.” “How can a group of industry because they STORY BY felt like the market- “That’s going to give Green In the past City Hall insiders make an provide so many over- place needed a choice.” Globes what they want: market couple years, the Inside objective recommendation seas services. STEVE LAW Only a handful of lo- traction,” says Jason Grant, a Bay chemical, vinyl ■ But timber giants cal buildings have used Area environmental consultant and related in- See related story, on a reform initiative Page 3 and manufacturers of Green Building Initia- who monitors green building for the dustries have intended to reduce the chemical-filled building products tive’s rival Green Globes rating sys- Sierra Club. joined the timber have fueled a growing backlash tem, Rekow concedes, because “this Grant and others fear Green industry’s long fi ght against LEED. power of City Hall against the U.S. Green Building has been a very LEED-centric city.” Globes will blunt the green building That coincided with the latest up- insiders?” Council, whose popular Leadership But the number of Green Globes- movement’s environmental date of LEED standards, to be rolled — excerpt of Kent Craford and Floy in Energy and Environmental De- certifi ed building projects around achievements. That’s because the out next month, which encourage Jones letter to City Club sign rating system, or LEED, has the country doubled in the past two Green Building Initiative was ini- the use of nontoxic building materi- revolutionized commercial building years, she says, and now totals 850. tially created with timber industry als and disclosure of ingredients in construction around the world. LEED, by contrast, has been used money, and its key backers include those materials. elected board. Although sup- Four states have banned the use of in more than 55,000 projects around many timber and building supply The Vinyl Institute warns on the porters have just begun circu- LEED in new government projects, the world. manufacturers that often fight trade group’s website that the new lating their initiative petitions, and the anti-LEED campaign is But Green Globes could take a tenaciously against environmental LEED v.4 will discriminate against the measure already is opposed making headway in Congress and leap forward after a May report by initiatives. by most of the council and sev- the federal agency that procures the U.S. General Services Adminis- While Green Globes can result in See GREEN / Page 2 eral environmental activists and groups. The most recent skirmish is happening at the City Club of Portland, which studies and takes stands on such issues. In an unprecedented affront to the longstanding civic organiza- Critics blast education’s new ‘core’ tion, the measure’s supporters are refusing to be interviewed by a committee appointed to If you’re among the 80 percent study the initiative and recom- Common Core gets of Portland residents who don’t mend whether to support or op- scrutiny over cost, have kids in the public schools, pose it. your tax dollars are paying for In an Oct. 16 letter to City training, assessments the Common Core. Club Executive Director Sam Oregon and Washington are Adams, co-chief petitioners By JENNIFER ANDERSON among 45 states that have ad- Kent Craford and Floy Jones The Tribune opted the Common Core; dis- said the committee cannot be tricts in Oregon began rolling it objective because half of the 14 Students in Portland Public out in 2011, and to date PPS has members have ties to the city. In Schools don’t know it, but introduced the more rigorous some cases, they work for com- they’re learning math differ- math curriculum to all students panies that have contracts with Susan Barrett, ently nowadays. except fourth- and fi fth-graders. the city. co-founder of They’re learning more about PPS expects to be fully “How can a group of City Hall the group fewer key concepts; they’re fo- aligned with the math and Eng- insiders make an objective rec- Oregon Save Our cusing on skill building, speed lish language arts standards in ommendation on a reform ini- Schools, speaks and accuracy; and they’re using the next two years, and will tiative intended to reduce the at a rally last real-world examples to under- launch a Parent Academy in power of City Hall insiders? Thursday to stand and apply concepts. January to bring parents up to City Club’s water/sewer study protest It’s all part of the federal gov- speed. strikes us as a committee of corporatization ernment’s Common Core State By spring 2015, Oregon dis- foxes charged with reviewing of public Standards, the latest movement tricts will bring on a new test, henhouse security,” reads the schools. in public education reform. called the Smarter Balanced As- letter. TRIBUNE PHOTO: If you don’t know about it, you JONATHAN HOUSE soon will. See REFORM / Page 9 See WATER DISTRICT / Page 5 “Pamplin Media Group’s pledge is to Portland Tribune NBA EXPERTS: BLAZERS BETTER, LAKERS WORSE AND deliver balanced news that refl ects the stories of our communities. Thank you Inside WILL HEAT STILL REIGN? — SEE SPORTS, PAGE B8 for reading our newspapers.” — DR. ROBERT B. PAMPLIN JR. OWNER & NEIGHBOR SATURDAY FREE 10 lb. TURKEY OCT. 26 1:05 PM PORTLAND STATE to the fi rst 5000 adult tickets purchased vs. NORTH DAKOTA GOVIKS.COM 503-725-3307 JELD-WEN FIELD 449038.101613 A2 NEWS The Portland Tribune Thursday, October 24, 2013 Green: Globes’ DIY system less expensive but says there’s less rigor and ■ From page 1 accountability for the resulting environmental attributes. the use of vinyl, and “stigmatize LEED standards are set by and strongly discourage use of practitioners in the field, she an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 chem- says, “and it’s not tied to a big icals that have a history of safe, business.” The LEED system is proven use.” Byron Courts, more of a holistic collaboration The American Chemistry engineering with a team, she says. Council declined an interview, services director Being immersed in that sys- but issued a statement saying for Portland’s tem “stays with a person forever. that LEED v.4 “strayed from its Melvin Mark It helps move the industry for- original mission of promoting Companies, ward in a way that’s better for energy effi ciency and environ- stands atop the everyone.” mental performance” by adding grass-covered The Cascadia Green Building new provisions to discourage the balcony at Council, the U.S. Green Build- use of some products “without Columbia ing Council affi liate with chap- input from experts in toxicology Square. It ters in Oregon, Washington, or chemical safety, and without qualifi ed as a British Columbia and Alaska, is regard to the availability, safety green roof under taking the movement in a bold or effectiveness of alternatives.” Green Globes but new direction with its Living In the past, Green Globes wouldn’t pass Building Challenge. That’s an hasn’t been a “real competitor” muster under effort to produce the world’s to LEED, says Scot Horst, a se- the LEED green greenest buildings, which re- nior vice president for the U.S. building rating sult in no net carbon emissions, Green Building Council, who system. reuse gray water and process oversees the LEED program. sewage on site. The challenge TRIBUNE PHOTO: “The reason we’re talking JAIME VALDEZ developed a Red List of building about them now,” Horst says, “is products to avoid because they their connection to the wood and Grant sees a similar industry vices for Portland’s Melvin Mark and they should not be used in- contain toxic materials that chemical industries.” Green Building game plan with Green Globes.