Implementing Plan C – conservation, curtailment and cooperation NewSolutionsMay-June 2009 Number 18 Change is “green.” Green is used in many Special Report: Part 1 ways and forms – as a noun “green is good,” as an adjective “green building” or LEEDing from Behind: The “green society,” and a verb “we must green the economy.” It also includes the slang Rise and Fall of Green Building version of the verb in the frequent uses of phrases such as “go green,” “green it” and Editor’s Note: The purpose of this, the first Introduction “green up.” of three parts of our Special Report, is to Language sometimes obscures an issue. In the late 1980s interest in energy show the history of the dialogue about LEED Certain “branding” terminology is efficiency and the environment increased. energy performance. Part II will specifically selected with a particularly concise set of The 1987 UN Brundtland Commission’s discuss LEED additional building costs and en- words which form the core of a slogan report defined “sustainable development.” In 1992 the U.S. government’s Energy ergy performance obtained from these costs. or slogans around which a philosophy can be formed, money can be raised and Policy Act included policies for building It will also analyze the USGBC marketing products marketed. One such term that is efficiency. This act called for a 20 percent efforts around this topic. Part III will suggest intended to make us feel we are addressing reduction in energy consumption per options to the LEED rating system. Part II will the challenges of Peak Oil and Climate square foot relative to the 1985 baseline consumption in federal buildings. The be published in June, 2009. government adopted the term “green,” passing several executive orders including three in 1998, 1999, 2000 entitled respec- tively Greening the Government through Waste Prevention, Recycling and Federal Acquisition, Greening the Government through Energy Efficient Management,and Greening the Government through Leader- ship in Environmental Management. At the UIA/AIA (International Union of Architects and American Institute of Architects) World Congress of Architects held in Chicago in June 1993, the presi- dents of the two organizations signed the “Declaration of Interdependence for a Sus- tainable Future.” This convention is recog- nized as a turning point in the history of the green building movement even though the word used was sustainable, not green. It is important to note that sustainable and green are in many cases synonymous. Green has become a word that can be applied to almost anything e.g., a green lifestyle. Its widespread use makes it very difficult to come up with measure- ments that are vital to determining the energy inputs and the waste products of buildings. An old saying,“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it,” is highly appropriate to describe the state of our May-June 2009 New Solutions Number 18: 1 understanding of energy relative to build- USGBC invented and manages the ings. It is unfortunate that green became Leadership in Energy and Environmental the word of choice for buildings, since there Design (LEED) rating system, used to is terminology available that does a better certify buildings as “green.” Green building job of communicating the environmental – as defined by USGBC – is the practice and energy considerations with which we of increasing the efficiency with which are concerned – energy-efficient, high-per- buildings use resources – energy, water and formance, energy rating, low-energy, energy ...with the use of “green,” the materials – while reducing building impacts savers, etc. Of great importance is that these whims of market considerations on human health and the environment are measurable and comparable. during the building’s lifecycle, through Using the color green instead of mea- prevailed, leaving the population better site placement, design, construction, surements may have led to an unnecessary without the tools to understand operation, maintenance, and removal.3 delay in taking steps to resolve fossil fuel 4 the energy and climate implica- LEED has several rating systems, depletion and environmental issues. The including: term “green-wash” has appeared as a result. tions of its purchasing decisions. New Construction – for high performance Green-wash refers to the fact that the word commercial and institutional projects “green” has become a marketing and sales year that the World Congress of Architects Existing Buildings – Operations and slogan to increase product sales based on a initiated the Declaration of Interdepen- Maintenance – for already built structures theme of doing good to save the planet. dence for a Sustainable Future. USGBC Possibly the term energy efficiency is a non-profit organization, comprised Commercial Interiors – for tenant might have been a good choice and have of design professionals and corporations, improvements provided a more focused direction for set- many from the giant building materials Core & Shell – for sustainable design ting baseline standards for energy use. In industry. Its objective is to “promote build- choices for new core shell construction physics the term efficiency is clearly used ings that are environmentally responsible, Schools – for K-12 schools and other in a variety of contexts, including efficient profitable and healthy places to live and school spaces energy use, energy conversion efficiency, work.” Its mission is “to transform the Retail – for special needs of retail spaces energy conservation, electrical efficiency, way buildings and communities are fuel efficiency, lighting efficiency, mechani- designed, built and operated, enabling an Healthcare – for high performance cal efficiency, volumetric efficiency and environmentally and socially responsible, healthcare facilities thermal efficiency. If energy efficiency healthy and prosperous environment that Homes – for residential construction were used, it would be easy to provide a improves the quality of life.” The USGBC Neighborhood Development – for smart wide range of measurements that define in is a well-funded organization with major growth and new urbanism developments physical terms how efficient a building is, corporations and architectural firms on The LEED system is used to measure such as BTUs per square foot or kWh per its advisory board. Its 2007 revenues were the degree of “greenness” of a building. For square meter. $46,000,000. new construction it is a simple checklist At the core of any kind of genuine The Natural Resources Defense Council building science is a precise scientific with a certain number of points (69 in (NRDC) was involved in the formation 5, 6 terminology that is easy to understand of the USGBC, which began with an LEED 2.2, 110 in LEED 2009). To and could be simplified for general use. alliance between a real-estate developer, achieve the lowest certification, labeled Unfortunately, with the use of “green,” the David Gottfried, and a senior scientist for “certified,” at least twenty-six points are whims of market considerations prevailed, NRDC, Rob Watson. Richard Fedrizzi, required in LEED 2.2 and forty points leaving the population without the tools the current CEO of USGBC is quoted as in LEED 2009. The highest certifica- to understand the energy and climate saying, “The great majority of environ- tion, labeled “platinum,” requires at least implications of its purchasing decisions. mental organizations had invested in keep- fifty-two points in LEED 2.2 and eighty It may be that efficiency as a term is not ing companies on the other side of a fence. points in LEED 2009. Note that the larger robust enough since we often squander the David [Gottfried] thought that we could number of points in LEED 2009 does not savings on bigger houses and bigger (and do things differently. If we could invite reflect a higher level of performance but more) appliances. business to the table, we could develop rather a changing of the numerical weight- standards relative to building performance, ings assigned to various options. Table 1 The U.S. Green Building get buy-in at the very top, and be able to shows the breakdown of the older and Council transform the marketplace (italics mine) newer versions. The percent column shows toward sustainable buildings.”2 The term the different distribution of the LEED The U.S. Green Building Council1 “market transformation” is frequently used classifications between the newer and (USGBC) was founded in 1993, the same by USGBC promoters. older versions. 2 : New Solutions Number 18 May-June 2009 cation began before 2004. A March 2008 in July 2006 for spec developments. LEED LEED Building History New Buildings Institute (NBI) report on for Neighborhood Development, Retail – Number of Units and LEED Energy Performance10 (partially and Healthcare recently became available. Square Feet funded by USGBC) shows a less robust Information from that report is shown in Since the formation of the USGBC in growth rate (Table 3) than that noted in Table 4. 1993 to the end of 2008 the organization Table 2. Table 4: Breakdown of LEED Programs claims to have certified about 2,100 com- The data sets in Tables 2 and 3 are not mercial buildings with a total area of about identical. The NBI data shows that the LEED Program # of Certified Projects 7 283 million square feet. There are about number of buildings certified between the New Construction (NC) 1,600 5 million commercial buildings in the years 2000-2004 (5 years) is 148 units Commercial Interiors (CI) 479 U.S. with a total area of about 74 billion while the USGBC presentation shows 266. Existing Buildings (EB) 200 8 square feet. In the fifteen years of USGBC The USGBC graphics show an impressive Core and Shell (CS) 157 first year jump while the NBI report shows history certified LEED buildings represent Neighborhood Development (ND) 1 a more gradual buildup. The NBI report about 0.04 percent of the total number of Schools 4 existing buildings and about 0.4 percent of shows 165 units and 240 units for 2005 Retail 6 and 2006 respectively while the USGBC the existing square footage.