Concern Remains Regarding Some LEED Mandates
In addition to clarifying the LEED 25% guideline, Rob Watson also had some interesting points regarding regulations that required LEED certification.*
First, Watson made a great point about governments requiring municipal projects to achieve LEED certification: "As far as municipalities requiring their own buildings to go LEED, that's an owner decision and no problem. Municipally-funded projects are in a similar vein." I wholly agree with Watson.
I still remain concerned about private development LEED mandates. Watson indicated he also has similar concerns: "It gets a bit dicey when talking about broader mandates because we designed LEED as a market-leading standard and there is concern about the market's ability to respond on a very broad level. As penetration of green accelerates, I believe this will become less of a problem."
What do you think? Can LEED mandates for private projects work?
*To be clear, Watson was speaking to me as the CEO of The EcoTech International Group. He was not speaking on behalf of the USGBC.
Currently, there are very few cities actually require private buildings to achieve LEED certification.
Rather than mandating it, cities should provide incentives. I think Portland's proposed High Performance Green Building Policy is a great initiative. Their "feebate" program rewards exceptional LEED projects with financial incentives and penalizes projects that just meet minimum code. So, while it's not mandated, there is plenty of reason to build to LEED standards
Here's a link to Portland's proposed High Performance Green Building Policy: http://www.portlandonline.com/OSD/index.cfm?c=45879&a=220879
Two municipalities in the Atlanta metro area passed LEED mandates recently that apply to commercial buildings over 20,000 square feet. Such mandates pose a range of problems, including the delegation of authority to establish "code" to a private, member-based organization, the apparent delegation of authority to determine compliance with that code and the impossibility of actually enforcing the code without creating messy multi-party litigation (or, if you prefer, LEEDigation). On the other hand, both jurisdictions also included a vague "infeasibility exemption" that gives the building inspector broad discretion to disregard the "code" established by USGBC. These are both small jurisdictions and it is possible that none of these potential problems will ever arise. I am curious about the response of the development community to LEED/Green Globes mandates in other large urban jurisdictions around the country.
I serve on a taskforce (http://www.sustainableatlanta.org/Default.aspx?pageid=136 ) that has drafted a proposed sustainable building ordinance for the City of Atlanta, and we elected to establish our own code (with prescriptive and performance options) but to also include certification under LEED, Green Globes or EarthCraft as "compliance alternatives." The proposed ordinance is currently in the Mayor's hands to deliver to City Council. To date it appears that the development community appreciates the flexibility provided by the compliance alternatiaves so that if they do a LEED project, they will have to achieve certain credits (related mostly to energy and water efficiency), but will not have to also track or determine compliance with most of the specific provisions of the proposed ordinance.
Two municipalities in the Atlanta metro area passed LEED mandates recently that apply to commercial buildings over 20,000 square feet. Such mandates pose a range of problems, including the delegation of authority to establish "code" to a private, member-based organization, the apparent delegation of authority to determine compliance with that code and the impossibility of actually enforcing the code without creating messy multi-party litigation (or, if you prefer, LEEDigation). On the other hand, both jurisdictions also included a vague "infeasibility exemption" that gives the building inspector broad discretion to disregard the "code" established by USGBC. These are both small jurisdictions and it is possible that none of these potential problems will ever arise. I am curious about the response of the development community to LEED/Green Globes mandates in other large urban jurisdictions around the country.
I serve on a taskforce (http://www.sustainableatlanta.org/Default.aspx?pageid=136 ) that has drafted a proposed sustainable building ordinance for the City of Atlanta, and we elected to establish our own code (with prescriptive and performance options) but to also include certification under LEED, Green Globes or EarthCraft as "compliance alternatives." The proposed ordinance is currently in the Mayor's hands to deliver to City Council. To date it appears that the development community appreciates the flexibility provided by the compliance alternatiaves so that if they do a LEED project, they will have to achieve certain credits (related mostly to energy and water efficiency), but will not have to also track or determine compliance with most of the specific provisions of the proposed ordinance.