On Thursday, I highlighted an ENR article that focused on LEEDigaiton-related "chatter" at Greenbuild.  Some of that chatter was most likely the result of the first Greenbuild Legal Forum.  Another recent article highlighted additional green building law trends that were highlighted at the Forum. 

Part Two:  Treehugger

In attendance at the Greenbuild Legal Forum was one of my favorite bloggers, Lloyd Alter.  Lloyd is the mastermind behind Treehugger, where he writes fascinating articles about the development of green building and LEED.  I was pleasantly surprised when Lloyd approached approached co-panelists Shari Shapiro and Stephen Del Percio and me about predicting the future of green building law for one of his articles. 

Our predictions are available in the appropriately-titled article "Three Green Building Lawyer Bloggers Predict The Next Big Thing".  If you have read my posts the last few months, you can probably guess what I wrote about.  I believe we will see more LEEDigation in the coming years due to financial and regulatory incentives for building to LEED certification levels. 

But check out the other predictions from Stephen and Shari.  Of particular interest to me is Stephen’s prediction of more challenges to LEED regulations:

For all of the discussion about the legal implications of legislating green, there have been surprisingly few challenges from the private sector. However, as governments across the country continue to face budget shortfalls and other financial pressures, private actors will more closely scrutinize – and oppose – existing state- and local-level green building legislation. The AHRI and BIAW litigations in New Mexico and Washington, respectively, could be just the beginning for a host of challenges on a number of grounds in addition to preemption.

Take a look at the predictions and then come back and let me know what you think.