LEEDing to Disaster

by Tony Chavira

Only 2% of all construction is considered green, although in 2008 the construction company McGraw-Hill saw that the number of certified green buildings was growing despite the suckiness of the economy. We’ll have to wait until another report comes out later this year to see if the trend continues, but right now construction jobs on the whole aren’t on the upswing. Over the past two months, the construction sector had the largest payroll drop at 18.4%, with something like 149,000 jobs lost in total. Architecture as a profession isn’t doing much better: 10,000 jobs lost last November alone, and it’s only gotten worse. This would be an ideal time for design and construction professionals to go to seminars and lectures and take the mandatory tests to be LEED (Leadership in Energy Efficient Design), or U.S. Green Building Council certified. It comes with a bunch of perks: lots of networking opportunities, access to government bids (as government projects are all going green from now on), and the ability to market your knowledge in green construction or design.

Before getting wrapped away by the U.S. Green Building Council’s once-in-a-lifetime offer, there are three things you should know about the relationship between sustainability and LEED:

1. As a construction industry professional, you aren’t required to be LEED-certified to design and build a sustainable structure.
2. Being LEED-certified doesn’t entitle your firm and disentitle your non-LEED-certified competition to sustainable projects.
3. The principles of sustainable design and construction have been around for something like 50 years. The U.S. Green Building Council started up in 1993.

When the option to be LEED-certified was available to the design professionals in our office, I called a very official meeting. By explaining the marketing and promotional opportunities of LEED, I slowly convinced each of them to get on board.  Designers would have a spiffy suffix to their names before they got their architectural board certification. Architects would have an expanded title, which we could use to apply for LEED certification of our existing green projects. Call me callous, but it was purely a business decision. Notwithstanding, our firm had completed many sustainable projects, but submitting them to a board of green building experts seemed pointless until I was sure that we could use their approval as a marketing tool. Once everyone was certified, we could finally submit these projects for LEED approval and probably get them published in a magazine or something. “Saving the Earth” was no longer the primary motivation. We’d be published, look like experts in something we’ve already been doing, and maybe charge a little extra for the service! It would be glorious.

The rest of the construction and design industry had the same idea. In fact, I’ve spoken to several project managers who’ve said that construction contractors actually charge a premium if you want a “Green” or “LEED-certified” building. It’s not that they do any more actual work, but once they hear the words green, sustainable, or LEED, they immediately deem it safe to tack on a sort of “upgrade” fee. Of course, I sneered (as all people do) at that devious contractor scheme, but I was clearly no better with my initial plan. To be honest, I wasn’t exactly sure what I was asking the architects and designers in my office to do by taking the test and being LEED-certified. I just assumed they took an easy test, got a spiffy certificate, and just started taking credit for a sustainable job well done.

There is a particular type of presumptuousness that comes with being LEED-certified, though. The first time someone in our firm mentioned this to me was on the ground floor at this year’s American Institute of Architects convention in San Francisco. The first thing you noticed was that all of the same products from last year were now LEED-certified (glass panels, vinyl tiles, doors, carpet, metal plates, you name it). It didn’t mean that they weren’t sustainable before. It’s just that now they had something to prove, or else worry that they might lose out on the sustainable hype-market. As an unsaid rule, if you weren’t LEED-certified, there had to be something wrong with you or your product. On that, everyone seemed to agree.

Naturally, 70% of the presentations where about sustainable design and construction, and all of them mentioned LEED in some way. Practically all of the panels had to somehow finagle the term into their conversation. Some of the presentations or tours had LEED in their titles. Who knows? Maybe there was a quota. 

I’m no naysayer, though: green building is no joke. In the United States, 36% of total energy used (65% of electricity consumption), 30% of greenhouse gas emissions, 30% of raw materials used, 12% of potable water consumed, and 136 million tons of waste are attributable to buildings. In terms of environmental damage, buildings are worse than transportation in every possible way. With daunting statistics like these, it’s no wonder that the entire architectural and construction profession sees sustainable construction as the future. If we have the opportunity to reduce this damage, we’re bound as professionals to follow through. 

But currently, LEED isn’t the way to do it. The U.S. Green Building Council is just a social club for the green-minded. If your previously LEED-certified design is built as a regular ol’, non-green building, oh well. At least you tried, and there are no repercussions for the designer or the contractor if the finished structure isn’t ultimately up to LEED standards. You still get paid for your work, LEED stamp or not. Because there’s a non-sustainable alternative, many clients feel ambivalence toward green design and construction: “We don’t need it, but it would sure be nice!” 

This is the fatal flaw of LEED certification. As a designer or a contractor, you just not don’t need it to get something built. As time goes on, the U.S. Green Building Council is hoping (in a very Libertarian way) that the market will dictate that everyone goes green. You just won’t be able to get someone to hire you without LEED certification. Except that of course you’ll get hired if you (a) find a developer who doesn’t care about the environment and (b) give them everything they want cheap. Money makes the world go ’round, while policy’s just along for the ride. Luckily, New York City and the state of Massachusetts aren’t taking this attitude lying down and have begun to incorporate green building regulations into their building department codes. In other words, you won’t be able to build anything new unless you build it green. Period. No more incentives! No more massaging the industry! Do it or starve! A good way to approach the construction industry when times are tough, if you ask me. Policy shifts like these would be too hard to pull off if the design and construction sectors were booming.

But I don’t think the LEED is a scam. LEED is smart, well thought out, and thorough. The amazing people who work at the Green Building Council are trying their best to make green construction easier, more affordable, and more prevalent than ever before, and they have a daunting number of professionals to try and sway in order to achieve this. They even update and amend the policy so that it evolves into something more useful for the everyday professional.

As of this moment though, LEED certification is half a marketing tool, half a fashion accessory; and this combination isn’t useful to the industry, the regulators, or the environment. The coup de grace is that you can totally ignore LEED if you choose, and currently many contractors and designers do. So why beat around the bush? The State Architecture Board’s certification test has already been revamped to include green policies; why not standardize them across all industries? With New York and Massachusetts both shifting city building policies toward green, and the Waxman-Markey Climate Change Bill (the coveted cap-and-trade bill) at the federal level, policy-makers and city planners should ride the green wave while the swell is high. 

To abuse an already terrible pun: they should LEED the way. I just hope there’s enough leadership.

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