There are a number of LEED-policy articles floating around the internet these days. Fast Company wrote an article bashing LEED for poor energy performance. Lloyd Alter responded at Treehugger with an article bashing the Fast Company article.
It’s time to move the discourse forward.
How Does the USGBC Intend to Improve Building Performance?
One of the key issues facing the USGBC is addressing buildings that get LEED certification but do not deliver energy savings. Originally, it seemed as if the USGBC was going to propose a decertification system. Here is how USGBC CEO Rick Fedrizzi described it last September:
“Once a LEED plaque is assigned to a building, and there is proof that the building is no longer performing the way that it should, there’s a very good chance that that information will then result in the ability for USGBC to remove the certification from the building — most likely on our website,” he says.
In the current LEED 2012 draft — the proposed new rating system — there is no mention of LEED decertification. But in a November 2010 Greenprints article, Vandana Sinha confirmed that LEED 2012 will include a component to address energy performance: