Images for October 1st: The US Green Building Council, the LEED standards & Henry Gifford's War of Enlightenment

Sustainability, energy efficiency, interior air quality, locally-sourced materials, renewal materials - these are all aspects of the US Green Building Council's attempt to codify environmentally-friendly practices in new and renovated construction through their LEED (tm) building standard checklists. But, according to Henry Gifford - mechanical engineer, inventor, environmentalist - the LEED standards do not guarantee lower energy consumption; in fact, his analysis of the data that the USGBC itself uses, suggests that LEED buildings are more energy consuming than an average building not conforming to LEED.

Mr Gifford's article analyzing and criticizing the USGBC can be accessed here:

http://www.energysavingscience.com/

The most recent LEED checklist for new construction, LEED v3 looks like this:
Page 1


















Page 2 of the checklist


















But what about giving LEED points for innovation? This is not currently included - a major point of contention shared by many architects.

Indeed, these questions have lead the USGBC to respond - just a week ago - with a new program to monitor energy consumption in LEED-certified projects.

Score: 1 for Henry Gifford, 0 for USGBC.

Join us for a spirited discussion of the USGBC, energy use, and ordinary measures that you can take to make your life less energy consumptive.