IS LEED A MONOPOLY?

Gosh, we sure hope not.  We’ve been a little quiet lately as we launched our completely redesigned and enhanced web site this week (www.SERFgreen.org), but the notion of a LEED monopoly is unsettling.   After all, SERF, Green Globes ™ and others have invested significant resources to provide cost-effective, accessible alternative green building certifications.

Still, others make the claim of a LEED monopoly quite forcibly—like the Chattanooga Times Free Press recent editorial.

The Times Free Press’ position has some merit when considering government buildings.  But as to the private sector—the ones who are spending their own money–we find businesses are very open to a market-friendly alternative to LEED.  In fact, we’ve had success with private buildings that are already LEED certified.

Our education partners at Centre for Sustainability and Excellence are helping train new SERF Professionals (SPs) to meet this demand.

SERF may be the new kid on the block, but as the ages have shown—don’t be afraid to bet on David over Goliath.

Catch the Wave on free webinar

SERF and the Centre for Sustainability & Excellence (CSE) are co-hosting a free webinar 12:30-1:30 CST on Thursday, January 24.

CSE , a global leader in sustainability consulting and training, is partnering with SERF to train SERF Professionals (SPs).  SPs have the exclusive ability to act as third-party verifiers for SERF certification applications.

SERF president Joe Maguire and CSE president Nikos Avlonas will be on hand to discuss SERF as a streamlined, affordable alternative to LEED certification and the SP designation as opportunity to expand your professional practice.  Click here to register.

VOCs paint an ugly picture

Who doesn’t love the smell of fresh paint?  But, as so often seems the case, the good things in life are bad for us.

Green buildings transcend their structure and actually produce a positive effect on the health and comfort of their occupants. A key factor which determines this is the type of architectural coatings (paints, sealers etc.) and how many volatile organic compounds (VOCs) they contain.   Alas, these toxins are responsible for that wonderful fresh paint aroma.

VOCs are mainly used as solvents in coatings and contain aliphatic hydrocarbons, ethyl acetate, glycol ethers, acetone and formaldehyde.  In addition to being virtually unspellable, all of these have a very low boiling point slowly evaporate at room temperatures to be absorbed in to the human body. (Formaldehyde has a boiling point of -2F!) Low VOC coatings, by contrast, are those which contain water-based solvents.

Some of the harmful effects these VOC’s include irritation, headaches, loss of coordination, nausea, damage to liver, kidney, and central nervous system. Some are even suspected to cause cancer.

The EPA estimates that in a typical building the concentration of VOCs could be up to 5 times the concentration of outdoor air. In fresh paint this can be about 1000 times. In a society which spends most of our time indoors, the use of low VOC coatings can go a long way to reduce long term health risks and ensure comfort.

Who really pays for LEED certification?

Obtaining LEED certification costs a lot of time and money.  The resources required are not limitless and are generally diverted from other uses, though that seems impolite to discuss when pursuing sustainability.

But LEED certification does not, of course, add to a property’s sustainability.  Rather it confirms, or certifies, that objective sustainable criteria have been met.   If anything, the high costs of LEED certification divert funds that may be otherwise be spent on sustainable materials or systems.

In the end, the high cost of LEED ultimately comes from somewhere….or someone. 

I wonder how the retirees of Stockton, California feel about their city’s expense in obtaining LEED Gold certification for their new water plant after having their retirement benefits cut in Stockton’s bankruptcy proceedings.

While hardly the sole culprit of bankruptcy, Stockton’s self-imposed requirement to LEED certify all structures over 5,000 square feet is indicative of City Hall’s feckless finance.

SERF offers a low cost sustainable certification that doesn’t break the bank.  I bet that sounds like a good idea to some good folks in Stockton.

The Greenest Building is the one that is already built

This elegant phrase by architect Carl Elefante is bolstered by an important new study, The Greenest Building:  Quantifying the Environmental Value of Building Reuse. 

National Real Estate Investor opines that the study, commissioned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Preservation Green Lab, empirically shows, “It is unequivocally greener to retrofit an old building than construct a new building, no matter how many high-tech bells and whistles are in the new construction.”

The numbers are startling:

                *It can take between 10 and 80 years for a new energy-efficient building to overcome, through

                  More efficient operations, the negative climate change impacts that come from construction.

 

                *Environmental savings from re-use are between 4 and 46 percent over new construction when            

                  comparing buildings with the same energy performance level.

 

                *The ROI on green retrofits average 19.2% versus 9.9% for new buildings.

 

Clearly there are occasions when new structures are greener than retrofitting.  And, after all, sustainability is not the only factor in building decisions—else we all return to cave dwelling.  Still, it’s important to always look first to reuse as the benchmark against which alternatives are measured.

Green parking, chicken houses and bankers

Beginning in 2011, parking structures were deemed unworthy of attaining LEED certification owing to the fact that they are, after all, chock full of those pesky cars.

So great the sin of enabling the proliferation of hydro-carbon fueled vehicles that no amount of energy efficient lighting, designated stalls for alternate fuel vehicles,  reduction of heat island effect and countless other ways to make a parking structure more sustainable has lowered the upturned nose of the USGBC.

In defense of useful structures everywhere, SERF offers Frank Lloyd Wright’s aphorism to regard it as just as desirable to build a chicken house as to build a Cathedral.  Though speaking of design rather than sustainability (setting aside the sustainability inherent in his organic style) Wright spoke here one of his great truths.

To wit, there is nobility to all useful structures and there is a beautiful way to conceive buildings of any purpose.  There is also a sustainable and non-sustainable way to build them.  SERF will be a voice in recognizing structures of all types that choose the sustainable path.

We seem to have at least one soul in the blogosphere who joins in our giggle at LEED’s demonization of private autos.  “Anti-everything crap like this is why many people ignore the green movement. By this logic we should get rid of houses to curb over population. Hey! I bet if we got rid of all the landfills there would be no trash. And if we teardown all the jails there will be no crime too!”

A new sign went up by my office today announcing one of PNC Bank’s new green branches– part of their USGBC approved program for LEED certification by volume submittal.   So a structure filled with bankers is morally superior to a structure filled with the family car.  I wonder how that will go over with the 99%….