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RP Siegel headshot

LEED-Certified "Guzzler" Draws Criticism

By RP Siegel
When the Charlotte, NC ImaginOn opened in 2005, it was the city’s first green building. The combination library and children’s theater used a number of innovative features in its construction including compressed wheat fiberboard, recycled rubber parts and plastic bottles. The builders recycled all of the waste material and incorporated numerous energy savings elements into its design. The building, which was LEED Silver certified was projected to use 30 percent less energy than a building of the size same built using conventional materials and methods. However a study performed in 2007 by a local engineering contractor found that the building used more than twice as much energy as predicted. This came as quite a surprise to the tenants who, like many people, had not been tracking their usage. There has been somewhat of an outcry over LEED especially as more and more municipalities have mandated that new buildings meet the US Green Building Council’s standards. The Charlotte experience underscores the need for tracking the performance of these buildings and not just relying on the estimates made by the designers, or, for that matter, the performance of the building when it first opens since a good deal of the savings realized depends on the behavior of the occupants, which could change over time. According to a NY Times Op-Ed, “a building’s LEED rating is more like a snapshot taken at its opening, not a promise of performance. Unless local, state and federal agencies do their part to ensure long-term compliance with the program’s ideals, it could end up putting a shiny green stamp on a generation of unsustainable buildings.” The writer goes on to suggest that there should be a way to repeal a building’s designation if owners or tenants miss their energy consumption targets. USGBC has addressed this issue in Version 3.0 and building owners are now required to report energy data, though there is still some quibbling over whether enough detail has been required. As anyone versed in LEED will tell you, the standard is not necessarily about energy. In fact, according to a study prepared for the USGBC in 2008, more than half of all LEED certified buildings would not qualify for the EPA’s Energy Star rating. Furthermore, one-quarter of the buildings certified demonstrated energy performance that was below the national average. Architectural legend Frank Gehry has gone on record criticizing green architecture and sustainable design calling it “political,” and specifically criticized LEED saying that points are often given for “bogus stuff.” Later, in an interview on PBS, he backtracked, saying he’s not against LEED, that it can help encourage sustainable design, but that it’s only one standard among many. An earlier post in this series describes a new standard being adapted in Abu Dhabi.This is an alternative standard to LEED, in another country, which as the article points out, is tailored to the specific circumstances of that region, which are in some areas significantly different from the those in the US. Personally I think USGBC is to be commended for the tremendous job they have done in raising awareness of the need for green building and for providing guidance on what some of the best approaches are. Sure they haven’t always been right, but their process is open to public comments which are often incorporated in future editions. Oh, and that building in Charlotte, ImaginOn; it turns out that the designers underestimated how much use the building would get when they did their calculations. The facility receives some 450,000 visitors per year as compared to the 300,000 in the original estimate. That has meant longer operating hours and more intensive utilization of the theater space. When this new utilization is taken in account, the building actually uses 28.4% less than a comparable sized (and utilized) conventional building. And when the energy saving aspects of the building are applied to this increased usage, the owners see an annual savings of almost $79,000, just about twice the original estimate. RP Siegel is the co-author of the eco-thriller Vapor TrailsLike airplanes, we all leave behind a vapor trail. And though we can easily see others’, we rarely see our own. Follow RP Siegel on Twitter.
RP Siegel headshot

RP Siegel (1952-2021), was an author and inventor who shined a powerful light on numerous environmental and technological topics. His work appeared in TriplePundit, GreenBiz, Justmeans, CSRWire, Sustainable Brands, Grist, Strategy+Business, Mechanical Engineering,  Design News, PolicyInnovations, Social Earth, Environmental Science, 3BL Media, ThomasNet, Huffington Post, Eniday, and engineering.com among others . He was the co-author, with Roger Saillant, of Vapor Trails, an adventure novel that shows climate change from a human perspective. RP was a professional engineer - a prolific inventor with 53 patents and President of Rain Mountain LLC a an independent product development group. RP was the winner of the 2015 Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week blogging competition. RP passed away on September 30, 2021. We here at TriplePundit will always be grateful for his insight, wit and hard work.

 

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