Is 'Green Building' Certification Broken?

20 October 2005 - 7:00am

Is the Green Building Council's popular and respected "green certification" program heavy on costs and paperwork, and low on actual results?

"Eco-friendly, or "green," buildings are one of the most talked-about trends in the trillion-dollar U.S. construction industry. Boosters say that for a relatively small up-front cost, such buildings can be cheaper to operate. Though more attention is paid to pollution by cars, buildings today account for a third of U.S. energy use, 30% of greenhouse gas emissions, and 30% of raw material use. Americans spend 90% of their time indoors.

But unlike other so-called green products -- such as hybrid cars and compact fluorescent lightbulbs -- some green buildings are little more energy-efficient than traditional structures. Yet they manage to earn a coveted certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, a leading, private environmental organization.

...Some critics say the system gives too much weight to certain easy tasks, while giving the same weight to much more expensive ones."

"Goldman Sachs's 30 Hudson Street was deemed 'green' by the U.S. Green Building Council by scoring 27 points on a 69-point scale, although the building does little to cut energy use or pollution. The minimum is 26."

[Editor's note: The link below is available to non-subscribers for a period of seven days.]

Source: The Wall Street Journal, October 19, 2005
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There is lots of theory, and lots of wonderful mathematics, and even lots of dealmaking. But the financial engineers are not real engineers who take responsibility for the bridges that fall down. They have no notion of a safety factor.