LEEDing the Way?

"Greenness doesn't always have to do with the building's components. For example, if a building happens to be located within a half-mile of a commuter rail stop or other mass transit, it receives one LEED point. Certainly the Hearst Tower is one of America's greenest office buildings to date, built with over ninety percent recycled steel and designed to save 1.7 million gallons of water annually by harvesting and recycling rainwater."

"But many critics maintain that a LEED plaque is no guarantee that a building deserves accolades for good green design. Industry professionals commonly complain that the credit system unevenly recognizes energy use. For example, because each LEED credit is worth one point (out of a possible 69), it's possible for a building to receive 26 points - enough for a plaque - without obtaining a single point for energy efficiency. This is arguably the most important green building metric, and critics note that this loophole allows owners to slap a few green elements - from a green roof to preferred parking spaces for hybrid vehicles - on top of an otherwise conventional building in order to score easy LEED points."

"In 2004, the Green Building Alliance, a Pittsburgh-based coalition of environmental groups, compiled an anonymous electronic survey of architects, engineers, contractors, and others who had worked on green building projects. On a recent building, one respondent had received one LEED point for installing a $395 bike rack. For a $1.3 million heat recovery system that would help save the owner around $500,000 annually in energy costs? The same lone point. 'This must be corrected,' one of the respondents wrote. "