Is the U.S. Green Building Council Too Powerful?

Architect Michael Liu asks, "Is it appropriate for a private fee-generating nongovernmental organization to assume what amounts to a regulatory role in the building industry?"

1 minute read

June 6, 2011, 1:00 PM PDT

By Tim Halbur


LEED certification is widely recognized today as the central tool in the United States for recognizing sustainability in buildings. But as governmental agencies begin to require it, is too much power being focused in the hands of a "fee generating monopoly", as one critic put it.

Liu writes:

"The issue then is not the LEED rating system, the virtues and shortcomings of which can be separately discussed, but the process of certifying buildings and the creation of a fee-generating bureaucratic structure to do so."

Monday, June 6, 2011 in ArchitectureBoston

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I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

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