LEED Now Includes Building Operations
Jeff Ruppert | Jun 28, 2009 | Comments 0
LEED Lettuce Police? (scrapetv.com)
An interesting article in the SF Examiner and a follow up summary at Green Building Law Blog of the updated LEED certification process discuss an interesting new component of LEED certification.
The operations of a building are now being considered as part of the certification process. While this seems like it can be a good thing, there are potentially far reaching consequences and the question of enforcement, as well as what LEED is, comes under question.
In particular is that if a food service operation can show 25% of its food is “sustainably harvested” they can gain some credit in their certification process. How this is enforced and what happens when the ownership of the property changes in the future are just two questions about this update. How will this make the building green? What operations are important to green building? Is the food that is served part of this greening process and how will this effect LEED’s effectiveness and power?
LEED is already a cumbersome and expensive rating system. By including building operations not clearly attached to the building process are we allowing developers to gain credit that will not be enforceable? Is this another bureaucratic layer imposed from above? Will LEED certifiers now be required to inspect boxes of lettuce to determine their source on an ongoing basis? Should we be left alone to make our own decisions as to what kind of food we serve at our businesses?
While we are supporters of efficiency and increased resource productivity, heightened regulation tends to stifle innovation and affects the people with less resources more as they are required to jump through so many hoops. Some of the most innovative places in the U.S. have little or no building codes to speak of. We need to watch how we go about making sure we aren’t over regulating while we try to make things more efficient and “green.”
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