LEED is currently the world’s most popular program for green construction, with over 21,000 commercial projects achieving the certification.
Image courtesy of: http://www.thegbi.org/.
Though attacks on the green building certification system are by no means new, the news that the Federal Government has accepted an alternative certification system may come as a shock to LEED campaigners. Supporters of the new rating – Green Globes – claim it to be more cost effective, faster to complete than LEED, and argue that Green Globes opens the market up to competition, choice and diversity among certification systems.
Of late, LEED has attracted criticism by the chemical and plastic industries due to concerns that LEED may list their products as “Chemicals of Concern”. LEED has been banned for government construction in five states – Maine, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Ohio. However Jerry Yudelson, President of the Green Building Initiative (GBI) told Paula Melton of LEEDuser: “I don’t really see us getting engaged in anti-LEED activity as an organization.”
Greenwash Action, a joint initiative of the Sierra Club and Greenpeace, has been launched to set the record straight. Greenwash Action supports progress towards a healthy, bio diverse, climate-stable world and is calling on the chemical, plastic and timber industry to stop attacks on LEED and reposition Green Globes as an entry-level building standard.
If you’d like to do your part and help combat greenwashing in the green building industry, you can pledge your support to the Greenwash Action here.