The US Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green buildingrating program has grown from a little known tool for market change to a label and brand relied upon by many ...The US Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green buildingrating program has grown from a little known tool for market change to a label and brand relied upon by many ofthe largest players in real estate. It now serves as an indicator of sustainability and an instrument for environmentalmanagement. While LEED-certifi ed buildings tend to offer greater environmental benefi ts than their conventionalcounterparts, research and experience shows that the variation in and magnitude of these benefi ts varies, even amongbuildings of the same LEED certifi cation level. In light of growing concerns about “greenwashing” and the liabilityassociated with questionable environmental declarations, it is important to ensure that users of LEED and similarcertifi cation programs receive a set of benefi ts comparable to those expected. With a focus on energy-related issues, thisresearch (1) highlights evidence of the inconsistency between the expected and actual benefi ts of LEED buildings, (2)suggests revisions to LEED’s Energy & Atmosphere (EA) section to reduce the variation and magnitude in the energyrelatedenvironmental impacts from LEED buildings, (3) quantifi es this reduction in variation and magnitude ofimpacts using Monte Carlo analyses and probabilistic models created specifi cally for this research, (4) compares carbondioxide emissions from LEED buildings to the Architecture 2030 Challenge goals and (5) quantifi es the importanceof scoring LEED buildings on a per capita normalized basis. This research is a follow-up piece to the authors’ previouswork published in the Journal of Green Building (Wedding and Crawford-Brown 2007).展开更多
基金supported by the Institute for theEnvironment at the University of North Carolina(UNC) at Chapel Hill and Cherokee InvestmentPartners.
文摘The US Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green buildingrating program has grown from a little known tool for market change to a label and brand relied upon by many ofthe largest players in real estate. It now serves as an indicator of sustainability and an instrument for environmentalmanagement. While LEED-certifi ed buildings tend to offer greater environmental benefi ts than their conventionalcounterparts, research and experience shows that the variation in and magnitude of these benefi ts varies, even amongbuildings of the same LEED certifi cation level. In light of growing concerns about “greenwashing” and the liabilityassociated with questionable environmental declarations, it is important to ensure that users of LEED and similarcertifi cation programs receive a set of benefi ts comparable to those expected. With a focus on energy-related issues, thisresearch (1) highlights evidence of the inconsistency between the expected and actual benefi ts of LEED buildings, (2)suggests revisions to LEED’s Energy & Atmosphere (EA) section to reduce the variation and magnitude in the energyrelatedenvironmental impacts from LEED buildings, (3) quantifi es this reduction in variation and magnitude ofimpacts using Monte Carlo analyses and probabilistic models created specifi cally for this research, (4) compares carbondioxide emissions from LEED buildings to the Architecture 2030 Challenge goals and (5) quantifi es the importanceof scoring LEED buildings on a per capita normalized basis. This research is a follow-up piece to the authors’ previouswork published in the Journal of Green Building (Wedding and Crawford-Brown 2007).
