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Tag Archives | Henry Gifford
At Greenbuild, USGBC to Ask About “Next Big Challenge” in Green Building Law
USGBC’s 2010 Legal Forum at Greenbuild in Chicago will feature a panel called “What’s the Next Big Challenge in Green Building Law,” which will delve into a myriad of current legal topics of interest to the green building community.
Breaking: Henry Gifford Leads Class Action Lawsuit Against USGBC in Southern District of New York
A group of plaintiffs led by Henry Gifford has filed a class action lawsuit against USGBC in United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Your Parents Now Know More About Green Building: NPR Back For More On LEED
In part two of All Things Considered’s consideration of the green building movement, the show takes a look at the darker — or less-efficient, at least — side of LEED.
Henry Gifford & USGBC’s Brendan Owens Consider Merits of LEED at NESEA Forum
The Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (“NESEA”) held its annual Building Energy conference last week in Boston and sparks apparently flew during a panel discussion that featured Henry Gifford, whose controversial and well-disseminated “Lies, Damn Lies, and… (Another Look at LEED Energy Efficiency)” paper critiqued both LEED generally and the USGBC-promulgated New Buildings Institute study which concluded that LEED buildings were using 30 percent less energy than non-LEED buildings. The panel was moderated by BuildingGreen.com’s Nadav Malin and also included USGBC vice president for LEED technical development Brendan Owens. Boston-based blogger Michael Prager attended the panel and has authored an extremely insightful summary of the event, including quotes from both panelists and audience members. Many of the quotes in Mr. Prager’s article ring particularly salient in light of the uproar over the recent NAIOP study which I noted here at GRELJ last week in the context of using predicted performance as the basis for making building policy decisions. It’s clear that thus far in 2009 there has been a significant shift in attention towards building performance-related issues with respect to both LEED and green building policy generally. As states and municipalities prepare to receive close to $7 billion in stimulus funds to, in part, craft and implement local green building legislation, I think that the substance of the discussion at the NESEA event should become of increasing utility to both stakeholders and policymakers. Of course, as always, it also suggests the overarching importance of vetted contract language in connection with LEED or any other types of green building projects.
The Ugly, the Bad, & the Good: Thoughts on Greenbuild 2008
gbNYC recaps the 2008 Greenbuild conference in Boston with an eye on some important issues that weren’t discussed in enough detail.