There’s a great article in the latest issue of Building Design + Construction that provides some insight into the carrot versus stick debate with respect to municipal green building mandates. Palo Alto’s City Council is currently considering how, and if, it should institute green building requirements for private projects. (Currently, Palo Alto requires public projects […]
Archive | LEED Commentary
The Next American City Devotes Latest Issue to Green Building
Recently-published Issue 14 of The Next American City magazine focuses entirely on green building, and I urge you to check it out if you haven’t already done so. An article I wrote about LEED appears in the issue and has a good summary of the general commentary that currently exists about LEED and how USGBC […]
Monday LEEDoff: Nevada Weighs Adding Green Globes to 2005 LEED Legislation and Prompts Debate in State Assembly
One of the major aims of this blog during the past few months has been to argue in favor of increased competition among green building rating systems. Owners and municipalities should demand performance from their green buildings regardless of the rating system that the project team chose to implement prior to handing out incentives or […]
Green Globes Now Free for GBI Members; Will USGBC Respond?
The Green Building Initiative (“GBI”) made an interesting announcement today with respect to its Green Globes green building rating system. GBI will now offer the use of Green Globes for free to GBI member firms. Unlimited use of the system is available for a membership cost of $2,500/year. A $500 membership provides access to the […]
Benefits Of A Green Home
Blue LEED house in Northampton, Massachusetts The average homeowner in the United States forks out $2,000 a year in energy bills. All that energy use makes up 20 percent of the country’s energy usage. That enormous use of energy produces a corresponding amount of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), which means buying a green home could […]
“Making Green Building a Mainstream Practice” Conference Offers Thoughts from Developers on LEED
By Stephen Del Percio on February 8, 2007 in LEED Commentary, LEED Creep, Local Law 86, New York City
Last Thursday, Bank of America, The Rockefeller Foundation, and The Next American City magazine sponsored an invitation-only conference at the Museum of Natural History as part of the Urban Innovation Symposium Series. Called “From the Ground Up: Making Green Building a Mainstream Practice,” a variety of both market-rate and affordable housing developers, including Douglas Durst, […]
Green Building Consultant Jerry Yudelson Peers Into 2007 Green Building Crystal Ball
Former USGBC board member, current chairman of Greenbuild, and author of Marketing Green Buildings and Developing Green, Jerry Yudelson, offers some 2007 green building predictions in the latest edition of Consulting-Specifying Engineer. (Image used with permission of Cristalier.com). First, Yudelson believes that by the end of 2007, the cumulative number of LEED certifications will exceed […]
Napa Valley Hotel Demonstrates Dangers to Developers Posed by LEED Creep
By Stephen Del Percio on December 19, 2006 in California, LEED Commentary, LEED Creep, Legislation, Tax Incentives
In the wake of the D.C. Council passing significant LEED legislation last week, there’s been substantial commentary about how positive the bill is for green building at large. While I agree that the legislation is certainly a step in the right direction, a recent post I wrote about the D.C. mandate describes what the BD+C […]
Ideas on How to Recognize Design Excellence Within LEED
I wanted to respond to the last comment (below in italics) in its own separate post. My thoughts follow. Thanks to O.G. for his insight and starting this dialogue- I encourage others to chime in. I’d like to preface this discussion by saying that I believe in the LEED system but, like anything else, there’s […]
