Major Green Building Councils Move to Collaborate
The construction industry may be global, but standards for green buildings are not. That’s starting to change, however, as this week green building councils in Australia, the UK and the U.S. signed an agreement to develop common metrics for measuring carbon emissions from new homes and office buildings.
The metrics, which will seek to translate energy usage into emissions generated, will be fed into each council’s respective rating systems for green construction. While there has been talk for several years about more consistency among international rating systems, official collaboration has been slow in coming. This move is a first step that could lead to more compatibility around other important green building elements like material and land use or water conservation.
The common language should also make it easier for builders, architects and engineers around the world to collaborate on green building projects. This is especially important in the increasingly global industry of construction.
Green rating systems are a key component of the green building market, which could reach $140 billion by 2013, according to McGraw-Hill Construction, a market research and publishing group. Like a report card, rating systems provide benchmarks as to how green a building is. In light of the cachet now placed on green credentials, U.S. commercial building developers have started demanding that such standards be used. With them, building owners can in some cases charge higher rent, while companies in those buildings can brandish their commitment to green.
The three councils — Green Building Council Australia (rating system: Green Star), the UK’s BRE Trust (BREEAM), and the U.S. Green Building Council — that entered the agreement emphasized the key role the built environment plays in carbon emissions. The looming threat of climate change appears to be the driver behind their choice of emissions as their test case for collaboration. Buildings account for about 40 percent of greenhouse-gas emissions in the U.S.
“As we work to alleviate the role buildings play in climate change…it’s vital that we are able to measure carbon emissions in a consistent, reliable way,” Rick Fedrizzi, president and CEO of the U.S. Green Building Council, said in a statement.
Let’s hope their higher impulses toward saving the world from climate change win out once the councils get to the gritty business of cooperation and compromise.
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Having attended a few LEED conferences, I’m convinced that while the goal is noble, right now the implementation is self-deluding garbage. Under the current point weightings, energy usage (and waste) is a low priority compared to politically correct materials and lots of glass. A few months ago I attended a LEED seminar in a medical building here in Houston. The self-sure presenters raved about the sustainably-produced cork flooring in the auditorium under our feet. But the entire auditorium was made of glass – floor to ceiling. Hullo? Energy waste? Makes perfect sense to build an auditorium out of glass and then keep the curtains closed all the time, since auditoriums usually need to be dark. Makes perfect sense to air condition six thousand square feet of glass wall in the summer in Houston, especially when 80% of Texas’ power comes from coal. Ah, but it was a brand new LEED Platinum building. It was necessary for the building management to post a surly guard at the auditorium door to keep the participants from bringing in as much as a cookie, so fragile was the cork flooring.
The only consolation is that the standards are apparently going to be changed soon to count avoiding obscene energy waste maybe as important than sustainable cork flooring. Until that’s done, spare me the happy talk of LEED and the whining of LEED architects that such a utilitarian concern as energy effciency should be important. Houston a Green City? It’s arguably the most energy-profligate city in the country.
i HAVE BEEN FOLLOWING THE GREEN MOVEMENT AND
AM VERY IMPRESSED WITH COLLABORATION OF THE
ABOVE MENTIONED COUNCILS COMING TOGETHER.
IT IS NEEDED NOW, AND WILL BE MORE IMPORTANT
IN THE FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS AS MORE COMMERCIAL, AND GOV’T OFFICES ARE STARTING TO
SEE THE VALUE THEREOF. GOOD WORK