In his 2011 article, “Defending LEED,” Jason F. McLennan said the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program was “absolutely not” perfect.

“No system is perfect,” said the founder of the Living Building Challenge, an alternative green building standard. “And yes, some criticism is deserved – and needed – to keep improving what has become the most dominant green building program in the world.”

McLennan went on to say that criticism intended not to make LEED stronger, but rather to tear down a program that helped legitimize green building, create standards and a coherent language for what it means to be green while also stimulating the green building industry is destructive and self-serving for its detractors.

That was a year ago, when the USGBC faced a high-profile lawsuit challenging the effectiveness of LEED filed by Henry Gifford who claims that LEED certified buildings were less efficient than non-certified buildings. That lawsuit was one of the most substantial challenges to LEED that I had seen since the program was established 12 years ago despite the persistent backdrop of criticism in the commercial real estate industry that LEED certification is too expensive, too complex and provides too little return for the investment. But that lawsuit, which was later dismissed, pales in comparison to the array of challenges facing LEED today from a variety of sources. Read More…

The answer is considerably less than 736 metric tons of carbon dioxide. That’s the total estimated carbon emissions generated by the more than 1,800 attendees of April’s Professional Retail Store Maintenance (PRSM) conference in Anaheim. Organizers of the event, which included a performance by the Laker Girls, offer sponsors the opportunity to pick up the $10,000 tab to offset the event’s carbon emissions. That money will go to a Chinese hydro power generation project to replace a fossil fuel powered plant, according to Jeff Bond, PRSM’s director of vendor relations. Read More…