LEED’s success of creating a framework that enables a wide variety of construction industry players to offer green building features as standardized options has not come without cost, said Jay Stein, a managing director of technology research at Platts and coauthor of the report.
In making the LEED system simple enough to allow mainstream industry players to participate in green building projects, much of the critical information that designers and clients need to make informed choices has been lost. The report, titled "Ensuring the Sustainability of Sustainable Design," cites two key problems: Buildings that earn more LEED credits do not necessarily provide more environmental benefits than buildings that earn fewer credits, and some of the techniques LEED encourages are not consistently a superior means of reducing environmental impacts.
Stein notes that the USGBC is concerned about these issues, which threaten the credibility of the LEED rating system, but the process to fix them could take several years.
Stein and coauthor Rachel Reiss today will discuss their findings in a Web conference for architects, engineers and designers who can earn continuing education units from the American Institute of Architects for participating. Stein and Reiss will be recommending techniques that can improve the long-term viability of the LEED rating system.
