Astroturfing Leed
LEED and BREEAM are the two competing certification schemes for ‘green’ building in Architecture. I have made a few BREEAM reports and have read a little up on LEED in case I should ever need to take part in certifying a building I’m working on. These schemes are a little bit of hassle and consume some time, also some points to gain credits in the scheme look a little easy to achieve especially considering the different regulations we have here in Finland say to the UK where the BREEAM scheme is based. But overall I think these to certification systems are fantastic. Why is that?
Well the short answer is that they add value to a project. The longer answer is that they add a layer of QA to the design that can be justified back to the client and contractor. It also allows the design team to quantify and properly cost environmental measures that save money to the project in the long-term but are often more expensive up front. They encourage environmental standards up and allow clients to better audit their assets down the line. These two tools in short should be used a lot more. They help make building more environmentally friendly and they help drive change not only in the building industry but in the way we use buildings.
They are gaining in popularity so it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that an Astroturfing organisation has been set up in the USA to oppose LEED. The organisation is called leedexposed and thanks to Lloyd Alter at Treehugger and Sara Johnson at Architect Magazine the arguments they make have been debunked and the man behind the Astroturf organisation has been partially exposed to the light. The man behind it is Rick Berman, who appears to be able to say anything for the right price. I have a simple idea just boycott the companies who fund his company (and tell them why) here is the list.