Gifford's suit might be taking LEED to school

Many LEED proponents have demonized Henry Gifford for his challenges of the USGBC and the LEED rating system. Believe me, I have been one of them.

 

Its a painful thing to see a helpful, positive organization become attacked by the naysayer. We all know that LEED has its limitations, but many can see the good that it so delicately tries to espouse.  Not Henry Gifford.

Mr. Gifford’s class action suit was most likely filed with the intention of shutting the USGBC down. At the very least, he is demanding sweeping changes. But if the latter is true, is it such a bad thing? Does the guy have a point?

This morning I ran across an incredible write up from Stephen Del Percio, a green lawyer in New York. Stephen’s article discusses the recent comments of a British Scientist, Roderic Bunn, who believes that we are devaluing green building by “selling green certification.” Its a good argument, well-supported.

Here is a brief excerpt of Stephen’s opinion on the matter. Please read the rest of the article over at Stephen’s well-written blog, Green Real Estate Law Journal:

Although addressing the gaps between green design, construction, and operations will continue to be a major challenge in 2011, I think it’s clear that the Gifford litigation is playing a major role in raising awareness about those gaps and increasing the level of conversation about the types of measures that can improve it. Indeed, Bunn also identified the new building performance reporting requirements in Australia for office buildings as potentially closing the gap between design and operations and allowing future green building projects to more meaningfully address it; as you may recall, as of November 1, Australia requires landlords to disclose the energy efficiency of their office buildings when they either sell or lease space that is larger than 21,530 square feet (2,000 square meters). (Ratings are based on the National Australian Built Environment Rating System (“NABERS”), which is on a scale of 1 to 5 stars, and Australia’s current median market performance stands at 2.5 stars). I think this is also important to note because, in the aftermath of the 2010 USGBC Legal Forum at Greenbuild, we pointed to building performance reporting requirements as a trend that will likely increase in 2011.