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the envionment: where are the standards?

02/16/2008 08:05:10 AM
With the continuing momentum behind all things green and environmental, the issue of standards is becoming more and more important.

There's a growing feeling that there need to be objective measures to help people understand what's a good thing and a right thing.

In the last few years, the LEED rating for buildings was often highlighted as a great example.

However, recently the tide has turned against LEED, witness this amazing example relating to San Francisco's new Federal Building.

"Too damn ahead of its time, the systems used for environmental control in the Fed Building are so innovative that they have yet to be considered so by the overly-prescriptive commandments of Green. The Green Buildings Council, however, claim that LEED is a work-in-progress, and have consented to take the next few months to reevaluate the Federal Building. Hopefully they'll continue to update their requirements so that LEED becomes less of an pocket industry encouraging architects to "tack on" expensive third-party features and more of an impetus for carefully conceived, environmentally-integrated designs."

SF Curbed

The whole area of standards is something that needs serious thought and investment.

Is government going to lead this?

Industry associations?

It's really unclear who is going to take responsibility and the longer the wait, the more confusion and the more cynicism.

Everyone agrees that environment is the critical issue, but we need more effort to measure.




Posted by Ed Cotton
Tags: buildings (1) leed (1) environment (18)

Articles for tag buildings (1 total).