Jameson Detweiler

Last night, I went to bed at 4 am. What was I doing? Trying to decode LEED as a part of the new features we’re working on rolling out at GreenKonnect. While I believe it was an intelligent decision for USGBC to reference existing standards for a large portion of the credits, it makes it quite confusing for someone trying to get started with LEED. In addition to the reference guides, there are countless independently produced study guides to help you learn the intricacies of the prolific green building standard. LEED is complicated for a reason. Building sustainably and responsibly is not a simple task and requires a greater understanding of every choice a person makes when designing a building.

I’m not complaining about the complexity but about the fact that it is very hard to gain even a basic understanding of LEED. Building consumers (i.e., the people who actually sit inside of them) don’t really know what LEED is beyond the fact that green = less energy + special “green” materials and that the building gets a special plaque . If the average person off the street picked up a LEED reference guide, they would not be able to comprehend half of it.

LEED registration is growing at an extraordinary rate, but I think those numbers could be even higher if the USGBC educated the “consumer” about the benefits of green buildings. If you take a look at the USGBC home page, you will see that it is aimed directly AEC professionals. They are trying to drive people to join USGBC and buy reference guides. The “Highlights” section is primarily composed of operational info that only those who are intimately involved would care about.

If USGBC is trying to build a brand, they should make it easier to figure out what it actually stands for. All of the info on the website is important, but I would venture a guess that these days, more “consumers” than professionals are visiting the website.

As an additional note, it would be great to see a better way of labeling buildings and educating people about the benefits beyond just the energy savings, including such things as low-emmitting materials and increased daylight, which result in better health and productivity, and the importance of regional materials which has a huge impact on the carbon footprint.