Climate Change and the LEED Building and Energy Efficiency Series

This is the first post on Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED) Building and Energy Efficiency Series as solutions for climate change. This series will focus on the most successful green movement, LEED, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, run by the most successful green organization: the United States Green Building Council, or USGBC. A rundown of credits and cost-saving measures will hopefully make it easier to understand why LEED is the future, today. It is an organization that exemplifies the triple bottom line: "People, planet, and profit.

A brief history of the USGBC and LEED: the USGBC (United States Green Building Council) is the organization responsible for LEED-rating of buildings. Established in 1993, this non-profit's mission is "To transform the way buildings and communities are designed, built and operated, enabling an environmentally and socially responsible, healthy, and prosperous environment that improves the quality of life." It has market share of rating buildings and that includes major emerging markets such as China.

What is the purpose of LEED? Think of LEED-rating for buildings like EnergyStar-ratings for electronic devices and appliance. The higher the rating the better the use of electricity the device makes, which equates into less consumption and most importantly a cheaper electricity bill. Now consider savings of multi-million dollar commercial buildings and hotels; the savings over time could provide the owner with money to buy a brand new building. Unlike EnergyStar-ratings, LEED-ratings have varying levels of performance based on a point system.

The LEED Point System: in total there are 110 possible points in LEED rating. These points cover an array of categories: Sustainable Sites (SS), Water Efficiency (WE), Energy & Atmosphere (EA), Materials & Resources (MR), Indoor Environmental Quality (EQ), Innovation in Design (ID), and Regional Priority (RP). Different buildings have to register for their specific scale: New Construction (LEED-NC), Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance (LEED-EBOM), Core and Shell (LEED-CS), Commercial Interiors (LEED-CI), and schools (LEED-S). A building can be registered as Platinum (80-110 points), Gold (60-79 points), Silver (50-59 points, or Certified (40-49 points). Some governments also offer tax-reductions every year depending on the rating of the building. How would you know? The DSIRE database (Database of State Initiatives of Renewable Energy) and other online tools for climate change education and solutions is a great start. In Nevada, a Platinum building offers a tax reduction of 35% payable each year. Combining tax incentives and energy savings, a green building is more than economical it's profitable.

In upcoming posts, we'll take into consideration existing projects, world leaders in construction, and specific credits and points. In the mix for solutions for climate change, building efficiency leads the bunch (from nuclear energy to renewables to CSS). Green buildings are an easy solution to climate change: we have the technology right here right now, it's profitable, renewable energy is incorporated, and it does not inhibit economic growth. Probably most important, we do not have to wait on governments to finally make a climate change deal.

Photo Credit: Wonderlane