So, Henry Gifford has filed a class action lawsuit against USGBC. Architect online gave a brief preview of the issue, along with some links to some back story articles. Gifford says that he is employing a tough love strategy with USGBC, and this statement is actually believable given that Gifford does not appear to be a puppet of some shadowy corporate conspiracy. He is sincerely committed to improving the energy and environmental performance of buildings and is concerned that the USGBC is setting itself up for a loss of credibility by making false claims about the performance of LEED certified buildings.
After having read some of the background material, I am willing to make a few tentative observations:
1. A new LEED certified building building will probably be more energy efficient than an older building, but (and there can lots of buts...) the predicted improvement will probably not be the same as the actual improvement. The only effective way to assess the energy performance of a LEED certified building is to compare it against an appropriate sample of similar building types, and most importantly, to consider whether it is delivering qualitative improvements on occupant comfort. Given that the last criteria is inherently subjective, I can see how it would cause even more argument than the already controversial mean to average comparisons used in the NBI report that Gifford was so critical of.
2. LEED could establish new incentive strategies for building owners by incorporating ongoing performance criteria into their rating systems.
3. Occupant behavior and usage patterns are one of the most crucial elements in the performance of architecture. A building that is energy intensive to operate on a BTU/sq. ft. basis may actually be efficient if we assess it in terms of BTU/sq. ft. per person. The future of HVAC will be better designed control systems--we're hitting the upper bounds of system efficiency in gas and oil furnaces.
That's the Genzyme Building in Cambridge. LEED Platinum, but I'd still like to see its electric bill.
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