I don’t know if it is a mainstream thing or what but I don’t get LEED. I even became a LEED AP in the hope that I would see what the big deal is but I still don’t get it. Why would you want to spend all that money and time so that you can get some plaque to put on your building. It just seems like a big game that makes no difference to anything. People have bought into it so it is a great PR and marketing move, but what does do to make the world a better place?
“Oh look! A LEED Platinum skyscraper!” Wow great. Let me tell the folks in the Amazon jungle they can relax.
Maybe it is because I am a Brooklyn green builder who builds green no matter what. I don’t care if I’m given a Brownie Badge. Building green is the most logical, ethical and financially intelligent way to build after not building at all, which is the greenest.
The reason I say this is that Eco Brooklyn just recently posted an add to hire a Green Architect. We got over 100 applications. Most of them were LEED AP. And pretty much all of the Architects were not green. So clearly LEED and green are not connected. LEED and eager hoop jumping is connected. LEED and a warped desire for approval. LEED and an insecure need to jump on a bandwagon. LEED and anal paper-pushing bureaucracy. LEED and the belief that green can be put into a neat list of bullet points. LEED as part of your marketing budget. LEED as an attempt to greenwash your business. All that I’ve seen.
But LEED and green building so far have very little in common. In fact anyone who uses LEED as proof of their green building kudos is either a newbie wannabe or a marketing agent wanting to sell you something (and it aint green building).
LEED is better than building crap. LEED is better than chopping down the rain forest. But LEED is a deterrent from practical, affordable, ethical and easy green building.
You can build a LEED Platinum building by fudging the numbers and spending lots of money on useless elements, but it takes a lot of time and paper-pushing. Wow hat sounds like an ethical way to spend a fun day!
LEED sucks. I am happy to say that I spend my days building LEED Platinum buildings and the only reason I have the time, money and excitement to do so is that none of them are LEED Certified.