Is Bulk Certification Next for LEED?

摘要

If you've seen one bank branch, have you really seen them all? Not if it's a PNC Bank green branch office. Banks, retailers, chain restaurants, and other fast-growing businesses put up scores of new buildings each year. Many would like to construct environmentally friendly structures and be LEED-certified by the U.S. Green Building Council, but the approval process is complex and the administrative cost of submitting a new application for each new building has deterred retail companies from applying for certification. But PNC Bank, a Pittsburgh-based financial services company and the nation's 15th-largest bank, is trying to change that with a new Gensler-designed green prototype that it wants the USGBC to "volume-approve" for 90 or more branches it plans to construct in the next three years. Under the current system, it costs PNC $2,200-$2,8oo to apply for certification for each branch.