LEED Branches Out

摘要

Four years ago, when the U.S. Green Building Council launched the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design green building rating system for newly constructed buildings, even its staunchest advocates admitted that LEED was pocked with flaws. As we documented in last November's "White Paper on Sustainability" (which may be downloaded at www.bdcmag.com), LEED-NC does a poor job of taking regional climatic differences into account, relies on minimal standards (such as ASHRAE 90.1-1999) for determining energy savings, and gives away meaningless credits for hiring a LEED-accredited professional and installing outlets for electric vehicles (when there are fewer than 2,000 EVs in the whole country).