Green approval can be incentive but shouldn't be the only reward

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

From a column by Whitney Gould in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Its critics liken it variously to a death march or a colonoscopy. At best, it's a long, costly slog through red tape.

So why would anyone want to go through the headache of getting a "green" imprimatur for a new building?

Well, there's the satisfaction of doing the right thing for the environment, when your building is recognized for using natural light, energy-efficient mechanical systems, recycled materials, storm water-runoff controls and other resource-saving devices. And there's the prestige of that LEED sticker, for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, bestowed by the U.S. Green Building Council. That can be a great marketing tool.

But even some environmentally conscious architects and building owners think the process of getting that sticker is not worth the hassle. Ken Leinbach, executive director of the Urban Ecology Center in Milwaukee's Riverside Park, is one. Hiring consultants and doing the paperwork to get the LEED stamp of approval for his already very green building would have added an estimated $75,000 to the $3.4 million cost, so Leinbach skipped the process.

"It just didn't make any sense. We decided we'd rather put the money into actual green features," such as a vegetative roof and solar panels, he said. The LEED-free building has won national admiration as a model for green building and saves as much as $15,000 a year on energy costs.