Walls & Ceilings Architect/October 2007

the GREEN thumb BY J.M. SYKEN LEED Update: Take Two, Part One In January of 2004, there appeared in this column the ﬁrst of a three-part series entitled: “LEED: Leading the Way.” It took an in-depth look at LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design), the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) green building rating/certiﬁcation program that has, quite literally, changed the way America––and the world– –builds. So much had transpired concerning LEED in the intervening time that in September 2005, another three-part about LEED appeared titled, “LEED Update.” In that series I promised readers I would continue to keep them up-to-date concerning the LEED program at regular intervals. ects an increase of 1.8 percent per year of CO2 emissions. LEED-certified buildings, when compared to conventional buildings, reduce carbon emissions by about 40 percent. Unfortunately, as of December 2006––after six years of the LEED program, only 600 buildings had been LEED-certified; too few to make a signiﬁcant difference. The USGBC is determined to change this snail’s-pace of certiﬁcation with a bold initiative. By 2010, they want no less than 100,000 LEED-certiﬁed commercial buildings and one million LEED-certiﬁed homes. By 2020, the USGBC wants a 10-fold increase of their 2010 goals: one million LEEDcertiﬁed commercial buildings and ten million LEED-certiﬁed homes. Talk about a big ambition! These extraordinary ﬁgures/goals are not pie-in-the-sky, they are based on real concerns and needs. Derived from the Kyoto Protocols, 80 million metric tons of CO2 emissions must be eliminated by the year 2020 to avoid catastrophic climate change in the form of global warming encompassing glacial meltdown, tsunamis, ﬂoods etc. To eliminate these 80 million metric tons, the equivalent of one million commercial buildings or 40 percent of all new and existing commercial buildings must reduce their CO2 emissions by 50 percent by 2020. If just half of all new buildings used 50 percent less energy, the annual savings of CO2 emissions would be the equivalent of six million metric tons: about the same polluting effect of one million automobiles. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED With the main focus of Greenbuild ’06 being global warming/climate change, the USGBC issued their “2030 Challenge.” By the year 2030, they challenge the design/build community to reduce the operating energy for all new buildings by 50 percent along with providing “carbon-neutral” buildings. To meet this challenge, the USGBC is partnering with the Clinton Climate Initiative and the Enterprise Community Partners to develop affordable green housing. Getting to the very heart of the design process itself with the hope of allowing building designers to envision the carbon “footprint” of a building from its inception, Autodesk and the USGBC are allying themselves with the hope of “mainstreaming” sustainable design while, at the same time, expanding the potential for environmentally sustainable/responsible designs. Wanting to set an example of environmental responsibility for others to emulate via “carbon offsetting” (reducing by action the release of carbon into the atmosphere), the USGBC moved its headquarters in suburban Washington D.C. to a downtown location whereby its employees can use mass transit rather than their fossil-fuel powered cars to get to work. Recognizing that existing buildings represent 90 percent of the problem therefore; by any logical interpretation they also represent 90 percent of the potential solution, all LEED-NC (New Construction and Major Renovation) and LEED-C&S (Core & Shell) certiﬁed projects will be automatically registered free-of-charge under LEED-EB (Existing Buildings). As mentioned in LEED Update, for every new building there are 80 existing buildings in the United States. Also, for the purpose of achieving higher LEED certification levels, the USGBC is offering a rebate on certiﬁcation fees (about $2,000 to $3,000) for all LEED platinum certiﬁed buildings. Though not a signiﬁcant amount of money in the vast scheme of things, the gesture was “good politics” on the part of the USGBC and was widely praised. ACCELERATED AGENDA In November 2006, 13,000 USGBC members attended the annual Greenbuild Conference held that year in Denver, Colo. The big news out of Greenbuild ’06 was the USGBC’s intentions to use their LEED program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions generated by the built environment dramatically. Initially, this would include two new minimum requirements for all LEED-certiﬁed projects. First, reduce all carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 50 percent. Second, require a minimum of two out of 10 points under Energy & Atmosphere (EA) Credit 1: Energy Optimization, be achieved. Mark Twain said there were three types of lies: Lies, damned lies and statistics. Unfortunately, the statistics concerning the pollution caused by the built environment are all too true. Transportation and industry account for 33 percent and 29 percent of CO2 emissions from fossil fuels respectively. However, the lion’s share: 38 percent is directly attributable to buildings. Through the year 2030, the USGBC proj- 38 | Walls & Ceilings Architect | October 2007

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Walls & Ceilings Architect/October 2007

Contents Trade News Silver Certiﬁed Airtight The Men of Steel Thinking Thermal Firestop 101 ICFs Create a Tight Envelope The Finish Line The Green Thumb Cracking the Code

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