by Charlie Brewer via flickr

The National Resources Defense Council’s Santa Monica Headquarters is certified by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design at the highest level of certification, platinum, scoring 56 points out of 69.  Home to the David Family Environmental Action Center and the DiCaprio e-Activism Zone as well as the NRDC, it is only the second building in the U.S. to achieve a platinum rating under LEEDv2. Green features include: close proximity to public transportation, showers and bicycle racks to encourage vistors and staff to walk or bike and rooftop solar panels that provide 20% of the building’s energy.  It also recieved all 5-points for water efficiency.  Dual-flush toilets and waterless urinals keep water-use low, but the building also collects and treats water from showers, sinks and rainwater, and reuses it for toilets and watering plants.

But the U.S. Green Building Council, responsible for the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program, has recently come under criticism, most notably from the New York Times,  for some projects not living up to their certified “greenness.” Luckily, the USGBC has addressed the problem by setting the bar higher.

As part of LEED v3, the latest version of the council’s certification process, buildings will have to submit energy and water usage data annually as a condition for certification.

In a June 2009 press release from USGBC, Scot Horst, senior vice president of LEED said:

“Today there is all too often a disconnect, or performance gap, between the energy modeling done during the design phase and what actually happens during daily operation after the building is constructed. We’re convinced that ongoing monitoring and reporting of data is the single best way to drive higher building performance because it will bring to light external issues such as occupant behavior or unanticipated building usage patterns, all key factors that influence performance.”

As per LEEDv3, projects will need to monitor and report building usage to close that gap. There are three ways to do so: the building will be recertified every two years based on LEED for existing buildings: Operations & Maintenance; the building provides energy and water usage data every year; or the building owner signs a release that authorizes USGBC to access the building’s usage data directly from the utility provider.

According to the USGBC, green building projects represent an enormous economic and environmental opportunity because buildings in the United States are responsible for 39% of carbon emissions, 40% of energy consumption, 13% percent of water consumption and 15% of the GDP per year. Besides creating efficient buildings, LEED-certification also considers sustainable construction practices, such as the use of local materials and diversion of construction waste from landfills.

By Amelia Harnish