Green Vocab WotD #004: LEED Certification

This post is part of an on-going series. The first three can be found by searching "WotD" in the search bar above.

It's been a little while but I'm back with a new one...

LEED

First, a pinch of insider knowledge.

When I first saw this term I thought "that looks far to easy to actually pronounce the word, I will, instead, say each letter to appear as though I'm in the know." That worked great until I met an architect who just said "leed." So, it's pronounced "LEED," not "el, ee, ee, dee."

LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and is a designation given to buildings that are built and function according to certain standards. This badge of honor is basically a rating system for how "green" a certain commercial structure is.

Wikipedia weighs in here:

[The] (LEED) Green Building Rating System, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), provides a suite of standards for environmentally sustainable construction. Since its inception in 1998, LEED has grown to encompass over 14,000 projects in 50 US States and 30 countries covering 1.062 billion square feet of development area. The hallmark of LEED is that it is an open and transparent process where the technical criteria proposed by the LEED committees are publicly reviewed for approval by the more than 10,000 membership organizations that currently constitute the USGBC.

Having a LEED certification doesn't just mean you recycle water and use some natural light, it means that sustainability was a critical piece of the design process. It means that you either set out to achieve the designation or re-designed at some point in the process to incorporate important changes.

There are four different ratings a structure can achieve. Each rating corresponds to a point total and the points are earned a number of different ways. You receive points for air quality controls, water reuse, energy efficiency, and pollution reduction. The rating levels are as follows:


LEED Certified: 26 - 32 points







LEED Silver: 33 - 38 points







LEED Gold: 39 - 51 points







LEED Platinum: 52 - 69 points






Points are assigned through an elaborate sporting event involving misshapen plaster-of-Paris "balls" and unflattering kevlar padding.

Only joking.

The points are awarded by the LEED committee in many different categories. The categories are as follows (from here, PDF file FYI):

Sustainable Sites
Water Efficiency
Energy & Atmosphere
Materials & Resources
Indoor Environmental Quality
Innovation & Design Process

Each category has from 5 to almost twenty subcategories. It's very interesting seeing how a building can qualify for this mostly because it highlights a bunch of stuff people have simply ignored for a long time (or the technology was not available until now). Most interesting one? Light Pollution Reduction.

So, that's LEED in a nutshell.

Because buildings are enormous contributors to pollution and global warming, this kind of certification is an excellent how to promote sustainable construction. Not only does it attract attention to the problem but it evokes human competition which GETS STUFF DONE. Why go for Gold certification when there's a Platinum just within reach?

The LEED badging system sets an official standard of rating green buildings and contributes towards a new standard of construction. Not only that, it is, as a side-effect, inspiring some beautiful construction projects...




First ever Platinum Certified house by LivingHomes.





The Genzyme Center in Boston




The Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM) (pic from Inhabitat)




High Line 23 in New York

Unscrew America

This site is CRAZY but you gotta love the message:

http://unscrewamerica.org/

Unscrew America, get it?

I'd talk about it but you can't really explain it. It's like a fun park but less predictable and, at times, a bit scarier. Very well thought, though, and, as I said before, the message is great.

The Great Green Giveaway

I found this on EcoGeek and thought it might be fun to spread the message!

It's the Great Green Giveaway!

Brought to you by Life Goggles:


According to themselves:

Our “green” blog is about the environment; green reviews, news and interviews - but also music, internet, technology, videos, TV, movies, entertainment and much more. We find things that you’ll find interesting, useful and, maybe sometimes, amazing

Basically, they're giving away almost 4 grand of green-related products. It includes clothing, books, chargers, spa goods, health care and all kinds of things.

The actual contest information (including some of the prizes that can be won) is here. How to enter and other information is here.

FYI, a nice little list of ways to green your life is here.

Good luck!

Zap!ped out

A while ago, I actually wanted to write a post about this seemingly up-and-coming electric car maker. I saw one of their imported vehicles at the Santa Monica Alternative Fuel Expo back in October:



I also got to sit in one at the Street Smart event I volunteered for in May of last year (which I never had a chance to blog about).

When I first saw it at the Street Smart event, I was wholly unimpressed. That's not fair, actually: I was very excited to see an all-electric vehicle in the flesh but it looked cheaper than an old Beetle. It was very light, had very little structural support that could be seen, and an interior that defined "spartan." It was ugly, cheap-looking, and was missing a wheel (intentionally). Regardless, it was neat to see.

Some clarification is needed here. The car posted above is actually made by a company called Xebra. They make all-electric vehicles in China and Zap! is the company that brings them over here. People pay money to become distributors and, theoretically, are authorized to sell the green vehicles imported through Zap!'s relationships with various companies here and overseas.

Zap! has enjoyed quite a bit of press over the years because it seemed like they were one of the few companies that was actually doing something and importing these vehicles. I mean, just breeze through a few of these stories... they sound like they're really moving!

From AutoBlog Green:

Hybrid Plug-In system
Possible Smart Car importer
Saving an electric car manufacturer

Sounds great but, apparently, this company is all about the hype and nothing more.

I read a fantastic article on Wired detailing their stock manipulations, press release whirlwind, and their broken promises. The article is here and well worth the long read. Quick snippet:

He was hardly alone. Over the years, Zap! has taken millions from investors and dealers eager to see the company's line of green cars hit the road. But that line has never materialized. Of nearly a dozen groundbreaking eco-vehicles Zap! has promised in public announcements and on its Web site, only the Xebra and its sibling, a truck version, have ever made it to market. As a result, fans of electric cars have grown disillusioned, while individuals like Youssef have been financially devastated. What's more, investment firms around the country have become cautious about financing electric vehicles after being repeatedly misled by one of the industry's most visible companies.

I have two reactions to this:

First, I think it's horrible when people use altruistic vehicles to take advantage of others. Mis-appropriating charity money, stealing from a church, suckering people over the phone or via email using a fake cause... I think it's about as bad as karma comes. It's about the same as using a fake death to get out of something: it's just terrible.

Second, it feels like a punch in the stomach when I read about people spending all their savings on a scam. I'll be the first to laugh a bit when someone gets caught up in the email "We need your information to release to you the 1.24Million USD dollars that is in your name" scam but it still makes me sad because you KNOW that was their nest egg or college savings or something similarly depressing.

But, third, I take it as a great sign that scammers exist in this industry. Here's what I mean...

Let's say I'm looking for a payday, however I can, using whatever means available to me. I'm going to look for the place with the most money that is the most easily accessible. The "green industry" is, nowadays, the perfect spot to take in suckers. You have a community of people who are generally kind and committed to making a difference. They're used to fighting uphill, sacrificing, and, at times, spending more for what is important to them. Plus, there is a fairly recent influx of investment capital and massive public attention which means free publicity.

This whole Zap! thing is terrible and I wish the worst anyone who would run their company the way this one has been. At the same time, I'm smiling slightly to think that this green thing finally "getting there."

Because, hey, you're no one unless you have a few copycats, thieves, and n'er-do-wells hanging around, right?

Statement?

I really wanted to take some time to delve into the chart I posted on Friday but I've had too much fun taking time off so you get something with less words but more impact. Who is that above me?


And, just to make sure the message is clear, here is me and Grandpa with similar sentiments:


Proud of my genes for sure.

The message is clear: time to go GWB. He was a "terrible Governor" and has been an atrocious president. It's time to take accountability for what we've done and make amends to the world.

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On another note, I found this very interesting at the flagship Whole Foods store in Austin, TX:


This is a "green wall" or "living wall." It's basically an easy way to add greenery to an indoor structure. This takes up no floor space but is still offsetting a bit of indoor CO2.

It was interesting being in the most premium, most organic supermarket in the nation (I can only assume). The store was beautiful: amazing displays, perfect lighting, exceptional design. I was enthralled by all the food and even more taken in by the ambiance and environment surrounding my upcoming meal. I had to wonder whether the whole thing was sustainable. The prices were high, that was a given. But does all of this work have to go into sustainable living? Does your dessert section need 4,000 square feet? In my opinion, if the space does not contribute to the problem then it's fine, even/especially if it costs more. But is it green-washing? Are you really getting the best of the best? Is your guilt absolved if you shop at Whole Foods?

It begs scrutiny... especially now.

I wish I had more time to write a bit but I'll have to leave you with just the information. Commentary to come on Monday.

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This one comes from my dad via BusinessWeek. This is the most important collection of data I've seen in a long time. Understand this chart!

To cut greenhouse gases as cheaply as possible, start with the measures on the left that pay for themselves, then take the more expensive steps on the right. McKinsey says that doing all the things below, including those unlabeled, would cut 3 billion metric tons of emissions per year in 2030 vs. what they would be at current growth rates. That would put emissions below current levels. The width of each bar is the volume of emissions reduction, and the height is the cost in today’s dollars.

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As much as biodiesel intrigues me, this is no thermodynamic surprise by any means. EcoGeek scoops an EV World report that shows solar power to be 1000 time more efficient that soy biodiesel. This is in terms of acreage of land, BTW. From EcoGeek:

At the bottom end of the scale is soybean biodiesel, which can provide only 2,400 miles per acre per year. Corn ethanol is more than six times as efficient, yielding 18,000 miles per acre per year. But because of the relatively slow rate of production from plant-based fuels, these options far fall below the productivity of directly produced energy.

The same acre can produce 10 times as much energy from wind as it can from corn ethanol, 180,000 miles per acre per year. But both corn ethanol and wind power pale in comparison with solar photovoltaic, which can produce more than 2 million miles worth of transport per acre per year.

Nail in the coffin for biofuels? Not really... we still have a long transition period before we're switched over to the next long generation of transportation. This information, however, is important to truly understand if you're a big green advocate. Just because something is an alternative to petroleum does NOT make it tacitly better.

Great chart, also from EcoGeek: