Emerald city

The Bank of America Tower is aiming for platinum standard eco-status.

Photo: Dbox Cook + Fox Architects LLP

These days Hollywood stars drive their Priuses to show that they’re environmentally conscious, and builders too rely on a desirable label: LEED. The acronym (short for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is the moniker of the U.S. Green Building Council’s system for assessing the greenness of a new building—that is, above and beyond the energy efficiencies and environmental requirements mandated by local building codes. But because, unlike in Europe, there are no federal policies here for green compliance, LEED has become the de facto standard in the United States. So over the past several years, having the Green Building Council certification has proved increasingly valuable to marketing a new construction. “It’s like the Good Housekeeping Seal of approval,” explains MaryAnne Gilmartin, executive vice president for commercial and residential development at Forest City Ratner, the megadeveloper behind Brooklyn’s controversial Atlantic Yards project and the New York Times building.

Still, there are questions as to whether LEED is the best way to achieve innovative and truly sustainable architecture. “One way to look at it is, you have 60 or 50 different marbles, and you grab as many as you can,” says Auden Schendler, a LEED-certified professional and former research associate at sustainability think tank the Rocky Mountain Institute. “The marbles represent points for different green design aspects. However many you get, that’s your certification.” Depending on its number of points, or credits, a building is awarded one of the following certifications: basic, silver, gold or platinum. (In New York, the new Bank of America Tower is striving for a platinum rating.) What’s odd is the often apples-to-oranges nature of the credits: Adding a bicycle storage room or recycling 50 percent of your building’s wastewater, for example, earn you the exact same number of points—one.

Hearst building

Photo: Jodi Love

Unfortunately, the quirks of this system seem lost on the layman: When most people think of a green building, they assume it maximizes energy savings. But until about six months ago, when LEED mandated a minimum energy credit, that wasn’t necessarily the case. “Hypothetically,” admits Russell Unger of the USGBC, the nonprofit organization founded in 1993 that administers LEED, “you could get a certified building that wasn’t particularly energy efficient.”

Two years ago, Schendler coauthored a lengthy critique of the rating system for the environmental-news website Grist. He explains: “Greenwashing is token environmentalism: painting yourself green without really doing anything. LEED is supposed to be the antigreenwash, but if you certify a building without doing anything on energy—and then tout how great it is—you’re greenwashing.”

Since it’s been amended, LEED requires a minimum reduction of 14 percent in energy costs above those mandated by local codes, but that doesn’t impress Schendler. “To ensure that the certification really means something,” he insists, “it should be more like 30 or 40 percent.”

There are also complaints about how all this affects design. “Some architects find it bogus, because a developer can get certification for doing things that aren’t architectural,” explains Bill Menking, editor of The Architect’s Newspaper. “Sourcing materials from within a hundred miles of where you’re building is worthy,” he says. “But you can still wind up with the ugliest damn building you’ve ever seen.”

Then there’s the little matter of the costs involved in obtaining certification.The Times tower, designed by starchitect Renzo Piano, includes such forward-thinking elements as a sun-deflecting curtain of ceramic rods across its facade, and an energy-saving heating and cooling system. Yet, it is not LEED certified. According to Forest City Ratner’s Gilmartin, this is because it would cost nearly $1 million in consultant fees. The USGBC’s Unger doesn’t deny the expense involved. “What we’re talking about is a third-party evaluation of a building’s performance,” he says. “And if you want to know, for example, whether all the construction waste had been recycled, then yes, you need to track down the paperwork.”

In spite of the criticism, everyone we talked to, including Schendler, agrees that LEED is absolutely vital to encouraging green building in America—even if it does lag far behind standards set in Britain and Germany. “Unfortunately, I’m the go-to guy to criticize LEED,” Schendler says. “But the reality is, I’m a supporter. It’s really, really important because it’s driving a revolution.”