by Brianna Crandall — July 27, 2012—More than 1,200 leading businesses and organizations representing a wide array of industries across all 50 states joined the the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) in sending a letter on July 24 asking the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) to continue the inclusion of the USGBC’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building rating system as an option for public building design and assessment.
The signatories commended GSA for its leadership in improving the energy and environmental performance of federal buildings, citing the recently released sustainability and energy “scorecard” from the White House’s budget office. That study showed that federal government investments in energy efficiency over the last four years are expected to save as much as $18 billion in lifecycle energy costs. The executives urged GSA to continue to use the LEED building rating system and to focus on the “usability, market acceptance and effectiveness of rating tools rather than distractions focused on a single issue,” referring to concerns raised by such industry groups as the American Chemistry Council (ACC).
Signatories of the letter are architects, engineers, builders, contractors, designers, planners, product manufacturers, and government and educational entities, notes USGBC. These include such organizations as The Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association (BIFMA); Green Seal, Inc.; ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability USA; and National School Supply and Equipment Association; such companies as Autodesk, Inc.; Bank of America; Haworth, Inc.; Herman Miller; Johnson Controls Inc.; Kohler Co.; Schneider-Electric; Siemens Industry, Inc., Building Technologies Division; and United States Gypsum; the cities Chicago, Atlanta and others; and several colleges and universities.
According to supporters like BIFMA, the originators of the ANSI-accredited “level” sustainability program for furniture, the USGBC’s LEED program has been successful in advancing sustainable principles and transforming the market using a voluntary, flexible, multi-attribute credit approach, awarding points for the identification, reduction and/or avoidance of acknowledged chemicals of concern, reductions in water and energy use, greenhouse gas generation, and advancements in many other sustainability attributes.
BIFMA notes that although LEED is not accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), the USGBC utilizes a rigorous open consensus process, frequently updating the program, and BIFMA asserts that the LEED program provides “a leadership approach to addressing the complexity of environmental impacts.”
