Rating System Updaters Plan To Raise the Sustainability Bar
The updated Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design green-building rating system, called LEED 2009, will put more emphasis on climate change and global warming. In the draft LEED 2009, out for public comment until June 22, building energy use and proximity to mass transit has become more important, says the chair of the 21-member LEED 2009 steering committee of the U.S. Green Building Council.
“To get higher levels of certification, builders would have to focus on those areas,” says Scot Horst, president of both The 7 Group and the nonprofit U.S. Athena Institute International, both Kutztown, Pa. “We’re raising the bar,” he says, explaining, for instance, that there will be fewer options to mitigate a negative transportation element with some other positive element.